Guide to Extra Action Video Poker
Extra Action video poker lives up to its name by giving players the chance to earn up to 10 free hands of gameplay with special pay tables attached to them. This can be achieved if the player makes an extra bet on top of the maximum amount and is dealt certain cards. The free play can boost winnings in a single round of multiple hand video poker far higher than what you could expect if you weren’t playing the game with a twist.
The most common form of video poker, and still the most popular, is Jacks or Better. It is named because the lowest hand that will pay some winnings back is a pair of jacks, and gameplay closely resembles basic five card draw poker, with players trying to make the best possible single hand out of a deal and a draw. Jacks or Better is an excellent game to play for those who are either just learning the game or are hoping to grind out earnings while keeping their bankroll sustained over a long period of time.
Many video poker enthusiasts crave something a little more exciting from their gameplay. For those who wanted more chances at big payouts in a single hand, bonus pay tables were created. And those who wanted some twists on the basic format were rewarded with machines that add an extra feature whenever more coins are bet than usual.
Extra Action video poker fills both of those basic desires and telegraphs the twist in gameplay in the name. You can play the game normally by betting the normal amount while playing three of five hands at a time. And you get to choose the pay table that suits you best.
But if you bet either 5, 10, or 15 credits more than the regular maximum wager in Extra Action video poker, you will create the possibility of many new hands that can come into play. These hands will be activated when you are dealt a specific card for your multiple hands. If you are playing a Deuces Wild pay table, that card is the two, while for all other pay tables, it is the ace.
You then play out your multiple hands as you normally would, holding and discarding according to the most effective strategy. Meanwhile, the extra hands will then appear separate from your main hands. For these hands, you don’t need to make any decisions, as just the ace or deuce (or aces and deuces, if you received multiple on the deal) will be automatically be held.
The number of extra hands that you will receive will rise depending on how many coins you bet above the normal amount. And those extra hands will be subject to a special pay table that is separate from the normal one for the game, with payoffs actually higher than usual. Your winnings will then be a combination of whatever you’ve achieved on your normal hands and whatever you won on the extra hands.
Obviously, Extra Action video poker is an expensive game to play with the extra feature added on. And if you don’t get the card that activates the extra hands on the deal, you will be essentially be paying much more for potential winnings that are based on just a normal bet. But that negative is balanced out by your potential of winning big should that extra hands appear.
In the following article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about playing Extra Action video poker. We’ll talk about how you first need to learn basic video poker, how to play multiple hands at once, and how the extra feature works once you activate it. Finally, we’ll take a look at the different pay tables that you can play and talk about learning the right strategy to maximize your winnings at this thrilling twist on video poker.
Basic Video Poker Gameplay
In case you’re worried that Extra Action video poker might be a bit too confusing for you if you’re just learning video poker, we’re here to tell you that it’s no problem. Once you learn basic video poker, you’ll be able to make the leap to play Extra Action with no issues whatsoever. And, after this basic tutorial, you should have all the knowledge you need.
The fact that video poker is easy to learn is one of its many positive characteristics. And there are so many of those that many people choose to make video poker the only game that they play in casinos. As a matter of fact, the game also translates extremely well to online play, which is why video poker is one of the most popular games at top gambling websites.
Video poker is much adored by slot machine fans because it is also played in a solitary fashion. There are no interruptions from other patrons and employees. You can play at your own pace and settle at a machine for as long a session as you choose.
But video poker in many ways is more beneficial for gamblers than slot machines. The problem with slot machines is that they don’t allow you any chance to affect the game. You just have to pay your money, take your spin, and hope for the best.
By contrast, every hand of video poker requires you to make a decision that will impact the outcome of the hand. You make that decision based on probabilities that are based on a 52-card deck. In that way, video poker can also be compared to table games that have probabilities attached to them as well.
You can also go into a round of video poker knowing exactly what to expect from the machine in terms of your payback. That can be determined by combining probabilities with the pay tables that you’re playing. When you play a slot machine, none of that is available to you, meaning that you are pretty much flying blind.
Payback percentages for even the best slot machines fall short of average payback for video poker. And the most competitive video poker machines will rank right up there with the finest table games. For all of those reasons, video poker stands pretty tall among casino games.
With all of that in mind, let’s take a look at how to play a hand of video poker, from the moment that you insert your money all the way through the decision-making process. Once you have that down, we can start to move on to the twists that are involved with both multiple play poker and the Extra Action video poker twist.
Step 1: Set up Your Bankroll
Your bankroll will consist of whatever money you put into the machine to start playing. If you are playing online, the bankroll will come from an account that you create at a gambling website. In any case, the bankroll will be registered in the form of credits or coins, and these will be the units that you bet.
Each credit will be equal to the amount of the denomination for the machine that you are playing. You can sometimes choose the denomination based on the machine you are playing, while other machines will have the amount predetermined. Denominations can run from small amounts like a nickel to bigger amounts like a dollar.
To figure out how many credits you’ll have to use, just divide the money that you put into the machine by the denomination you’re playing. For example, let’s say that you put $10 into a quarter machine. You will have 40 credits to play, which is 10 divided by .25.
Step 2: Decide on Your Bet
For basic Jacks or Better-style video poker machines, you are usually restricted to between one and five credits bet per hand. And you can indeed play at that level if you are playing Extra Action video poker. But you can also bet extra coins to activate the extra feature on the game if you wish.
If you do choose to play the game at the normal level without the extra twist, we recommend that you at least bet five credits per hand. By doing so, you can ensure yourself the highest payout for the royal flush, which is the rarest and most lucrative hand in the entire game of video poker.
If, on the other hand, you wish to activate the extra feature, you can add either 5, 10, or 15 coins to your wager. That would be added to the coins that you bet for three or five hands at a time since Extra Action video poker only takes place in multiple play mode.
For instance, if you were playing five hands at a time and wanted to play the extra feature to the fullest, it would take a total wager of 40 coins, which is 25 coins for five hands at five coins a piece and another 15 added on to get the most bonus hands.
Obviously, that’s a pretty expensive way to play. But it is the best way to play if you wish to return the highest winning percentage on average. If you don’t feel you can make that kind of monetary commitment when playing Extra Action video poker, you should either pick a different game or find a lower denomination.
Step 3: Playing a Hand
Once you know how to play a single hand of video poker, you can then move on to the multiple play mode which governs play in Extra Action video poker. If you’ve ever played the card game known as five card draw, you’ll have the basic gist of video poker. The big difference is that you’re not trying to beat other players but are trying to make a hand that the machine deems a winner and will pay you back.
For those who have never played poker before, there are certain combinations of cards which are more favorable than others. It depends upon which pay table you’re using, but in most cases, the following list shows the winning hands that you’ll be trying to make:
- Pair of jacks or better
- Two pair
- Three of a kind
- Straight (five cards of consecutive rank, like 3-4-5-6-7)
- Flush (five cards of same suit)
- Full house (three of a kind and two pair in the same hand)
- Four of a kind
- Straight flush (straight with five cards of same suit)
- Royal flush (ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of the same suit)
When you first decide on your bet, five cards will show up on the screen. This is your deal. Your first task will be to assess these five cards to see if you have any winning combinations.
Even if you don’t, or if you have one that you think you can improve, you can do so during the next part of the hand, which is the draw round. On the draw, you get to discard whichever cards you don’t think are helping you and have them replaced with other cards from the same deck from which you were dealt.
Let’s take a look at how this might work. Imagine that you received the following cards on the deal:
In that hand, there are no combinations that are immediately winners. But you can try to improve the hand on the draw by choosing one of the combinations within the deal that can be turned into a winning hand with the right cards drawn. You might try to move forward with the pair of sixes, or the four diamonds to a flush, or maybe even the six, seven, and eight of diamonds, which is just two shy of a straight flush.
When you make this decision, you’ll have to base it on your chances of receiving the cards that you need to make the winning hand and how much that winning hand will pay. In many hands of video poker, the decision that you make will be a little easier than this. But tough decisions like this are exactly why many people love video poker, because it both provides a challenge and gives good players a better chance of winning than poor players.
Once you have decided, you will push the buttons below the cards that you want to hold and press the “Draw” button. At that point, your cards will be replaced by cards from the 47 remaining in the deck (52 minus the 5 you were originally dealt). Your hand is over, and it will be scored by the computer. Any winnings will be added to your bankroll.
If you decide to play again and you still have credits, you can do so by simply repeating steps two and three. Or you can cash out if you want. At any point that you run out of credits, your gameplay will be over until you put in more money.
That is how you play video poker one hand at a time. But, as we said above, you must play Extra Action video poker either three or five hands at a time. Let’s see how that works.
Multiple Play Video Poker
When you play multiple hands at once, you must bet on every hand. To do the max bet in Extra Action video poker, you would need to either bet 15 coins for three hands (3 times 5) or 25 coins for five hands (5 times 5). If you do choose to activate the twist, you can add 5, 10, or 15 coins to that bet.
The other important thing to realize about Extra Action video poker in multiple play mode is that you will receive just one deal. You will make a decision about which cards you want to hold or discard as we talked about above. But that decision will then be played out for three or five hands.
Let’s go back to that sample deal we listed above and imagine that we are playing three hands of poker at a time:
Let’s say that you decided to hold the six, seven, and eight of diamonds in an effort to go for the royal flush. The machine will then make three different draws for you, each draw coming from a different deck containing the same 47 cards not included on the deal. And that means that you will get three separate hands at the end of it.
For example, you might end up with:
- Hand 1: Six of Diamonds, Seven of Hearts, Seven of Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds, Eight of Clubs
- Hand 2: Six of Diamonds, Two of Diamonds, Seven of Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds, King of Diamonds
- Hand 3: Six of Diamonds, Three of Spades, Seven of Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds, Queen of Spades
The first hand improved to two pair, while the second came out with a flush. Alas, the third hand turned out to be a loser. You would then get paid for the two winning hands.
Assuming that you bet the maximum five credits and were playing a Jacks or Better pay table, you would have won the following:
- Hand 1: 10 coins
- Hand 2: 45 coins
- Hand 3: 0 coins
That adds up to 55 coins won. You bet 15 coins to start. As a result, your profit for that round was 40 credits.
As you can tell, multiple play video poker can be quite lucrative when you get a good deal. But it is expensive to play. And it gets even more expensive when you throw in an extra feature like the one to be found in Extra Action video poker.
Going for the Extra Action
To add the twist to play in Extra Action video poker, you need to bet either 5, 10, or 15 coins on top of the maximum bet for the three or five coins that you’re playing. That would mean, for example, if you wanted to get the biggest exposure to the feature by betting 15 extra coins, you would be betting 30 coins for a round of triple play or 40 coins for a round of five play.
When you bet these extra coins, you open up the possibility of extra free hands of video poker when you are dealt a certain card. For all of the pay tables available on the game besides Deuces Wild and Deuces Wild Bonus, the activating card will be an ace. As for the Deuces Wild games, the activating card is a two, which is the wild card.
For those who don’t know, a wild card is one that can be used to mimic any other card in the deck. When playing the game, the idea is that the card will change into whatever card makes your hand the best. In this way, you can often make rare hands that are extremely difficult to make without the use of a wild card.
For an example of how the Extra Action video poker twist works, let’s assume that you want to trigger it. Your first choice will be to decide how many extra coins. The more that you bet, the more free hands that you’ll get:
- 5 extra coins = 4 extra hands
- 10 extra coins = 8 extra hands
- 15 extra coins = 12 extra hands
Imagine then that you’ve chosen a Jacks or Better pay table as your game of choice and are playing in triple play mode. That means that the ace is the card that will put the free hands into play. Let’s go back to our sample deal one more time:
You have an ace in that deal. That means that you have activated free hands. But first, you have to play out the three original hands that you were playing anyway as normal. Make your choices about what to play and discard.
In the case of the extra hands, you don’t have to make any choices. Only the activating card will be held for the extra hands. You can’t keep anything else.
Keep in mind that what you do on your base hands will have no effect on the extra hands. As a result, if you choose to drop the ace in your base three hands and go for the straight flush like we did above, you can do so. The extra hands will still go forward with the ace as the only card that you keep.
Depending on how many extra coins that you bet, you will have several free hands with the ace. The computer will make draws for each of those from decks containing everything but the ace of diamonds. Payouts for any winners that you receive from those draws will be according to a special pay table that we’ll talk about in a minute.
One other note on the twist, if you should get more than one of the activating cards on the deal, all of those cards will be carried over into the extra hands. When this happens, things can get really lucrative for you. That’s because every extra hand will be guaranteed to be a winner when you have at least a pair of aces (in the non-wild games) or a pair of deuces (in the wild games).
You’ll get paid for any winners from your base hands. And you’ll also get paid for any winning hands out of the extra ones that came because of the ace. You’ll basically be getting up to 15 hands of video poker for the price of three.
The drawback to Extra Action video poker comes when you don’t get one of the activating cards. That means that you’ll be making extra bets but will get paid based on pay tables for a normal max wager. Several rounds of multiple play in that fashion will really deplete your bankroll.
As a result, you have to decide if the twist in Extra Action video poker is worth it for you. One thing we can say is that your payback percentage, which is just a fancy gambling way of referring to your return on investment, will actually rise on average the more coins that you wager. But you have to expect wild swings of winnings and losings to be a part of your path to that payback percentage because of the inherent volatility of this particular brand of video poker.
Extra Action Video Poker Pay Tables
There are two sets of pay tables with which you have to concern yourself when playing Extra Action video poker. First, there are the basic pay tables which come into play for your base hands, whether or not you are activating the extra feature. Then, there are the pay tables for the extra hands that come when you are dealt one of the activating cards.
Let’s talk first about the basic pay tables. When playing Extra Action video poker, you can choose from among the following pay tables:
- Jacks or Better
- Bonus Poker
- Bonus Poker Deluxe
- Double Bonus
- Double Double Bonus
- Triple Double Bonus
- Deuces Wild
- Deuces Wild Bonus
Let’s sample some of those pay tables so you know what to expect when you see the game in a casino.
Jacks or Better Pay Table
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full house | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pair | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Bonus Poker Pay Table
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a kind (aces) | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 |
| Four of a kind (2s, 3s, or 4s) | 45 | 90 | 135 | 180 | 225 |
| Four of a kind (any other) | 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 |
| Full house | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 40 |
| Flush | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pair | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Double Bonus Poker Pay Table
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four aces w/ any 2,3,4 | 400 | 800 | 1200 | 1600 | 2000 |
| Four 2s, 4s, 5s w/ any A,2,3,4 | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four aces | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four 2s, 3s, or 4s | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 |
| Four 5s through Ks | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Full house | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 |
| Straight | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Triple Double Bonus Pay Table
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a kind – aces 2, 3, or 4 kicker | 800 | 1600 | 2400 | 3200 | 4000 |
| Four of a kind – 2s, 3s, or 4s A, 2, 3, or 4 kicker | 400 | 800 | 1200 | 1600 | 2000 |
| Four of a kind – aces 5s – Ks kicker | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four of a kind – 2s, 3s, or 4s 5s – Ks kicker | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 |
| Four of a kind – any other | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Full house | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Straight | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Three of a kind | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Two pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Pair of jacks + | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Deuces Wild Pay Table
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Four deuces | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Wild royal flush | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Five of a kind | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 | 75 |
| Straight flush | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Four of a kind | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Full house | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Flush | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Straight | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Three of a kind | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Now, let’s talk about the two pay tables that are involved with the extra feature. For all non-wild card games, the payback is as follows:
- Royal flush: 800 coins
- Straight flush: 800 coins
- Four of a kind: 200 coins
- Full house: 12 coins
- Flush: 8 coins
- Straight: 4 coins
- Three of a kind: 3 coins
- Two pair: 2 coins
- Pair of jacks or better: 1 coin
Now, for the wild card games:
- Four deuces with ace kicker: 400
- Four deuces: 160
- Wild royal flush: 27
- Five of a kind: 20
- Straight flush: 6
- Four of a kind: 4
- Full house: 2
- Flush: 1
- Straight: 1
Strategy for Extra Action Video Poker
When playing Extra Action video poker, the best way to maximize your winnings is to learn perfect strategy. Players who know perfect strategy will do better than those who make mistakes when playing for a long period of time. When you’ve been playing for a long time, good luck and bad luck on draws will even out and your payback percentage will be reliant on how well you make the correct mathematical decisions about what to hold and what to discard.
The good news is that you don’t need to learn any new strategy for the extra hands in Extra Action video poker. After all, there is no decision that you can make for the extra hands. But your choices about what to hold and discard will affect how you do when playing your base hands.
For that reason, we suggest the following ways to learn perfect strategy. First of all, choose the pay table you want to concentrate on. Then, do one of the following:
- Download a video poker trainer
- Consult a strategy chart
By either practicing with a trainer for a long time or memorizing a strategy chart, you should have no problems learning to play with perfect strategy. And that will mean that you get the best possible return out of your sessions of Extra Action video poker.
Extra Action Video Poker Pros and Cons
- Possibility of free poker hands
- Extra feature actually adds to payback percentage
- Exposure to many different types of pay tables
- Extremely expensive to play
- Bankroll will fall swiftly if you can’t activate the extra hands very often
- Might be confusing for beginners
Conclusion on Extra Action Video Poker
Extra Action video poker, whether you’re playing in a casino or as part of a top gambling website, lives up to its name when you see all of those extra hands coming your way after a lucky deal. And all of the winnings that come from the extra hands can add up in a hurry. Just be prepared to see your bankroll dwindle if you pay for the extra hands and struggle to get them.
Recognize Us? We've been found on:
