Why is Ultimate X so popular?

Why do you play video poker? What is your favorite game and why?
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Antebellum Reb
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Re: Why is Ultimate X so popular?

Post by Antebellum Reb »

this is a great thread, good topic and responses. poster seemoreroyals nice job and question. i have always been perplexed by the massive number of ultra -x games in the video poker sections of the casinos i have frequented, but now i understand. people generally lose a lot when they play it largely due to it being hard to understand and easy to play wrongly. ive been bugged like every one else watching the scavengers jump from ultx game to ultx game looking for multipliers unused. i forget the year that this game first appeared, but my friends called it one of the gimmicky games now popular that make video poker more and.more like slots games. ive never really played it much but ive watched and witnessed friends as well as strangers lose hundreds in minutes playing five and ten handed 10 cent and 25 cent ultex games like db ddb and tdb. im guessing most had no inkling how bad they had strategy wise in playing.

im perfectly satisfied playing single handed games and if i crave a higher payout just play at dollars instead of quarters! ill play multihand games like normal 3-5-10 handed db, bp, job, ddb, poker deluxe, duices wild, and the like but almost always at nickels and maybe a little quarters.

one thing poster seemoreroyales stated made me reflect, namely that when people have a massive multiplier like x12 or x10 or similar and they hit deal, it always seems to deal garbage-ola to those hands with multipliers, as if there is a feature inside the game program that dictates if there is a multiplier the odds of dealing or drawing winning hands drops dramatically. if u watch long enough you will know what I mean.

seemoreroyals
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Post by seemoreroyals »

Thank you AR. ULT x is the most played game on this website as well. Until I figure it out this website is where I will be playing ult x. I know those big hits that combine big multiplier and premium hand are possible. I see people getting them all the time in the ult x contests. In fact today a noticed a couple of lucky people hit royals with 12 x multipliers in the daily contest. Not me. I am currently in 1054th place last I looked. The contests are fun and they don't cost anything.

Pillbox
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Post by Pillbox »

Had my best payout on an Ultimate X machine. I agree though, it's frustrating to waste a big multiplier.

Ohio Bob
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Post by Ohio Bob »

I’ve had my highest win on this site playing ultra. Royal with a 12x. I hope that is not a life time achievement!!
I did not know that if you get off a machine with out playing last deal, the multipliers shown will appear for next person? I try never to cash out with a multiplier showing.

Player422738
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Post by Player422738 »

Ohio Bob wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:13 am
I’ve had my highest win on this site playing ultra. Royal with a 12x. I hope that is not a life time achievement!!
I did not know that if you get off a machine with out playing last deal, the multipliers shown will appear for next person? I try never to cash out with a multiplier showing.
The odds is like 1 in 4 million. Pretty much life time achievement.

jconifer7
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Post by jconifer7 »

The appeal to Ultimate X is pretty obvious on first play, the rewards are more frequent than they are in other multi hand games and don't require more than a minimum winning hand to get a multiplier.

I think where the game will go wrong for many is that they are desperate to have as high of a reward as possible for a Four of a Kind, particularly with Aces and Lows (2,3,4) that they fail to consider the detriment to having a lower payout for a Two Pair. For this reason I find it better to play Ultimate X as Bonus Poker where there is just a little bit of greater reward for quads involving Aces and lows, but the Two Pair is worth 10 instead of 5 which makes the incentive of holding both pairs more attractive aside from getting the assured 3X and possible 12X when a Full House comes up on the draw.

Plus, with the multipliers a hand that is normally not worth much can suddenly be worth a lot, why get 40 for a Two Pair on an 8X when you could have 80 and play longer? Plus a Flush on Bonus Poker is worth 11X instead of 10X as it is on Double Double Bonus, and no matter what Royal Flush is still the top payout so why not have 44,000 instead of 40,000? And yes, Flush and Full House are worth 25 and 35 versus 30 and 45 but still worth much more if received on a multiplied hand or at least getting them improves the chance of a higher payout the next hand. And if you do the math, getting four Aces on a 12X multiplies 400 to 4,800, so you could actually have 20% more for four specific cards instead of five specific cards, but your chances of making that happen came about through a longer play time enabled by larger returns on smaller wins.

When I play any other multi hand game that doesn't reward as frequently, I often play Triple Double Bonus because I like being on the mindset of going after Aces and getting just as much for a Royal Flush for four of them with a low kicker. However, Two Pair in that setting is only worth 5 and because of this, I typically find myself on the mindset of wanting to throw out one of the pairs for a chance at a higher paying quad. Most often I do that when one of the pairs is a J, Q, or K since the return is the same and I always would keep only the pair of Aces when dealt, but there's also the temptation to keep only a low pair like 2, 3, and 4 knowing they can lead up to 2,000 credits (or 4,000 with Super Triple Play), but there's never a return for one pair of a low card so the risk is too great for me to try it.

And with Ultimate X I don't want to risk losing the multiplier, so not being able to get a return for keeping only the low pair isn't worth losing the 3X and you don't know what the next hand will bring. Besides that when you get at least one more of the same low card, you only take in 40 credits for a 10 credit Three of a Kind on a 4X when you could have had 60 for multiplying 15. If you think about it, there is definitely a "less is actually more" element to Ultimate X if you do the math, on top of considering the odds on how often you actually get a Four of a Kind.

Player422738
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Post by Player422738 »

jconifer7 wrote:
Tue Sep 01, 2020 7:21 pm
The appeal to Ultimate X is pretty obvious on first play, the rewards are more frequent than they are in other multi hand games and don't require more than a minimum winning hand to get a multiplier.

I think where the game will go wrong for many is that they are desperate to have as high of a reward as possible for a Four of a Kind, particularly with Aces and Lows (2,3,4) that they fail to consider the detriment to having a lower payout for a Two Pair. For this reason I find it better to play Ultimate X as Bonus Poker where there is just a little bit of greater reward for quads involving Aces and lows, but the Two Pair is worth 10 instead of 5 which makes the incentive of holding both pairs more attractive aside from getting the assured 3X and possible 12X when a Full House comes up on the draw.

Plus, with the multipliers a hand that is normally not worth much can suddenly be worth a lot, why get 40 for a Two Pair on an 8X when you could have 80 and play longer? Plus a Flush on Bonus Poker is worth 11X instead of 10X as it is on Double Double Bonus, and no matter what Royal Flush is still the top payout so why not have 44,000 instead of 40,000? And yes, Flush and Full House are worth 25 and 35 versus 30 and 45 but still worth much more if received on a multiplied hand or at least getting them improves the chance of a higher payout the next hand. And if you do the math, getting four Aces on a 12X multiplies 400 to 4,800, so you could actually have 20% more for four specific cards instead of five specific cards, but your chances of making that happen came about through a longer play time enabled by larger returns on smaller wins.

When I play any other multi hand game that doesn't reward as frequently, I often play Triple Double Bonus because I like being on the mindset of going after Aces and getting just as much for a Royal Flush for four of them with a low kicker. However, Two Pair in that setting is only worth 5 and because of this, I typically find myself on the mindset of wanting to throw out one of the pairs for a chance at a higher paying quad. Most often I do that when one of the pairs is a J, Q, or K since the return is the same and I always would keep only the pair of Aces when dealt, but there's also the temptation to keep only a low pair like 2, 3, and 4 knowing they can lead up to 2,000 credits (or 4,000 with Super Triple Play), but there's never a return for one pair of a low card so the risk is too great for me to try it.

And with Ultimate X I don't want to risk losing the multiplier, so not being able to get a return for keeping only the low pair isn't worth losing the 3X and you don't know what the next hand will bring. Besides that when you get at least one more of the same low card, you only take in 40 credits for a 10 credit Three of a Kind on a 4X when you could have had 60 for multiplying 15. If you think about it, there is definitely a "less is actually more" element to Ultimate X if you do the math, on top of considering the odds on how often you actually get a Four of a Kind.
Obviously your strategy is based on your hunch, that’s how people go broke playing this game.

jconifer7
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Post by jconifer7 »

hophoofer wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:40 am
Obviously your strategy is based on your hunch, that’s how people go broke playing this game.
I wasn't talking about hunches, I was talking about pay tables and how to work that to a player's advantage and my strategy for Ultimate X is based on the hands more likely to be dealt or received on a deal than it is about going after a big hand. What I was saying is with the frequent multipliers the lower hands which normally are not worth much can suddenly be worth a whole lot more and can pay out higher than they normally do. That's why I was saying that with Ultimate X playing a lower pay table with Bonus Poker instead of Double Double where Two Pair is worth 10 instead of 5 will prolong play and raise the chances of a higher return and coming out ahead or breaking even more often.

And when I'm NOT playing Ultimate X and playing another Video Poker game with Triple Double where Two Pair is the same return as Jacks or Better, then in that case I would keep only a pair of J, Q, K, or A when dealt Two Pair knowing that my return is the same had I kept just the Two Pair. If you have a pair of Aces, why go for Full House when you have a shot at 800? I'm not assuming that it will happen, but it won't if you don't try and you never know what will come up on the deal, either way you at least get something back. I would rather not smack myself on the head getting a Full House with three Aces and leave myself in wonder if that fourth Ace could have came up if I had allowed it to. And like I said, I only would do that with Aces, not with 2, 3, or 4 where the reward is half as much and no return for a single pair.

But of course, that's only when the frequent multipliers are not involved, and every time I do a multi hand game I keep the bet to a dime or quarter and avoid high stakes machines.

onemoretry
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Post by onemoretry »

jconifer7 wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:52 am
..and playing another Video Poker game with Triple Double where Two Pair is the same return as Jacks or Better, then in that case I would keep only a pair of J, Q, K, or A when dealt Two Pair knowing that my return is the same had I kept just the Two Pair.
Assuming you are, indeed, referring to triple double bonus, the strategy of keeping only the pair of aces when dealt two pair, including two aces, is appropriate. But, applying the same strategy to dealt hands of two pair, one pair of which is kings, queens or jacks, rather than drawing to the two pairs is a somewhat inferior play.

Jstark
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Post by Jstark »

I see a lot of civilians holding just the high pair such as KK776 in games like DDB or TDB. Not a smart move. Much less smart in UX.

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