9/6 Double Double Bonus Strategy and Pay Table
9/6 Double Double Bonus adds a fifth-card kicker to the largest quad awards. Four aces with a 2, 3, or 4 pays 400-for-1, while lower quads also receive a premium with the right small kicker.
- Perfect-play return
- 98.98%
- House edge
- 1.02%
- Sharper Edge volatility
- Highvolatility High, level 4 of 5
Overview
How this game plays
Three aces and three low cards create decisions that do not exist in games without kicker awards. Frequent two-pair hands pay only 1-for-1, while rare qualified quads carry much more of the return. Sharper Edge rates it High volatility.
The return shown is the configured long-run return at max bet with exact strategy, not a prediction for a single session.
Advanced
Who it suits
- Advanced players specifically training ace and kicker decisions.
- Players who already understand Jacks or Better and basic Bonus Poker.
- Learners who want exact feedback on high-cost made-hand breaks.
9/6
Full pay table and rules
Payouts below are credits returned for wagers of one through five coins. Sharper Edge practice always uses the five-coin maximum, highlighted at right.
| Hand | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,000 | 4,000* |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four Aces w/ 2-4 Kicker | 400 | 800 | 1,200 | 1,600 | 2,000 |
| Four Aces w/ 5-K Kicker | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four 2s-4s w/ A-4 Kicker | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four 2s-4s w/ 5-K Kicker | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 |
| Four 5s-Kings | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Full House | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two Pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
No wild cards. Minimum paying hand: a pair of jacks or better. Four-of-a-kind payouts depend on the fifth card (the kicker). Standard play uses a 52-card deck, a five-card deal, one draw, and any hold from zero through five cards.
*The starred royal category returns 250-for-1 below max bet and 800-for-1 at the five-coin maximum. Return and edge shown on this page assume max bet and exact strategy.
Pay-table identity
What makes it different
Double Double Bonus adds kickers to the quad ladder: four aces with a 2, 3 or 4 pays 400-for-1 — half a royal. Four 2s–4s with an ace-through-4 kicker pays 160-for-1.
The configured 98.98% return is lower than 9/7/5 Double Bonus despite the richer top award. Correctly valuing the full five-card deal is essential because the kicker matters only when the completed quad qualifies.
What to practice
Strategy priorities
- 1Break an aces-full full house to hold three aces; the complete example below shows the exact tradeoff.
- 2Do not assume a potential kicker belongs in the hold. It is valuable only in the correct three-of-a-kind situation and pay-table tier.
- 3Two pair pays 1-for-1 again — the kicker money has to come from somewhere.
- 4Aces with a small card in hand are worth pausing on; the 400-for-1 line changes otherwise obvious holds.
Worked decision
Break aces full and chase the premium quad
Discard both kings and hold the three aces.
Three aces: 12.717 EV per coin · standing pat: 9.000.
The full house is a guaranteed 9-for-1 result, but two fresh cards create routes to the much larger four-aces awards. Exact enumeration makes the counterintuitive three-card hold clearly superior.
EV is per coin and comes from enumerating every legal draw for this exact five-card deal.
Baseline
Compared with 9/6 Jacks or Better
9/6 Double Double Bonus changes both the payouts and the decision priorities. Percentage-point deltas below use 9/6 Jacks or Better as the reference.
| Metric | 9/6 Double Double Bonus | 9/6 baseline | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect-play return | 98.98% | 99.54% | ▼ −0.56 pp |
| House edge | 1.02% | 0.46% | ▲ +0.56 pp |
| Sharper Edge volatility | High | Low | ▲ +2 levels |
Keep comparing
Related pay tables
Turn the pay table into a decision habit
Practice 9/6 Double Double Bonus with all 32 holds ranked by exact EV, then review the cost of every decision separately from the cards you happened to draw.