SmartHold
9 / 7
THE KICKER BECOMES THE HAND
Triple Double Bonus
Strategy guide
The kicker rules that are a footnote in Double Double Bonus are the whole game here. Four Aces with a 2, 3, or 4 pay 800 — the royal flush price — so Aces and low ranks are played for their fifth card, while a thin bottom of the table quietly demotes every pair.
Built for 9/7 Triple Double Bonus: trips pay 2, Two Pair pays 1, and four Aces with a 2/3/4 kicker pay 800 per coin.
REMEMBER THESE
The three rules that move the game
01
Hold the bonus kicker with three of a kind
This is what separates Triple Double from Double Double, where you throw both side cards. Keep one qualifying kicker: 2/3/4 with three Aces, or A/2/3/4 with three 2s–4s. Discard the other side card; exact EV depends on both dealt side cards.
02
Break made hands to reach the premium quads
Break full houses built on Aces or 2s–4s; retain one qualifying kicker from the paired cards if present. With made bonus quads, replace a non-bonus fifth card; keep one that already earns the higher tier.
03
The bottom of the table is thin
Two Pair returns the bet and Three of a Kind pays 2, while the flush pays 7. Some flush draws gain ground, including selected three-card flushes. They do not beat every high card: with 3
4
9
A
6
, keep the Ace.
DECISION LADDER
Start at the top; compare overlapping choices.
CORE ORDER
“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 stay out of the draw and can weaken a competing hold.
01
Royal flush, straight flush, or made quads
Keep a royal or straight flush. Keep a qualifying kicker with bonus quads; discard a non-bonus kicker with four Aces or four 2s–4s.
02
Four to a royal flush
Break an ordinary flush or straight for the royal draw.
03
Three Aces
Keep one 2/3/4 kicker if present; otherwise draw two. Break Aces full, retaining one card from the pair if it is a bonus kicker.
04
Three 2s, 3s, or 4s
Keep one A/2/3/4 kicker if present; otherwise draw two. These trips can also break a full house, even without a qualifying kicker.
05
Other full houses, flushes, and straights
Keep the made hand after checking for four to a royal and the bonus trips above.
06
Trips of 5s–Kings
Draw two; these ranks have no kicker bonus.
07
Four to a straight flush, then a pair of Aces
A pair of Aces beats Ace-high Two Pair. Do not keep a kicker with only a pair.
08
Two Pair without Aces
Keep both pairs and draw one.
09
Three-card royals, four-flushes, and paying pairs
Compare these overlapping choices. Some three-card royals and four-flushes beat a pair of Jacks, Queens, or Kings; the ranks and discards matter.
10
Low pairs versus outside straights
Pairs of 2s–4s retain substantial bonus value: 3
3
4
5
6
keeps the pair at 0.92 per coin versus 0.68 for the straight draw. Pairs of 5s–10s are weaker.
11
Smaller suited draws and high cards
Consider three-card straight flushes, selected three-card flushes, and high-card combinations. A three-card flush does not automatically beat a lone Ace.
12
Draw five
Use this when none of the remaining draws is worth keeping.
Why this isn’t an exception chart
Suits, gaps, discarded cards, and custom payouts can move close hands. This is a compact learning guide, not a complete first-match chart. For wild games, use only the branch for the wild cards actually dealt. SmartHold Practice compares all 32 holds for the exact deal. EV means average total return, including the stake, per coin wagered; it is not profit or the chance of winning. The examples use the schedule named above.
WORKED EXAMPLES
The deals that split from 9/6 Double Double Bonus
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
2
HOLD
3
DRAW
Hold the kicker with three Aces
Double Double Bonus throws both low cards here and draws two. Triple Double keeps one of them and draws one: 19.43 per coin against 15.07. Four Aces with a 2, 3, or 4 pays 800-for-1, so guaranteeing a qualifying kicker is worth more here than drawing two cards, which can also produce the bonus but does not guarantee the kicker.
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
K
DRAW
K
DRAW
Break a full house built on Aces
Nine credits pat, or 16.26 per coin for throwing the Kings. Even trip 3s break a full house here, at 9.31 — unlike Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus, this schedule can also break full houses built on 2s, 3s, or 4s.
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
9
DRAW
Throw the fifth card off a made quad
Four Aces is 160 in the hand. Discarding the 9 and drawing one is 323.40 per coin, because roughly one card in four turns it into the 800-for-1 kicker hand. Keep an existing qualifying bonus kicker. With quads of 5s–Kings, the fifth card cannot change the payout.
COMMON TRAPS
Mistakes worth recognizing on sight
Applying the Double Double kicker habit
There you discard both side cards with trips. Here the bonus kicker is held with three Aces or three low cards — the single biggest difference between the games.
Keeping a full house built on Aces or 2s-4s
These bonus trips can beat the pat 9-for-1 full house. Keep one qualifying kicker if available and discard the other card of the pair.
Keeping a kicker with only a pair
Keep the pair and draw three. Saving a low kicker with just a pair sacrifices too much chance of reaching quads.
TURN THE LADDER INTO INSTINCT
Practice Triple Double Bonus
Every miss comes back through Review until the correct hold is automatic.