Double Bonus Poker Strategy: Chasing the 10/7 Paytable

Last Updated on August 6, 2026 by Bala Kumar

If you’ve spent any real time at a video poker machine, you’ve probably heard someone mention “10/7” the way blackjack players talk about counting cards. A solid double bonus poker strategy built around the 10/7 paytable is one of the very few ways a recreational player can sit down at a legal casino game with a mathematical edge over the house, not a marketing edge, an actual, provable one. That’s not a typo and it’s not a scam pitch. It’s just math, and this guide walks through exactly how it works, what the current 2026 numbers look like, and where you can still find the real thing.

What Makes Double Bonus Poker Different

Double Bonus Poker is built on the same bones as Jacks or Better , a pair of jacks or better is your minimum paying hand, and the ranking of hands (pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, royal flush) doesn’t change. What changes is the payout structure. Double Bonus dramatically boosts the payout for four-of-a-kind hands, especially aces, in exchange for cutting the two-pair payout down to even money instead of the usual 2-to-1.

That trade-off matters more than it sounds. Four-of-a-kind hands are rare, so the game leans on that big spike in variance to fund its higher theoretical return. You’ll hit fewer “nice” wins overall, but the wins you do hit,  especially quad aces, pay considerably more than they would on a standard Jacks or Better machine.

The 10/7 Paytable, Explained

“10/7” is shorthand for how a full house and a flush pay per coin wagered — 10 coins for a full house, 7 coins for a flush. It’s the industry-standard way of naming Double Bonus variants, and it’s the single most important number to check before you sit down, because it tells you almost everything about whether the machine is worth playing.

Hand	Payout (per coin, 5-coin bet)
Royal Flush	800
Straight Flush	50
Four Aces	160
Four 2s, 3s, or 4s	80
Four 5s through Kings	50
Full House	10
Flush	7
Straight	5
Three of a Kind	3
Two Pair	1
Jacks or Better	1

With this exact paytable and mathematically perfect play, 10/7 Double Bonus Poker returns 100.17% to the player — meaning that over a large enough sample, the game theoretically pays back slightly more than it takes in. It’s one of only a handful of standard video poker paytables that clears 100%.

2026 RTP Comparison: How Paytables Stack Up

Not every Double Bonus machine you’ll find is a true 10/7. Casinos quietly shave the full house or flush payout to pull the return down, and the difference is bigger than most players expect. Here’s how the common variants compare, based on current 2026 paytable data from Las Vegas gaming analysts:

Paytable	Full House / Flush Pay	Return (perfect play, 5 coins)
10/7 Double Bonus (full pay)	10 / 7	100.17%
9/7 Double Bonus	9 / 7	99.11%
9/6 Double Bonus	9 / 6	97.81%
8/5 Double Bonus	8 / 5	96.38%
9/6 Jacks or Better (reference)	9 / 6	99.54%

That’s the whole game in one table. Drop from a 10 to a 9 on the full house payout and you lose over a full percentage point of return — enough to turn a positive-EV machine into a losing proposition, even with flawless video poker double bonus strategy. Always check the actual paytable posted on the machine before you insert a single credit; never assume “Double Bonus” automatically means 10/7.

Where to Actually Find 10/7 in 2026

This is the part most strategy guides skip, and it’s arguably the most useful section here — knowing the math means nothing if you can’t find the game. As of 2026, true 10/7 Double Bonus has almost disappeared from the Las Vegas Strip. It survives mainly in two pockets:

●       Station Casinos properties — Green Valley Ranch, Red Rock Resort, Santa Fe Station, Sunset Station, Palace Station, and Boulder Station carry 10/7 Double Bonus on select machines, typically in $0.25, $0.50, and $1 denominations.

●       Downtown Las Vegas — Four Queens offers 10/7 Double Bonus in quarter and dollar denominations, and it remains one of the more reliable downtown spots to find the full-pay version.

Outside Nevada, and especially online, true 10/7 is rare. Most online casinos run 9/6 or lower variants with returns in the 97–99% range — still playable, but not the positive-EV game the 10/7 label implies. If you’re building a double bonus video poker strategy around bankroll advantage rather than pure entertainment, verifying the actual posted paytable matters more than the venue’s reputation.

Basic Strategy: The Hold Hierarchy

Correct Double Bonus strategy diverges from Jacks or Better in a few specific spots, mostly because of how the payout structure shifts incentives around flushes, straights, and low pairs. Here’s the simplified hierarchy, ranked from best expected value to worst, always hold the highest hand on this list that matches your cards:

1. Royal flush

2. Straight flush

3. Four of a kind

4. 4-card royal flush draw

5. Full house

6. Flush

7. Three of a kind

8. Straight

9. 4-card flush draw

10. Two pair

11. High pair (jacks or better)

12. 3-card royal flush draw

13. 4-card straight draw (open-ended)

14. Low pair (2s through 10s)

15. 4-card straight draw (inside)

16. Two suited high cards

17. Discard everything (redraw five)

The most common beginner mistake: breaking up a made two pair to chase a four-of-a-kind bonus payout. Don’t do it. Even with the boosted quad payouts, holding both pairs remains correct, the loss in guaranteed return outweighs the small boost in four-of-a-kind probability.

A second common error is under-valuing three-card royal flush draws. Because Double Bonus pays so well on full houses and flushes, some players default to Jacks or Better instincts and hold a low pair instead of a live three-card royal draw. On a true 10/7 machine, the royal draw is usually the stronger play once you have at least two high cards toward it,  check a full strategy card for the exact break-even points before assuming.

Double Bonus vs. Its Closest Relatives

Players often ask how Double Bonus compares to its sister games. Here’s a quick side-by-side using full-pay versions of each:

Game	Best-known paytable	Return	Variance
Jacks or Better	9/6	99.54%	Low
Bonus Poker	8/5	99.17%	Medium
Double Bonus Poker	10/7	100.17%	Medium-High
Double Double Bonus	10/6	100.07%	High

Double Bonus sits in a good middle ground, meaningfully higher variance than Jacks or Better, but not as swingy as Double Double Bonus, which adds kicker-dependent bonus hands on top of an already top-heavy paytable.

Practical Insights Before You Sit Down

●       Denomination matters as much as paytable. A 10/7 machine at $0.25 has much smaller expected hourly swings than the same paytable at $1 — decide your bankroll comfort before choosing a denomination, not after.

●       Always bet max coins. The 800-to-1 royal flush jackpot only pays at five coins bet; betting fewer coins per hand quietly kills your long-term return regardless of paytable.

●       Slot club points are often disabled. Many 10/7 machines pay reduced or no comp points precisely because the paytable already favors the player, so don’t expect to double-dip on rewards and edge.

●       Strategy deviations are real. The hold order above is simplified. A full strategy chart accounts for exact card combinations (suited vs. unsuited, gap counts on straight draws) that shift the correct play in close spots.

Practice Before You Play for Real

PokerClubGames offers a free double bonus poker trainer where you can drill the full 10/7 hold strategy hand by hand,  no download, no deposit, no risk. It’s built specifically around double bonus poker free practice so you can get the tricky spots (two pair vs. three-card royal, flush draws vs. low pairs) into muscle memory before you sit down at a real machine.

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