Taking a Look at the Bonus Quads Video Poker

This is a Jacks or Better variation, which comes in a number of flavors, offer extra bonus payouts for specified four of a kind hands, called quads. For example, the machine may give a higher payout if you get four aces or four deuces. There are many types of quads available but they all work according to the same principle, receiving an extra bonus if you hit the quad or quads specified. Whatever the special quad bonus available, it will be posted on the machine itself.

Lower down on the paytable, hands such as two pair have been adjusted downward with smaller paybacks as a counterweight for the extra bonuses paid on the quad winners. However, the high extra returns paid for the quads often compensate and make these among the best-percentage video poker machines in the Nevada market. As a result, the bonus quads are a popular variation. At the Gulf Coast casinos in Mississippi and Louisiana, and other less locations where paytables are typically much less favorable, you will more than likely find short pay machines with less attractive payout that are not very favorable to the player.

The bonus quads, which are typically found as non-progressive machine, have many variations all working from the same premise, extra payouts on four of a kind hands. In the very popular IGT variety, you'll see Double Bonus Poker (97.8% payback), Bonus Poker Deluxe (98.5% payback), Double Double Bonus (99% payback), and other varieties by various manufacturers such as Aces and Eights, Super Aces, and others.

Note that the payback percentages have everything to do with the payout schedules, which you will see in a myriad of possibilities, depending upon where you play and the current thinking of the host location. For example, a Double Double Bonus game may be found that offers ten coins per coin played on a full house and seven coins on a flush (as opposed to the nine and six we show here), and that would make the payback schedule at just over 100% with optimal play.

Here are some of the payoffs for these Bonus Quad machines:

Paytable on Jacks or Better Double Bonus Poker Coins Played 1 2 3 4 5 Royal Flush 250 500 750 1000 4000 Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250 Four Aces 160 320 480 640 800 Four 2-4's 80 160 240 320 400 Four 5-K's 50 100 150 200 250 Full House 9 18 27 36 45 Flush 6 12 18 24 30 Straight 5 10 15 20 25 Three of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15 Two Pairs 1 2 3 4 5 Jacks or Better 1 2 3 4 5

Paytable on Jacks or Better Bonus Poker Deluxe Coins Played 1 2 3 4 5 Royal Flush 250 500 750 1000 4000 Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250 Four of a Kind 80 160 240 320 400 Full House 8 16 24 32 40 Flush 6 12 18 24 30 Straight 4 8 12 16 20 Three of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15 Two Pairs 1 2 3 4 5 Jacks or Better 1 2 3 4 5

Paytable on Jacks or Better Double Double Bonus Coins Played 1 2 3 4 5 Royal Flush 250 500 750 1000 4000 Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250 Four A's and 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2-4a Four 2-4 and 160 320 480 640 800 A-4b Four Aces 160 320 480 640 800 Four 2-4's 80 160 240 320 400 Four 5-K's 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 Pairs 1 2 3 4 5 Jacks or Better 1 2 3 4 5

a - A hand of four Aces with the fifth card being a 2, 3, or 4 b - A hand of four 2's, four 3's, or four 4's, with the fifth card being an Ace, 2, 3, or 4.