UNDERSTANDING THE DOUBLE-UP OPTION
Some video poker machines and online casinos offer
the option of doubling your
winnings after you have won a hand. If you
decide to do this, the machine will deal five
additional cards with the first one face up and the
last four face down. The player then picks one of the
face down cards. If it is higher in value you double
you winnings, if it is of lower value, you lose your
winnings. In most cases a tie is a push, but in rare
cases a tie loses. If you win the double, you are
usually allowed to keep doubling.
If a tie is a push, there is no house advantage
because your chances of winning are 50/50. If a tie
counts as a loss (extremely rare), the house advantage
is a very high 5.8% and you must certainly avoid this
kind of bet.
Although there is no House Advantage in doubling your
winnings, this does not affect the overall long-term
payout of a machine. The reason is you cannot double
unless you have already won.
But do you really understand the double-up option on
Video Poker? A lot of players don't realize the casino
has no edge in the double-up bet; the double or
nothing feature in video poker is the only other
casino bet besides the odds in craps with no house
edge!. But, you can get ahead of the curve, so to
speak and win a bunch of $$$ at a good session and
it'll take quite some time for the casino to get back
those winnings..
Whether or not you take it depends on your gambling
priorities:
- If you are playing a negative expectation
machine (one with a house edge) then taking
the double or nothing feature will increase the
total money bet at no cost to the expected loss,
thus lowering the overall house edge.
If your objective is to cut down the overall house
edge as much as possible then you should take it
as much as allowed. However if minimizing variance
is important to you then you should avoid it or
perhaps only take it once on small payoffs.
- If you are lucky enough to find a positive
expectation machine then you should avoid the
double or nothing feature which would lower your
overall advantage
SPECIAL NOTE: I suggest video poker players to
take the double up option when playing for a bonus at
a Playtech casino. Why?
Because Playtech
does count double up bets towards
the play requirement, so it gets the player to the
bonus with less expected loss. So unless you are
playing a machine with a return of over 100% and you
don't mind extra volatility then I recommend accepting
the double up option.
