One of my favorites machines to play locally is a version of Bonus Poker which I've never seen elsewhere, though it must surely be available in other places. Now, 'regular' Bonus Poker in the full-pay (8/5) format pays only 99.1% long term, but with a progressive Royal it can be a good game to play. Beside a progressive Royal, the version I play has an additional bonus attached to the four Aces which raises the long term pay back a bit and adds a lot of interest to the game. Maybe you've seen it; if the player gets four Aces in a specific order, they pay 4000 coins, instead of the usual 400. Each Ace has a different letter on it and, if they line up to spell "ACE$", the bonus is paid. This isn't an easy thing to do, in fact, of all the ways a player can get four Aces, only two work. Since the fifth card of the hand is immaterial, the only way it pays is if the order is _ACE$ (with the "_" being the fifth card) or ACE$_.

Since any four Aces will be hit, on average, once every 5100 hands (assuming proper playing strategy is being used), and there are 125 ways to get four Aces with any 5th card (right, math majors?), it follows that the Aces will line up for the 'super-bonus' twice in every 125 X 5100 = 637,500 hands, or once every 318,750 hands. That's a probability of .0000031 which pays 800 coins (per coin played), so this super-bonus adds a modest .0000031 X 800 = .00248 to the basic .99166, which totals 99.414%. (Yes, I know; we lose a little bit because those two sets of Aces would otherwise pay 400 coins, but I'm ignoring that 'cause I'm too lazy to do more math). A return of 99.4% makes this game almost as good as 9/6 Jacks and, since the Royal is progressive, it 's at 100% payback at about 5200 coins. The big 'but' here is that the Aces super-bonus is a very, very long term event, so, if there's a 9/6 Jacks game with a 5200-coin Royal nearby, that would be the better play. If you're a little fuzzy on this look at it this way: You can expect to hit 8 Royals for every Aces super-bonus, so it doesn't add a lot to the game in the short term. Since 9/6 Jacks doesn't depend upon such a long term event to get its 99.5% return, it's a better play, all things being equal.

Now that I've explained that, I've seen a quarter machine of this type which is in 7/5 format (98% return), but it has a progressive on the Royal and on the Aces super-bonus. For the Aces, it resets at 4000 coins ($1000), but I've played it when the 'jackpot' for the Aces was at $5000!!! I didn't hit it, though I have hit it on a dollar machine for 4 grand, so it can happen. I don't usually make any playing strategy changes for the Aces, but I was dealt a Full House that was ACE, KK (3 Aces and a pair of Kings) and I dropped the Kings to draw to the Aces and I got the $!! I don't have a software program to figure the other strategy modifications, but there surely are some to be made at the correct time and that would lower the 1 in 318,750 figure a bit.

This game has another advantage over, say Double Bonus Poker, in that two-pair pay 10 for 5, whereas in most 'bonus' games it's a push with a 5 for 5 pay. This reduces the volatility of one's bankroll, so it takes less $$$ to attack this game. It's still not as good as a 9/6 Jacks with a progressive Royal, but it's not bad, either.

So, if you see this game, give it a go, as long as the progressives are high enough to make it worthwhile.

See you here next time.