Bally's DDB Match Card

Hi, last night for the first time, I was playing a Bally's DDB Match Card 50 cent machine at Resorts, NYC. The front of the machine had a large Ace of spades circled by "bonus, bonus, bonus" pictured on it. If the random match card matches your fifth card you win a bonus, I won anything from 5 to 205 coins in bonuses, with no clue as to the rhyme or reasoning behind it.

While playing 20 credit hands I hit a royal flush for $10,000. My royal was in clubs, my fifth card being the ace of clubs and my match card was the ace of spades. Does anyone know what the bonus would have been if my royal was in spades and my fifth card matched the match card ace of spades? It seems this machine was centered around a large bonus on the ace of spades and I'm just curious to know what it might have been in this instance. Or any other insight into how the match card pays off would be great too.

Thank you for your help,
FL, NJ

The match card helps to cover up your mistakes. "Vegas Style" video poker is illegal New York State-run racinos. Your wins are predetermined and the game behaves similar to a slot machine using poker cards instead of slot symbols. If you start holding complete garbage (which would automatically lose in places like Vegas, Atlantic City, riverboat states), your match card bonuses will skyrocket to compensate for the very bad decision making. Congratulations on hitting such a large prize, my advice would be to take it and run. These machines typically pay similar to slot machines even though I bet the paytable says it is 9/6 Double Double Bonus. Shame on New York.

And welcome to the forum! Sorry I had to make such a negative toned post. I don't believe this type of game should exist in casinos because many players falsely assume it is video poker determined from a standard, random deck of cards.

Tringlomane is correct about how the Bally match card works. in the early 2000's I developed the first match card game they offered in New York on the Alpha platform.

Quote: DRich

Tringlomane is correct about how the Bally match card works. in the early 2000's I developed the first match card game they offered in New York on the Alpha platform.

In the game you developed, do you know/remember if the match card solely makes up for "errors" though? Or does it still randomly give you wins even when you make holds that would be "correct" in normal video poker?

When playing these types of games for small amounts blow-off money in an Alabama racino, I often played incorrectly for the hell of it. I can't remember how often the "match bonus" or my personal favorite, "the genie", came up when you played like strategy would tell you to. It wasn't often, but I don't recall if it was "never".

On the first ones all wins mapped directly to a paytable win so you would only get it when "holding the wrong cards". I haven't been involved it it since then but I wouldn't be surprised if they now map pays to both hands and match cards. ie. A win of 30 credits could be a flush, it could be a high pair with a 25 coin match card, or trips with a 15 coin match card. If I was doing it today I would include the match card occasionally because it would give the player the feeling of a "bonus" win.

Thank you for your responses and thank you tringlomane for your welcome and congrats. I usually play at Atlantic City on IGT machines and this was my first time playing at a 'racino'. The machine did feel a bit off, so thank you for the explanation, I think I will take my money and run! It also did have a 9/6 paytable and a 5000 coin payout for a royal flush with a five coin bet.

I remember playing "VP" at Farmington downs and winning $60 with the match card bonus. I was only there for a while but was hammering the maching because the pay table was something like 7-10 and thought that the casino had made a mistake. Then I read about class III and realized it was just dumb luck.

Quote: froggylizzard

Thank you for your responses and thank you tringlomane for your welcome and congrats. I usually play at Atlantic City on IGT machines and this was my first time playing at a 'racino'. The machine did feel a bit off, so thank you for the explanation, I think I will take my money and run! It also did have a 9/6 paytable and a 5000 coin payout for a royal flush with a five coin bet.

5000 coin payout for a royal with 9/6 DDB makes the game 99.52% with perfect play if you can find it in a place like Vegas or AC, but it's probably closer to 92% or so at Resorts World and the strategy is meaningless. The idea behind allowing such a game is beyond me. Their multiplayer electronic table games are standard like you would expect anywhere else, just not video poker. Glad to hear that you were able to take them for a bundle though; they make enough money from the slot players at that place anyway. :D

I just saw this game at the 7 Cedars casino in Washington on July 28, 2021.

It was based on a 1000-9-6 pay table. The jackpot for a royal with the Match Card, for a 20*$0.25 = $5 bet was $7838.73

Assuming 1 in 20 royals get the jackpot and the game were dealt fairly, the return would be 99.63%.