• Ultimate X Five Play Video Poker
• Ultimate X Pay Video Poker
• Ultimate X Triple Play Video Poker
• Ultimate X 10 Hand Video Poker
• Ultimate X Bonus Streak Video Poker

by John Grochowski

Ultimate X Poker is a variant of video poker that can be found in both single hand and multi-hand variants. Playing Ultimate X with the multipliers active requires a 5-coin premium over the 5-coin standard bet that you would normally need to make to get the full payout of a Royal Flush.

Video poker offerings in modern casinos include not only the standard games such as Jacks or Better and Double Double Bonus Poker, they include options galore.

• Ultimate X Poker is a variation of many normal video poker games that gives players the chance to win multipliers on the following hand. It’s available in single play, three play, and 10 play versions. The difference between the three available versions is how many hands you play at one time.
• Play Video Poker at Las Vegas Advisor. Play Ultimate X Poker. With this game, a bonus multiplier is awarded to each active hand ending in a winning combination. The value of the multiplier is determined by the pay schedule and is applied to any wins received in that hand, to the next game. This makes Ultimate X Poker a theme where each successive hand is almost guaranteed to me more exiting than.
• Ultimate X Poker Join to Play Find in casinos A bonus multiplier is awarded to each active hand ending in a winning combination. The value of the multiplier is determined by the pay schedule and is applied to any wins received in that hand in the next game.
• Ultimate X video poker follows the usual pattern for video poker in general: You insert money into the video poker machine, which is converted into credits based on the denomination of the machine. For example, if you insert $100 into a quarter machine, you have 400 credits. Insert that same $100 into a $5 machine, and you only have 80 credits.

Ultimate X Five Play Video Poker

If you want a little spice with your game, you can try games such as Super Times Pay or Ultimate X that multiply your winnings. Hot Roll does the multiplying with a virtual dice roll. And Wheel Poker games add a bonus spin to certain winning hands.

There are many different variations of video poker games

Those bonuses are layered on top of standard games. You can choose to play Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild and other basic games, usually in Triple Play, Five Play or Ten Play formats. Then the bonuses are incorporated.

There’s a price, of course. Bonus payouts have to be funded, so there’s an extra bet per hand to activate the features.

Is the extra bet worth it?

In terms of house edge, yes. International Game Technology designs these features so the payback is at least as high as that on the base games, and usually higher.

Bonuses do bring an increase in volatility. When you’re winning on the multipliers, your credit meter can rise rapidly. But when the bonus wins aren’t coming, the extra bets are a drag on your bankroll.

You can win bigger and you can lose faster than on games with no such bells and whistles.

The key is to stay within your bankroll comfort zone. If your bankroll will handle 15 quarters at a time for Triple Play but won’t stretch to 30 quarters for Triple Play with Ultimate X, then you should think about cutting your denomination to dimes or nickels, or move to a non-bonus machine.

Let’s check out Super Times Pay, Ultimate X and Hot Roll as examples to see how it all works.

**SUPER TIMES PAY: The first of the video poker multiplier games has proven to be a durable favorite.

While most of the later games require an extra bet of five credits per hand, Super Times Pay takes only a one-credit bet. That brings your total to six credits per hand, so that Triple Play version takes an 18-credit bet, with 30 on Five Play and 60 on Ten Play.

In return for the extra bet, you get a randomly occurring multiplier. Either on the initial deal or on the draw, one of the card backs will start flashing through numbers before finally stopping on a multiplier. It will indicate any winnings on the hand will be multiplied by 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 or 10 times.

Super Times Pay video poker offers the chance for extra bonuses!

You’ll get a multiplier an average of once per 15 hands, though you can go dozens of hands without one or get one twice in a row or several times in a short period.

The average multiplier is 4.05. The average payback, including non-multiplier hands, is 20.33 percent higher than without the feature. Your bet is 20 percent higher than usual, so that 20.33 percent payback increase improves your overall return.

How much better is the return than on a non-multiplier game? At wizardofodds.com, Michael Shackelford has a chart indicating 9-6 Jacks or Better, usually a 99.5 percent return with expert play, improves to 99.8 with Super Times Pay, while 9-6 Double Double Bonus rises from 98.98 percent to 99.26 and 9-7-6 Double Bonus rises from 99.11 to 99.38.

All games and pay tables have slightly higher payback percentages with Super Times Pay than without.

**ULTIMATE X: Any winning hand brings a potential multiplier to the following hand provided you bet an extra five credits per line.

The return on the multiplier bet is slightly better than the return on the base game, so you improve your payback percentage by making the Ultimate X wager.

Winning hands earn bonus multipliers at max bet on Ultimate X video poker

More on that in a minute. First, let’s explain the game,

The bet is five extra credits instead of the one extra credit on Super Times Pay because multipliers are much more frequent. In 9-6 Jacks or Better, for example, expert play brings winners on a little more than 45 percent of hands. Those all leave multipliers for the following play, compared with the 6.67 percent of hands that bring multipliers in Super Times Pay.

Available in Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play, Ultimate X offers a wide range of base games – Jacks or Better, Double Poker, Deuces Wild and many more.

The multipliers vary by hand, game type and number of hand. Full houses leave different multipliers than high pairs, Jacks or Better has a different multiplier table than Double Double Bonus Poker, and Ten Play sometimes has a different table than Triple Play.

An Ultimate X pay table for 6/5 Jacks or better video poker

Let’s use 9-6 Double Double Bonus in Five Play as an example. Any royal flush, straight flush or four Aces, 2s, 3s or 4s leaves a 2x multiplier for the next hand, but four 5s through Kings leaves 3x. It’s 12x after a full house, 10x after a flush, 8x after a straight, 4x after three of a kind, 3x after two pairs and 2x after a pair of Jacks or Better.

Imagine you finish a play with no winner in the first-hand position, a high pair in the second, three of a kind in the third, no winner in the fourth and a full house in the fifth.

The next hand would begin with a big “2x” next to the second hand, “4x” next to the third, and “12x” next to the fifth. There would be no multipliers on the first and fourth hands.

In the next hand, any winners in the first and fourth positions would get their normal payoffs, but any winners in the other three positions would be multiplied. With a 12x multiplier in position 4, even a lowly pair of Jacks brings a nice 60-credit win instead of the usual five.

Of course, losing hands next to the multipliers are part of the game. You’ll be sure to groan when a winner comes on a no-multiplier hand while the 12x spot goes for naught.

Extra bonuses can add big wins when playing Ultimate X video poker!

Overall payback percentages increase by close to a percent with the Ultimate X game, as listed by Michael Shackelford at wizardofodds.com. The 9-6 version of Double Double Bonus Poker improves from the standard 98.98 percent with expert play to 99.73 on Ultimate X Triple play, 99.79 on Ultimate X Five Play and 99.87 on Ultimate X Ten Play.

On some games, top pay tables aren’t available because Ultimate X could push them too close to 100-percent payback or beyond for casino comfort. The best version of Jacks or Better spotted on Ultimate X is 8-6, usually a 98.88-percent game. With Ultimate X, it’s 99.30 percent on Triple Play, 99.40 percent and 99.42 percent on Ten Play.

Expert play on Ultimate X can involve some strategy changes meant to optimize chances of landing big multipliers on the next hand that has those bonus payoffs.

In Ultimate X 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker, for example, optimal play for a full house that includes three Aces is to hold the full house. In the standard game, the better percentage play is to hold the Aces and discard the other pair to maximize chances at four Aces with or without the low-card kicker. That’s a close call in the standard game, but it’s not at all close in Ultimate X. The 12x multiplier that follows the full house makes the decision easy.

Dealt two pairs that include Ace-Ace, the standard Double Double Bonus play is to hold just the Aces. In Ultimate X, hold both pairs. If you don’t improve the hands, the 3x multiplier after two pairs beats the 2x after a high pair, and by holding both pairs, a one-card draw could bring a full house and that 12x multiplier.

Beyond that, there are a lot of special cases. Four to a flush that includes three high cards is higher on the Ultimate X strategy table than a pair of Jacks, Queens or Kings. The chance at a 10x multiplier on flush bests the guaranteed 2x on the high pairs as long as your partial flush is augmented by chances at high pair pays and multipliers.

Full strategies for several Ultimate X games are linked from wizardofodds.com’s Ultimate X page.

**HOT ROLL VIDEO POKER: For an extra five credits per hand, you activate a randomly occurring roll of two dice. The extra bet means your max-bet wagers are 30 coins in Triple Play, 50 on Five Play or 100 on Ten Play instead of the 15, 25 or 50 without the feature.

On average, you’ll get a roll of the dice onscreen once per six hands. The total number of spots is your multiplier for the hand, so that if you roll two 6s any winnings are multiplied by 12.

You can get dice rolls on consecutive hands, and you can go a dozen or more hands without one, but the average is once per six hands.

Results of the roll are random, with odds the same as rolling two physical dice. The average multiplier is 7.

Your average for all hands, winners and losers, those with and without Hot Rolls, comes to double payoffs.

We can pick any winning hand to demonstrate, but let’s think big and use royal flushes. The standard payoff is 4,000 coins. Per six royals with no multipliers, your total win would be 24,000 coins.

With Hot Roll, the average result would be five with no multiplier, for a total of 20,000 coins, and one with a 7x multiplier for another 28,000 coins. That brings your total per six royals to 48,000 coins – exactly double the total it would be with no Hot Rolls. There is also no need to change your video poker strategy for this game.

Since your Hot Roll wagers are double the standard amount and your wins average twice the usual, the payback percentage is the same with or without the feature. A 9-6 Jacks or Better game returns 99.5 percent with expert play on standard games, and 99.5 percent on Hot Roll.

So it goes with other games and pay tables. Payback percentages are the same with or without Hot Roll. The differences are in bet size and volatility.

John Grochowski has been covering casinos and casino games for nearly 40 years. He is the author of six books and his work appears in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world.

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Most video poker games resemble each other closely. The big differences from
game to game are the pay tables and the presence of any multipliers. (Some games
have wild cards, too.)

In Ultimate X Poker, you can double your bet and activate a random
multiplier.

One other variation from one game to another is how many hands (or lines) you
get to play. Many video poker variations only come in single line or multi line
versions, but Ultimate X is available in both versions.

This page covers the basics of how to play video poker in general and
Ultimate X specifically. This is probably the only page you’ll need to read
before playing the game. We also go into detail about the pay tables and
strategies for the games.

The Basics of Playing Ultimate X Video Poker

Ultimate X video poker follows the usual pattern for video poker in general:

You insert money into the video poker machine, which is converted into
credits based on the denomination of the machine. For example, if you insert
$100 into a quarter machine, you have 400 credits. Insert that same $100 into a
$5 machine, and you only have 80 credits.

The terms “credits” and “coins” are used interchangeably.

You then decide how many coins to bet on your hand-you can choose 1 coin, 5
coins, or any number of coins in between.

But the correct strategy is always to make the 5-coin bet. Here’s why:

• The payoff for a royal flush is the jackpot. If you bet 1, 2, 3, or 4 coins,
  the payoff for that hand is either 200 for 1 or 250 for 1, depending on the
  game.
• But if you bet 5 coins, the payoff is 800 for 1.

That’s a huge difference. A royal flush only comes up once every 40,000 hands
or so, but the difference in payoff is enough that it will subtract 2% or so
from the overall payback percentage of the machine. (We’ll explain more about
payback percentages in the next section.)

After you choose how many coins to play, the machine “deals” you a 5-card
poker hand. You can choose to keep or discard any, all, or none of the cards in
your hand. You do this by pushing the “hold” button beneath each card, or you
can just touch the card on the screen.

The machine replaces the cards you’ve discarded, and you win an amount based
on the poker hand you’re left with. The machine has a posted pay table which
indicates how much each hand is worth.

You’ll notice that video poker isn’t like traditional poker because you don’t
have to beat another player’s hand. You just get paid based on how good your
hand is.

You’ll also notice that video poker isn’t like a slot machine, either. The
symbols on slot machines are arbitrary with arbitrary probabilities assigned to
each of them. A slot machine has a pay table, but without knowing the
probability of getting each symbol, you have no way to calculate the payback
percentage or house edge for the game.

With video poker games, including Ultimate X Poker, you know that the
probabilities are based on those of a 52-card deck. That’s not enough for the
average player to calculate the actual payback percentage for the game, but with
a computer, making that calculation is easy.

That’s a huge difference, by the way. In one game, you can know what the odds
you’re facing are. In the other, you can’t. We always go for a known over an
unknown.

The wrinkle that Ultimate X Poker adds to this gameplay is the option to
double your bet in exchange for a multiplier applied to your winnings.

Here’s how that works:

The maximum bet on a normal video poker game is 5 coins. If you bet 5 coins
on an Ultimate X game, the game proceeds as if it were a regular video poker
game. In fact, depending on the pay table, Ultimate X IS another video poker
game-it’s just a video poker game with an optional multiplier you can activate.

To activate this multiplier, all you must do is bet 10 coins on the hand
instead of 5.

This isn’t that innovative a feature, but Ultimate X has a unique way of
applying their multiplier. Most video poker games offering multipliers assign a
random multiplier. Ultimate X bases the multiplier on the ranking of your final
hand.

Here’s an example:

• A royal flush, straight flush, or 4 of a kind results in a 2X multiplier.
• A full house results in a 12X multiplier.
• A flush results in an 11X multiplier.
• A straight results in a 7X multiplier.
• A 3 of a kind results in a 4X multiplier.
• 2 pairs result in a 3X multiplier.
• A pair of jacks or better results in a 2X multiplier.

We should point out that the sizes of the multipliers vary based on which
machine you’re playing. These are just example numbers from a commonly used pay
table.

It’s also important to point out that these are NOT the payouts for the
hands. This is a multiplier applied to the payout you would have had.

A royal flush pays off at 800 for 1 normally. In the above example, that hand
would pay off at 800 X 2, or 1600.

One of the perks of playing Ultimate X Poker is knowing the size of the
multipliers. Many video poker games assign multipliers randomly. This converts
those games into a slot machine of sorts, because without knowing how often or
when the multipliers are applied, you can’t calculate the payback percentage for
the machine.

But since we know the probability of getting each hand, we also know the
probability of getting the multiplier, so we can calculate what that does to the
payback percentage for the game.

Like many video poker variations, the feature of Ultimate X Poker sits on top
of an existing game variation and pay table. The following games are available
in an “Ultimate X version”:

• Bonus Deuces
• Bonus Poker
• Bonus Poker Deluxe
• Deuces Wild
• Double Bonus
• Double Double Bonus
• Jacks or Better
• Joker Poker
• Triple Double Bonus

The Pay Tables and Payback Percentages for Ultimate X Video Poker

The pay tables for the variations of Ultimate X Poker aren’t significantly
different from standard variations of the game. For example, it’s easy to find
an Ultimate X video poker game of Jacks or Better with an 8/6 pay table.

Here’s what that pay table looks like:

Let’s just talk about the basic pay table first. It’s a Jacks or Better pay
table, and it’s called an 8/6 Jacks or Better game because it pays 8 for 1 for a
full house and 6 for 1 for a flush. Those are the 2 hands that video poker game
designers modify the payouts on to adjust the payback percentage for the game.

The payback percentage for this game in its unvarnished (non-Ultimate X
version) is 98.4%.

That’s not bad, but the full pay version (9/6 Jacks or Better) game offers a
99.54% payback percentage.

That payback percentage assumes that you’re making the correct decision on
every hand, too. If you’re a novice or have no card sense, you can safely
subtract between 2% and 4% from that theoretical return.

Let’s also talk briefly about what that number means. The payback percentage
is the amount of each bet that the casino expects the machine to pay back to the
player over time. It’s expressed as a percentage.

With a game offering a 98.4% payback percentage, the casino expects you to
get back $98.40 for every $100 you put through the machine.

And the formula for calculating how much money you put through the machine is
easy enough, too. You just multiply the number of bets by the bet size.

An average video poker player plays about 600 hands per hour. That sounds
like a lot, but it’s a fast-paced game.

If you’re playing a quarter machine and making a 5-coin bet on every hand,
you’re putting 600 X $1.25 = $750 per hour into action.

It’s also important to understand that this is a long-term expectation. In
the short run, your results will almost certainly vary in one direction or
another. A long-term expectation starts to become closer to reality the more
bets you make. Over one or a dozen bets, you could be way off from the
expectation. But over 6000 or 60,000 bets, your results will start resembling
the mathematical expectation.

The effect of the multiplier on the payback percentage varies based on what
the multipliers are set for. If we assume that the example multipliers above are
in use on an 8/6 Jacks or Better game, the overall payback percentage for the
Ultimate X version of the game becomes 99.42%.

That’s almost (but not quite) as good as a standard full pay game.

Another effect that the multiplier has on the game is adding to its
volatility.

What’s Volatility?

That’s how much deviation from the expectation you can look forward to in the
short term. A game with low volatility has fewer swings in either direction. A
game with high volatility has larger swings.

When you’re doubling the amount of your wager on each hand from 5 to 10
coins, you increase your chances of having larger losing swings. You also
increase your chances of having larger winning swings because of the multiplier.

What does this imply to the player?

You need a larger bankroll than you might normally use on a lower volatility
game.

Then again, if you’re playing any casino game where the house has an edge
over the player, you’ll eventually lose all your money-if you play long enough.
The effect of a larger bankroll is merely to keep you in action longer before
going broke.

Becoming a professional gambler is beyond the scope of this page, but we’ll
say this:

Professional gamblers refuse to place a bet unless they have an edge over the
other party-the casino, the bookmaker, the competition at the poker table, etc.

You can find rare versions of video poker which have a payback percentage of
over 100%, but not in an Ultimate X edition. If you’re playing Ultimate X Poker,
you’re playing a game where the house has an unassailable mathematic edge.

Find Ultimate X Video Poker Online or Off

Ultimate X Pay Video Poker

Real money online casinos don’t generally offer Ultimate X Poker games. It’s
an IGT product, so it’s under trademark. You might find games resembling this
one at various online casinos, but it’s an unusual enough feature that we can’t
even think of a similarly-named knockoff to recommend.

If you’re determined to play online, you can play the free version of the
game available at VideoPoker.com, but keep in mind that the pay tables there are
more generous than you’ll usually be able to find in a casino.

Unlike a lot of video poker variations, Ultimate X is reasonably easy to find
in major casino destinations. According to the game’s page on VideoPoker.com, 98
casinos in Nevada offer the game, and the state has over 502 machines. Ultimate
X Poker is also popular at California casinos, 27 of which offer the game.

Ultimate X Poker Strategy

The strategy for Ultimate X Poker varies slightly from the base game-because
of the multipliers. Keep in mind that some hands are more valuable when those
multipliers are in effect.

You can find strategy charts for all the variations of Ultimate X we’ve
listed above on the game-specific pages for those variants. They all work the
same way-start at the top of the chart, compare your hand with what’s listed,
and stop when you get to a hand you have. Then keep those cards, discarding the
rest.

Most of the time, this means hanging onto your pat hands. The philosophy is
to let the machine deal you a winner. On rare occasions, you’ll have the
opportunity to choose between a huge draw (like 4 cards to a royal flush)
instead of hanging onto a pat hand (like a high pair). In those cases, the
payoff for the huge draw needs to be immense to make it worthwhile to break up a
hand that’s guaranteed to pay off.

Finally, here’s one piece of meta-strategy specific to Ultimate X Poker:

The multipliers are added to your subsequent hands. This means that it’s
possible to walk away from the machine while multipliers are still left to be
applied.

In other words, you play a hand. Based on the final hand, you get a
multiplier which is applied to your next hand. If you run out of money before
playing that next hand, the multipliers are still on the machine.

And if you’re savvy and have the inclination, it’s worthwhile to find
Ultimate X machines where other players left before applying their multipliers.
If you only took advantage of those situations, you would have an edge over the
casino.

Ultimate X Triple Play Video Poker

You’d be playing so few hands per hour with that strategy, though, that it
would be impossible to earn any respectable hourly winnings that way.

Conclusion

Ultimate X Poker is a great game with a subtle bonus feature that improves
the payback percentage. We’re fans of games with a transparent edge, which is
why we enjoy video poker so much. Unfortunately, many VP games fail to make the
effect of their bonus features on the payback percentage transparent.

Ultimate X 10 Hand Video Poker

Ultimate X Poker is a refreshing change of pace in that respect. We’re also
fans of games where the bonus feature improves the payback percentage instead of
decrease the payback percentage.

Ultimate X Bonus Streak Video Poker

You’ll want to make subtle adjustments to your strategy, but your best bet
with Ultimate X Poker is to look for machines which have leftover multipliers on
them.