Movin' On Up Poker

Introduction

Movin' On Up is not just the theme song to the Jeffersons, but also a video poker variant by IGT. I first noticed it at the Peppermill in Reno in June 2013. The thrust of the game is that for an additional wager, the player gets two or three draws instead of one.

Rules

There are two versions of Movin' On Up: Double Draw and Triple Draw. To avoid confusion, I'll explain them separately.

Double Draw

1. Player makes a 5-credit base wager and a 10-credit fee to enable the Double Draw feature.
2. As in conventional video poker, the player is dealt five cards from a 52-card deck.
3. The player chooses to hold the cards he wishes to keep and the rest of the cards are replaced from the remaining 47 cards in the deck.
4. The player is paid based on the poker value of this first hand on the draw and his 5-credit base wager.
5. The player chooses to hold the cards he wishes to keep from the hand in rule 4 and the discards are replaced from the other 47 remaining cards in the deck. In other words, any discarded cards on the deal may reappear on the second draw.
6. The player is paid based on the poker value of this second hand on the draw and his 5-credit base wager.

 

Triple Draw

1. Player makes a 5-credit base wager and a 25-credit fee to enable the Triple Draw feature.
2. As in conventional video poker, the player is dealt five cards from a 52-card deck.
3. The player chooses to hold the cards he wishes to keep and the rest of the cards are replaced from the remaining 47 cards in the deck.
4. The player is paid based on the poker value of this first hand on the draw and his 5-credit base wager.
5. The player chooses to hold the cards he wishes to keep from the hand in rule 4 and the rest of the cards are replaced from the other 47 cards in the deck.
6. The player is paid based on the poker value of this second hand on the draw and his 5-credit base wager.
7. The player chooses to hold the cards he wishes to keep from the hand in rule 6 and the rest of the cards are replaced from the other 47 cards in the deck.
8. The player is paid based on the poker value of this third hand on the draw and his 5-credit base wager.

 

One rule I'd like to make perfectly clear is that when that on any draw the player can get any card, except those he just threw away. For example, discards on the deal can reappear on the second and third draws.

Examples

Double Draw

In the example above, the only card I held after the deal was the jack of diamonds. On the first draw, it improved to a pair of jacks, which paid 5 credits. I then held that pair and it improved to a two pair on the second draw, which paid 10 credits. My total "win" was 5+10=15 credits. Since that was my initial wager, I actually broke even.

Triple Draw

In this hand, the only card I held after the deal was the king of diamonds. On the first draw, it improved to a two pair, which paid 10 credits. I then held the two pair and it improved to a full house on the second draw, which paid 60 credits. I then held the entire full house, which also paid 60 credits on the third draw. My total "win" was 10+60+60=130 credits. My initial wager was 30 credits, so my profit was 100 credits.

Odds

What analyzing this game would be to computer programming is what climbing Mount Everest would be to a mountain climber. So, I took the lazy way out and asked IGT for their pay tables and returns. They were kind enough to give them to me. They appear below.

Written by: Michael Shackleford