Reason #3 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

Excellent Odds

In my opinion many online casinos are too stingy when setting the odds on their games. They think they will make more money that way but I believe they are misguided, because when players lose too quickly it’s not fun, and those players might not come back.

Bovada is one of the few casinos that understands this. They offer generous odds to let you play longer and get you a better chance of winning. Among their generous offerings are Full-Pay Jacks or Better returning 99.54%, six other video poker games paying over 99%, single-zero roulette, and my favorite, Pick ’em Poker, returning 99.95%!

Kudos to Bovada for not being afraid to give their players a good gamble.

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Double Draw Aces

Last Update: Oct 03, 2005

Double Draw Aces is a video poker variation I noticed at the Frontier on October 2, 2005.

The game plays like normal video poker except the player gets two draws if he keeps and retains two or more aces on the draw. After the first draw the player may elect to either keep the outcome of that draw or take a second draw. In the event the player chooses the second draw the cards obtained on the first draw will be inserted back in the deck. In other words it is like replaying the first draw, except the second draw is final.

The following table shows the possible outcomes under optimal player strategy. The lower right cell shows an expected returnof 96.26%.

Double Draw Aces
Hand	Probability	Pays	Return
Royal Flush	0.000025	800	0.020028
Straight Flush	0.000096	50	0.004798
Four A + 2-4	0.000110	400	0.043989
Four 2-4 + A-4	0.000149	160	0.023773
Four A	0.000294	160	0.047074
Four 2-4	0.000401	80	0.032046
Four 5-K	0.001736	50	0.086789
Full House	0.008680	5	0.043402
Flush	0.010221	4	0.040883
Straight	0.010670	3	0.032010
Three of a kind	0.083444	3	0.250333
Two pair	0.110352	1	0.110352
Pair	0.227143	1	0.227143
Nonpaying hand	0.546680	0	0.000000
Total	1.000000		0.962619

The strategy is the same as normal for the specified pay table except as noted.

Player should keep two aces over four to a straight flush after the deal.
If the player keeps two aces after the deal then the player should stand with three of a kind or better on the first draw .
If the player keeps three aces after the deal then the player should stand on any four of a kind on the first draw.

For those who may be interested the player will not get two aces or break them up 95.832% of the time, keep the first of two ace draws 0.517% of the time, and keep the second draw 3.651% of the time.

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Basic Video Poker Info My main Video Poker page Return tables: Probability of Ruin for single-play video poker Random simulations of multi-play video poker The standard deviation of n-play video poker Practice / Play Video Poker for Free Play my free video poker game/trainer Video Poker Calculator Analyze the return for almost any video poker paytable Other Stuff Jacks or Better quiz Probability distribution for each hand by number of cards held in Full-Pay Deuces Wild Video poker programming tips San Diego County video poker survey	Strategies Full-Pay Jacks or Better: Simple Strategy (return of 99.46%) Intermediate Strategy (return of 99.52%) Optimal Strategy (return of 99.54%) Full-Pay Deuces Wild: Simple Strategy (return of 100.71%) Optimal Strategy (return of 100.76%) 3 to a wild royal (ace-high) vs. Deuce only 2 to a royal (king-high) with a straight penalty 2 to a royal (king-high) with no penalty Quick Quads: 9/6 Jacks or Better 8/5 Bonus Poker 9/7 Double Bonus 9/6 Double Double Bonus 8/5 Triple Bonus Other Strategies: "Not So Ugly Ducks" 8/5 Bonus Poker 10/7 Double Bonus 9/6 Double Double Bonus

Double Draw Aces

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Full-Pay Jacks or Better:

Full-Pay Deuces Wild:

Quick Quads:

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