Ultimate Aces Poker

I just added a new page on Ultimate Aces Poker. As always, I welcome all comments and corrections.

The text says it is for 9-5 DDB but at the top of the chart it says 9-6 DDB.

this game was just added at Harrah's Rincon. I did not look at the pay table, but my guess is it will have a reduced pay table. What is your advice or strategy on this game? Or do you just hope for aces and play it normally? In that case, would you steer clear of a reduced pay table?

Quote: Hunterhill

The text says it is for 9-5 DDB but at the top of the chart it says 9-6 DDB.

Thanks. The game is for 9-5. I just fixed the table.

Quote: AlanMendelson

this game was just added at Harrah's Rincon. I did not look at the pay table, but my guess is it will have a reduced pay table. What is your advice or strategy on this game? Or do you just hope for aces and play it normally? In that case, would you steer clear of a reduced pay table?

The strategy is the same for the same game and pay table as conventional video poker. So, get the best pay table you can.

I would think the strategy would change for some games. For example in JOB if you have A,Q,J 2,7 you would hold Q,J but in this game wouldn`t you hold the ace?

No, because the multiplier is awarded for you being dealt the ace, and it is not revoked if you don't keep the ace. Maybe the Wiz needs to clarify that a bit more in the page, but I'm not sure.

One correction that I see...

The return for conventional 9-5 Double Double Bonus is 97.87%. So, making the feature bet adds 0.33% to the return.

Quote: Hunterhill

I would think the strategy would change for some games. For example in JOB if you have A,Q,J 2,7 you would hold Q,J but in this game wouldn`t you hold the ace?

The player does not have to hold the ace to keep the multiplier.

Mr. Wizard, Your new page says, "My source for this information is IGT. This contradicts the rule screens, which say the average multiplier is always 3.53." At videopoker.com, the help page has "The average multiplier is 3.54 X" without the word "always." When the game first appeared, it actually read "3.5446," which is totally consistent with your IGT information. As you indicate, nowhere do the game rules indicate that the average multiplier increases with the number of dealt aces, so the player often gets an unexpected treat when he gets the rarer multi-ace dealt hands.

In addition to the 9-5 Double Double Bonus table that you show, videopoker.com also has 8-6 JoB, 8-5 Bonus Deluxe, 7-5 Bonus Poker, 9-6-5 Double Bonus, 9-5 Triple Double Bonus, 20-12-10-4-4-3-2-1 Deuces, and 10-4-3-3-1-1 Deuces Bonus. All of these have different average multipliers. So, to make this page more complete, you would need some more multiplier tables if you can get that information.

Additionally, it appears that the possible multipliers are 2,3,4,5,6,7, and 10, with the exception that TDB does not allow a 10x multiplier. It would be helpful for any variance calculation if you could find out the distribution of these multipliers (or, at least, the number of stops in the random number generator that determines the multiplier) for the various games, which of course varies with the number of aces in the dealt hand.

Thanks for offering a great service.

Quote: drrock2

Mr. Wizard, Your new page says, "My source for this information is IGT. This contradicts the rule screens, which say the average multiplier is always 3.53."

Indeed that a contradiction. When I used a multiplier of 3.53 for 1 to 4 aces I got a return of 92.17%. This is significantly less than the 97.93% for conventional 9-5 Double Double Bonus. When I saw this figure I thought I might be in error so had JB do an independent analysis. When he agreed with my figure I felt confident enough to challenge IGT that their help screen was either misleading or incorrect.

The mathematician I'm in contact with at IGT, whose name I'll withhold, wrote back with the multipliers found on my site. So, I'm going on record as saying the help screens for the game are wrong.

Quote: Wizard

Indeed that a contradiction. When I used a multiplier of 3.53 for 1 to 4 aces I got a return of 92.17%. This is significantly less than the 97.93% for conventional 9-5 Double Double Bonus. When I saw this figure I thought I might be in error so had JB do an independent analysis.

I guess you overlooked my correction. :P The return of 9/5 of conventional Double Double Bonus is 97.87%, not 97.93%.

The "average multiplier" statement is definitely misleading. Also the "average multiplier" on videopoker.com for 9/5 DDB is listed as 3.54X, not 3.53X. This is the correct weighted average of all multipliers (3.544646), so the very vague multiplier statement on the videopoker.com game is not incorrect since they didn't use the word "always". They just blandly wrote: "The average multiplier is 3.54X." However, as you and JB realized, the game must be weighted toward giving higher multipliers for multiple aces dealt to make the game a higher return than standard video poker.

Quote: tringlomane

I guess you overlooked my correction. :P The return of 9/5 of conventional Double Double Bonus is 97.87%, not 97.93%.

Oops, thanks for the correction.

Quote:

The "average multiplier" statement is definitely misleading. Also the "average multiplier" on videopoker.com for 9/5 DDB is listed as 3.54X, not 3.53X. This is the correct weighted average of all multipliers (3.544646), so the very vague multiplier statement on the videopoker.com game is not incorrect since they didn't use the word "always". They just blandly wrote: "The average multiplier is 3.54X." However, as you and JB realized, the game must be weighted toward giving higher multipliers for multiple aces dealt to make the game a higher return than standard video poker.

All agreed. In my notes I recorded "3.53%" as the average multiplier for that game, while 3.544646012 is the weighted average. For other readers who don't understand the issue, 3.54 is indeed the average multiplier the player will see. However, the bigger multipliers are correlated to hands with more aces to start with.

I took a look at the Ultimate Aces machines recently installed at Rincon and the paytables are horrendous... like 6/5 bonus.

Quote: AlanMendelson

I took a look at the Ultimate Aces machines recently installed at Rincon and the paytables are horrendous... like 6/5 bonus.

This is the problem with most new video poker games. They are rarely set with competitive paytables. Hollywood St. Louis added "Hyper Bonus Poker" recently. They offered 9/5 DDB, which is probably ~98% after the bonus bet. I was surprised it was that generous.

The media sheet even flat out admits that 98.77% is the max possible return. That makes me sick.

http://media.igt.com/marketing/PromotionalLiterature/GamePromoLit_1FDCA-16513.pdf

Ultimate Aces poker is even worse!!! 98.47% max!!! For SHAME, IGT!!

http://media.igt.com/marketing/PromotionalLiterature/GamePromoLit_1FDC9-1E288.pdf

At Rincon I saw a gal hit quad aces on DDB. She was dealt a full house with three aces and got a 6X multiplier. Paytable was 8/5. On triple play she got a single quad aces.