Major Multipliers

[Leeknows]

This week's Weekly Contest game is Major Multipliers. When playing Deuces Bonus Poker, 3 of a kind is supposed to trigger the multipliers, but when the deal produces 2 Deuces together with 3 non-matching cards, the result is clearly 3 of a kind, but no multipliers are triggered. Any thoughts?

[Minn. Fatz]

1. Hold the deuces plus any Ace b. Looks like you need "natural" trips to trigger the bonus.

There seems to be a lot that's not explained in this game, f'rinstance in non-wild games, dealt 2 pair, when the payout for trips is greater than the payout for a full house the game counts a full house as trips and awards the larger payout. If that's the case then it looks like the best strategy would be to break the hand and only hold one pair. The odds of drawing trips to a pair are a little better than 1 in 4 while the odds of filling a full house from two pair (and getting the larger trips payout) are only 1 in 12.

[New2vp]

This week's Weekly Contest game is Major Multipliers. When playing Deuces Bonus Poker, 3 of a kind is supposed to trigger the multipliers, but when the deal produces 2 Deuces together with 3 non-matching cards, the result is clearly 3 of a kind, but no multipliers are triggered. Any thoughts?

There are a couple things going on here to explain, one on the deal, and another on the draw.

Lee, when you go back and play the game again, I think that you will find that no multipliers occur when dealt 2 deuces and 3 non-matching ranks ONLY when the natural cards along with the deuces make a dealt straight or a dealt flush (or some other higher hand than trips). This is a bit ironic since dealt straights in bonus deuces have lower expected value than dealt trips; however, I guess technically, a straight is a higher poker hand than trips. If two (or three) of the non-wild cards match ranks with each other, making a dealt four-of-a-kind or five-of-a-kind, you also get no multipliers. Higher dealt hands than trips do NOT trigger multipliers. Only dealt trips. But you can have one or two deuces making dealt trips producing multipliers; you are not required to have to be a natural 3 of a kind to get the multipliers in this game. Of course, if you have 3 or 4 deuces dealt, that would also be a higher hand than trips.

When I have received a deal with two deuces and 3 non-matching ranks that do not make higher hands than trips in the bonus deuces wild game, that is the only time that I got 2x multipliers for the quad deuce final hands (with and without the ace kicker) and for wild royal flush final hands.

So, on the deal, you must have dealt trips but no higher-ranking hands to get multipliers. But on the draw, as Minn. Fatz said, the multipliers sometimes make the traditionally lower-paying final hands pay out more than traditionally higher-paying hands. The help screen says that only the highest winning hands are paid. So, after the draw, if you can use the deuce to make a traditionally lower-paying final hand that due to the multiplier is higher this time, the game allows it.

For example, in DDB sometimes quad 2s-4s without a kicker has a higher payout than quad 2s-4s with a kicker. But do not worry, quads with a kicker in those cases pay at the rate that you would have received had there been no kicker.

Also, as Minn. Fatz suggested, this causes optimal strategy when multipliers are involved to be different than what we are used to and quite complicated, not only for the hand that he cited, but for a few others as well.