99.46%
FACE CARDS EARN KICKER BONUSES
Double Double Aces & Faces Strategy guide
This game uses Jacks, Queens, and Kings for kicker bonuses where Double Double Bonus uses 2s–4s. Keep a qualifying kicker with made quads and discard it with trips. The face-card bonuses can make two high cards worth keeping together, or a lone King or Queen better than a small suited draw.
Built for 9/6/4 Double Double Aces & Faces: Two Pair pays 1, Four Aces with a J/Q/K kicker pays 400.
View Double Double Aces & Faces pay table →
REMEMBER THESE
Three rules to remember
01
The kicker rules are the Double Double rules
Keep a qualifying kicker with made quads; discard both side cards with trips — three Aces drawing two is 12.49 per coin against 11.83 for dragging a face along. And when a pair of Aces is one of your two pair, keep the Aces alone: 1.90 against 1.68 for the full hand.
02
Discard the fifth card if it misses the quad bonus
Four Aces pays 160 pat but 400 with a J/Q/K alongside, so a non-face fifth card goes back: drawing one is worth 221.3 per coin. Four Js–Ks work the same way at a smaller scale — 100.4 drawing for the 160 kicker hand against 80 pat.
03
Face-card bonuses improve high-card holds
A face card can form a paying pair, complete a royal, or serve as a bonus kicker. Ace plus a face usually edges the Ace alone (0.47 against 0.45), and a lone King or Queen outranks the two- and three-card draws Double Double Bonus would keep.
WHAT TO HOLD
Start at the top. Compare holds that use the same cards.
HOLD PRIORITIES
“Pat” means keep all five. “Four to” or “three to” counts the held cards, including any wild cards. An outside straight such as 5-6-7-8 can finish at either end; an inside straight such as 5-6-8-9 needs one rank. A-2-3-4 and J-Q-K-A also have only one completing rank. Discarded cards cannot be drawn again. For example, discarding a heart leaves one fewer heart to complete a flush. “Trips” means three of a kind; “quads” means four of a kind. “Natural” means without wild cards. A “kicker” is a side card; some games pay a bonus for a specific kicker alongside quads.
01
Royal flush, straight flush, or made quads
Keep a qualifying kicker with bonus quads; discard a fifth card that does not qualify as a kicker off four Aces or four Js–Ks.
02
Four to a royal flush
Break an ordinary flush or straight for the royal draw.
03
Three Aces
Draw two and do not keep a side card as a hoped-for kicker. Break a full house built on Aces — trips drawing two is 12.27 against the pat 9.
04
Full houses, flushes, and straights
Keep the made hand unless you have four to a royal or a full house built on Aces.
05
Trips of 2s through Kings
Draw two; no kicker is worth a card here.
06
Four to a straight flush
Keep the premium suited run.
07
Pair of Aces, then Two Pair
Break Ace-high Two Pair; keep Two Pair without Aces together.
08
Paying pairs, then royal and flush draws
A pair of Jacks or better beats a four-flush (1.59 against 1.19) and most three-card royals.
09
Low pairs and straight draws
Four 2s–10s pay 50 regardless of the fifth card, so low pairs gain no kicker bonus.
10
Two high cards, then one
Ace plus a face, or two faces, almost always beats a lone high card — the hold Double Double Bonus trims to one.
11
A lone face, small draws, or draw five
A single King or Queen can beat a two- or three-card suited draw here; when nothing qualifies, redraw all five.
Check close decisions in Practice
These are usual hold priorities. If your hand fits more than one choice, compare them; the first matching row may not give the best hold. In wild-card games, use the rows for the number of wild cards in your hand. Suits, missing straight ranks, discarded cards, and payouts can change which hold returns more. SmartHold Practice checks all 32 ways to hold or discard the five cards. EV means average total return, including the stake, per coin wagered; it is not profit or the chance of winning. The examples use the pay table named above.
WORKED EXAMPLES
Three deals changed by the face-card bonuses
7
DRAW
3
DRAW
6
DRAW
10
DRAW
K
HOLD
The lone King beats the little flush draw
Three small diamonds look tempting, but the draw is worth only 0.42 per coin here — the lone King is worth 0.43, because a King is a paying pair, a royal card, and now a bonus kicker. Double Double Bonus takes the flush draw; this schedule takes the face.
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
K
DRAW
K
DRAW
Break a full house built on Aces
The pat full house pays 9.00 per coin. Three Aces drawing two is worth 12.27 — the fourth Ace can arrive with a face kicker for 400. Full houses built on any other trips stay pat: three Kings drawing two is only 7.39.
A
HOLD
K
HOLD
7
DRAW
9
DRAW
4
DRAW
The King comes along
Double Double Bonus keeps only the Ace here, at 0.45 per coin. This schedule keeps the King too: 0.47 against 0.45 for the Ace alone and 0.42 for the three-card heart draw. Because face cards can earn the kicker bonus, keeping the Ace and King together returns more than keeping the Ace alone.
COMMON TRAPS
Mistakes worth recognizing on sight
Applying Triple Double kicker habits
The kicker is only guaranteed when it is already dealt or pat. With trips you still discard both side cards — dragging a face along costs about 0.66 per coin with three Aces.
Holding all five with bonus quads
A non-face fifth card beside four Aces costs you the draw at a J/Q/K kicker — 160 pat against 221.3 drawing. With four 2s–10s the fifth card changes nothing.
Playing the Double Double high-card game
In that game the Ace often stands alone and small suited draws beat a lone high card. Here the face-card bonuses can make an Ace with a face card, or a lone face card, return more than those small suited draws.
TURN THE LADDER INTO INSTINCT
Practice Double Double Aces & Faces
Every miss comes back through Review until the correct hold is automatic.
PRACTICE THIS STRATEGY
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Educational video poker practice for adults 18+. No real-money gambling or prizes. Optional purchases available.