Double Hook Poker

A couple days ago, I was on YouTube and randomly came across a video showing a new poker game by Light & Wonder called Double Hook Poker.

I immediately thought it looked similar to Dakota Duel Draw. I couldn't find anywhere online to play it nor could I find the rules to I used screenshots of the video to develop my own version online with all the side bets.

You can play it on my website here, please let me know what you think.

I am not 100% sure I got all the rules right (for example, maybe you can only bet x4 in certain situations, I don't know) so I would refrain from analyzing the house edge or finding the optimal strategy until we are certain about the rules.

The creatively-named "Pairs Plus" wager is identical to the usual Three Card Poker "Pair Plus" wager.

I've calculated that the King's Crest side bet applies to the four community cards and has a ~14.1346% house edge.

Let me ask how this Double Hook Poker game is paying out according to your assumptions on your site.

It appears:
Ante bet and Play wager: Pay out 1:1 on Pair of Jacks or better; Push on 66x to TTx pair and lose to < 66x pair.
Bonus Bet pays out according to the Bonus Payout Table

Do the ante, play and blind wagers pay out on the best hand of the two you make?

If both hands make two pair or higher, does the blind bet payout twice on both hands? Or only on the best hand?

Ante, Play, and Blind ONLY pay according to the best hand under my rules

Here's a few rough strategy notes based on my wild-assed guess (because we need something as we try the game).

If your three card hand is Trips or a Pair of 6s or higher, PLAY X4.
If you have a Royal Draw of TJQ or JQK, then bet PLAY X4

If you have a Pair of 2s to 5s, bet Play (?)
If you have a flush draw or an outside straight draw (3 consecutive ranks) bet PLAY

If you have three singletons, with no Flush or Straight chances,
- your decision depends upon how many of your cards are LOW (2-5), Medium (6- 10) and High (J-A).
- I am using the Mississippi Stud technique. Count Low cards as 0, Medium cards as 1 and High cards as 2. The sum of the three cards in your hand must be 3 or higher to bet PLAY. If your hand sums to 2 or less, then fold.

There are lots of possible straight flush draws and inside straight draws and I have no guess as to what the rules are for those

You appear to have a glitch in your programming. When the result of the hand is a pair of 6s to 10s, the blind bet should be pushing but it appears to be paying out 1:1.

Also, on the bottom line where you indicate the payouts of the Ante, Play and Blind bets, the stated Play payout is wrong when the wager is PLAY x4. However, the actual amount of chips paid out on a PLAY x4 bet does seem to be correct, so it is only your announced level of payout on the bottom line that is in error.

Thanks, just fixed the glitches.

Nice basic strategy :) I will eventually find the perfect strategy, once the full rules come out

Looks like you have a little research to do next week at G2E. 👍

That it looks like Dakota Duel Draw might not be a coincidence. I mean, if you’ve read the recent threads about <the lack of> game protection, you know what I mean. 😵‍💫

I have a tremendous amount of research to do at G2E :)

Recently I talked with the inventor of DDD about it. He proposed his game to Light & Wonder a couple years ago and they passed but they later came up with this.

I won't discount the idea that it could have been invented independently because it is conceptually similar to Criss Cross Poker too.

Hello everyone!

So I spoke with the inventor (Matt Booth) at G2E, he is very nice 😊

First of all, the rules that I hypothesized about were basically correct, though my website didn’t let you bet x2 or x3.

I also would like to clarify that this game was independently created, and not related to Dakota Duel Draw, despite coincidental similarities.

Next, I was told the optimal strategy. If I remember correctly, you should never fold, and bet x4 if you have a pair or better, three face cards, or two face cards with an ace.

There are different options for pay tables on the main game so perhaps the basic strategy is different for those.
I don’t know, I didn’t get to see any alternate pay tables yet but I imagine they will be publicly available online at some point in the future once this game starts being played around the USA.

Finally, I sadly have to take down Double Hook Poker from my website for legal reasons 😳 I am hoping I can work with L&W to bring this game and others back in the future.

That’s it! This game is pretty good in my opinion so I hope we can play it in the casino in 2026.

Quote: harris

Hello everyone!

So I spoke with the inventor (Matt Booth) at G2E, he is very nice 😊

First of all, the rules that I hypothesized about were basically correct, though my website didn’t let you bet x2 or x3.

I also would like to clarify that this game was independently created, and not related to Dakota Duel Draw, despite coincidental similarities.

Next, I was told the optimal strategy. If I remember correctly, you should fold unless you have a pair or better, three face cards, or two face cards with an ace.

There are different options for pay tables on the main game so perhaps the basic strategy is different for those.
I don’t know, I didn’t get to see any alternate pay tables yet but I imagine they will be publicly available online at some point in the future once this game starts being played around the USA.

Finally, I sadly have to take down Double Hook Poker from my website for legal reasons 😳 I am hoping I can work with L&W to bring this game and others back in the future.

That’s it! This game is pretty good in my opinion so I hope we can play it in the casino in 2026.
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Given that basic strategy, the problem with Double Hook Poker will be the high frequency of folding. No fun to fold over half the time.

I suspect you were not told the complete basic strategy. Surely one would not fold a QsJsTs. Indeed with the basic strategy as you state it, player will very rarely get a flush.

I wonder if your basic strategy is for Raising 4x?

Sorry you’re right I meant it was the raising 4x strategy. I fixed the comment to reflect that

I found the full pay table of the King's Chest side bet and calculated the odds

Basically you are paid on how many kings appear in the four community cards

In one of the pay tables, 1 king pays 1:1, 2 kings, 10:1, 3 kings 100:1, and 4 kings 1000:1. As a result, I will call this paytable {1,10,100,1000} and name the other pay tables similarly.

{2,5,15,250} 7.1076%
{2,4,20,100} 9.3083%
{2,3,50,250} 9.6253%
{1,10,100,1000} 13.8576%
{1,10,100,500} 14.0423%
{1,10,50,250} 17.6807%
{1,10,40,250} 18.3899%

There are also some PairPlus tables that I don't feel like analyzing right now.

Okay time for the PairPlus tables

The first pays 1:1 for a Pair, 3:1 for a Flush, 6:1 for a Straight, 30:1 for Trips, 40:1 for a Straight Flush, 40:1 for a Royal Flush so I will call this pay table {1,3,6,30,40,40}

{1,2,4,50,60,300} 5.3574%
{1,4,6,30,40,40} 5.5747%
{1,3,6,30,40,40} 7.2760%
{1,2,3,40,50,300} 12.9593%
{1,2,3,30,40,250} 18.2081%