Multistrike Poker Online
- Strategies
- Jacks or Better
- Deuces Wild
- Quick Quads
- Ultimate X
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This appendix shows the basic strategy for the Full Pay Deuces Wild version of Multistrike Poker. A Full Pay Deuces Wild game is characterized by paying 5 for a four of a kind. With optimal strategy the Multistrike version of Full Pay Deuces Wild has a return of 100.88%. This strategy was created using Frugal Video Poker, by Jean Scott and Jim Wolf. The return of this strategy should be very close to optimal, probably within about 0.02%.
The level 4 hand, and any hand after a free ride card, should be played the same as conventional Full Pay Deuces Wild. There are many sources for this strategy including my own simple strategy and optimal strategy.
This appendix shall show the level 1 to 3 strategies when the player did not get a free ride card. The level 1 strategy is for the first hand, level 2 for the second hand, and so on. The pay tables reflect the approximate expected value of each hand, including the value of all higher levels.
Level 1
- Designed by IGT, Multi Strike Poker video poker features four levels of hands and multipliers. Each time that you win, you move up a level and see your payout multiplied. The goal is to reach the fourth level.
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Level 2
Level 3
Go back to Multistrike Poker.
Designed by IGT, Multi Strike Poker video poker features four levels of hands and multipliers. Each time that you win, you move up a level and see your payout multiplied.
The goal is to reach the fourth level, where any win will be multiplied 8 times the standard pay table. This means that a max bet royal flush will pay 32,000 credits, rather than the standard 4,000 coins.
Another twist to this game is that you can get a Free Ride card and advance to the next level, regardless of if you win or lose.
The Free Ride card and multipliers create big payout opportunities as you move up the ladder. But is there a price to pay for these perks in the form of larger bets?
Find out as we discuss how to play this game, its pay table, strategy, and a variation called Multi Strike Poker Deluxe.
How to Play Multi Strike Poker Video Poker
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see Select Hands and Bet Per Hand options.
Select Hands determines how many levels are active when you’re playing. You can select up to 4 hands, with each hand / level lighting up when you activate it.
From a strategy perspective, it’s best that you play all 4 levels because this makes you eligible for Multi Strike Poker’s maximum payback.
Bet Per Hand lets you put between 1 and 5 coins on each hand. Like with other video poker games, you must wager 5 coins per hand to play for max payback.
If you play all 4 levels and put 5 coins on each hand, this leaves you risking 20 credits per turn.
With a $0.25 coin denomination, that’s a $5.00 bet per turn. If you can find a nickel game, this lowers your total bet to $1.00, which is more reasonable to low rollers.
Playing Hands
Once you click Deal, you’ll be dealt 5 cards on the bottom row. The other activated hands remain face down because they aren’t in play until you start winning.
When you win, credits are added to your bankroll and you move to the next level. This process continues if you win on the second and third levels, at which point you’ll reach the fourth level.
If you lose on the second or third level, you keep whatever you win from the previous hands, and the game resets to the bottom level / hand.
You’ll also notice multipliers to the left of each hand that indicate how much your wins will be multiplied by. The first level has a 1x multiplier, second level has a 2x multiplier, third level has a 4x multiplier, and the fourth level has an 8x multiplier.
A Free Ride card can randomly appear in any hand. The Free Ride card will eventually be replaced by a normal card so that you have a 5 card hand to play.
A Free Ride card advances you to the next level regardless of whether your hand wins or loses. This gives you a chance to win another hand and get a bigger multiplier.
The only catch is that your odds of getting a Free Ride card decrease as you move up the ladder. In Deuces Wild, the Free Ride card has an 8.25% chance of appearing in level 1, and a 7.8% chance in levels 2 and 3.
Even in level 12, you can only expect to get a Free Ride card in roughly 1 out of every 12 hands.
Multi Strike Poker Variations
Multi Strike Poker can be played through one of 14 video poker variants. You choose a game at the beginning, and you can switch at any time by clicking Select Game.
Here’s a brief overview of each available game:
- Bonus Poker
- Starting payout is a pair of jacks, and you earn bonus payouts for 4 of a kind hands.
- Bonus Poker Deluxe
- Offers larger 4 of a kind payouts than Bonus Poker, but a two pair only pays 1 credit as opposed to the standard 2 credits.
- Deuces Wild
- 2s are wild, which makes for the possibility of a 5 of a kind. The wild deuces are offset by the lowest qualifying paying being a 3 of a kind.
- Deuces Wild Bonus
- Offers a bonus payout for four deuces plus an ace.
- Double Bonus Deuces Wild
- Varying bonus payouts made for 5 of a kind hands.
- Double Bonus
- Offers bonus payouts for 4 of a kind hands, with the highest being four aces.
- Double Double Bonus
- The highest bonus payout is made for four aces with a 2, 3, or 4 kicker.
- Jacks or Better
- The gold standard for video poker, Jacks or Better starts payouts at a pair of jacks or higher.
- Joker Poker
- Includes a wild joker card, which makes for a 53 card deck. The lowest payout is for a pair of kings.
- Super Aces Bonus
- Offers a large bonus payout for four aces.
- Super Double Bonus
- Pays more for Double Bonus on hands of four Ks through Js; four 2s through 4s; and four 5s through 10s.
- Super Double Double Bonus
- Offers double the payouts that Super Double Bonus does for 4 of a kind hands.
- Triple Double Bonus
- Offers bonus payouts for 4 of a kinds, and the lowest qualifying hand is a 3 of a kind.
- White Hot Aces
- Offers bonus payouts for four aces and other 4 of a kind hands.
If you’ve played any of the video poker games discussed above, you won’t have to adjust for Multi Strike Poker because it uses the same pay tables.
You can see the pay table for any game that you’re playing Multi Strike Poker through by clicking the See Pays button. Below you can see the Multi Strike Poker Jacks or Better pay table:
This is a 9 / 6 Jacks or Better pay table, otherwise known as full pay Jacks or Better because it’s the top paying version.
Full pay Jacks or Better is signified by paying 9 coins for a full house and 6 coins for a flush.
In a normal 9 / 6 Jacks or Better game, the top payback that you can achieve is 99.54%. But thanks to the multipliers in Multi Strike, you can achieve up to 99.79% payback.
Here’s a quick look at how Multi Strike Poker raises the optimal payback for other video poker variants too:
- 8 / 5 Bonus Poker – Regular payback is 99.17%; Multi Strike payback is 99.38%
- 9 / 6 Bonus Poker Deluxe – Regular payback is 99.64%; Multi Strike payback is 99.86%
- 9 / 7 Double Bonus Poker – Regular payback is 99.11%; Multi Strike payback is 99.29%
- 7 / 5 Super Aces Bonus Poker – Regular payback is 98.85%; Multi Strike payback is 98.99%
- 9 / 5 White Hot Aces – Regular payback is 99.57%; Multi Strike payback is 99.77%
The fact that your payouts are multiplied as you move up levels has an effect on this game’s strategy.
In levels 1 and 4, you don’t change anything from what you’d normally do. But levels 2 and 3 require adjustments because, rather than breaking up made hands to chase bigger payouts, there’s more incentive to keep made hands and get a multiplier.
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Below you can see different strategy charts for levels 1 & 4, level 2, and level 3. When reading these, start at the top of the charts and scan down to look the best hand that you can find.
| Strategy Chart | ||
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 and 4 | Level 2 | Level 3 |
| Royal flush, straight flush, 4 of a kind | Royal flush, straight flush, 4 of a kind | Royal flush, straight flush, 4 of a kind |
| 4 cards to a royal flush | 4 cards to a royal flush | Full house, flush, 3 of a kind |
| Full house, flush, straight, 3 of a kind | Full house | Straight |
| 4 cards to a straight flush | Flush | 2 pair |
| 2 pair | 3 of a kind | High pair |
| High pair jacks or better | Straight | 4 cards to an open straight flush 5 4 3 2 to Q J 10 9 |
| 3 cards to a royal flush | Two pair | 4 cards to an inside stra0ight flush |
| 4 cards to a flush | High pair A A to J J | Suited A K Q, A K J, or A Q J |
| Low pair 10s or lower | 4 cards to an open straight flush 5 4 3 2 to Q J 10 9 | K Q J, Q J T |
| 4 cards to an outside straight | 4 cards to an inside straight flush | K Q T, K J 10 |
| 2 unsuited high cards | Suited A K Q, A K J, or A Q J | 4 cards to a flush |
| Suited K 10, Q 10, or J 10 | Suited K Q J, Q J 10 | A K 10, A Q 10, or A J 10 |
| One high card | Suited K Q 10, K J 10 | K Q J T |
| 4 cards to a flush | Suited A K 10, A Q 10, A J 10 | |
| Suited Q J | Suited A K, A Q, or A J | |
| K Q J 10 | Suited K Q, K J | |
| Suited Q J | K Q J | |
| Suited A K, A Q, or A J | Q J | |
| Suited K Q, K J | Suited Q J 9 | |
| K Q J | K Q, K J | |
| Q J | A K, A Q, or A J | |
| Suited Q J 9 | Low pair | |
| K Q, K J | A K Q J | |
| A K, A Q, or A J | Q J 10 9 | |
| Low pair | Suited Q J 8 | Name |
| A K Q J | Suited K Q 9, K J 9 | |
| Q J 10 9 | King, queen, jack, or ace | |
| Suited K Q 9, K J 9 | Suited J T 9 | |
| King, queen, jack, ace | 4 cards to a straight | |
| J 10 9 8 | 3 high cards | |
| Suited J 10 9 | Suited Q T 9, J T 8, J 9 8 | |
| 4 cards to an open straight, 4 cards to an inside straight | ||
| High cards | ||
| Suited Q 10 9, J 10 8, or J 9 8 | ||
| 3 cards to a straight flush | ||
| High card | ||
Multi Strike Poker Ultra Deluxe
Multi Strike Poker Ultra Deluxe has the same rules and setup as the original version.
The only difference is that a fifth level with a 16x multiplier is added to the max. This means that you have an extra chance to boost your payouts to an even higher degree.
You also need to bet up to 5 credits on five different hands, instead of four. This means that you must risk 25 credits if you want to play five hands, which is expensive with a $0.25 coin denomination in place.
If this proves a problem for your bankroll, look for a nickel denomination version, which cuts the max bet significantly.
5 Play Multi Strike Poker
As long as you can afford Multi Strike Poker Ultra Deluxe, then it’s a fun game to play. This is especially the case if you enjoy the strategy aspect of video poker.
Multi Strike Poker is a unique video poker game that combines multipliers with laddering up to bigger payouts. The increasing levels make Multi Strike Poker feel like a video game.
Beyond the interesting twists that Multi Strike puts on video poker, it also gives you a better chance to win.
As we showed with variants like Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and White Hot Aces, Multi Strike Poker gets you closer to 100% payback than if you simply play the regular versions of these games.
The only catch is that Multi Strike Poker requires more in depth strategy than standard video poker.
You must alter your strategy as you move into levels 2 and 3. Moving up levels and having a chance at larger multipliers increases the value of made hands, even if you only have top pair.
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Some players may not want to master separate strategy charts for levels 1 & 4, level 2, and level 3. But if you don’t mind putting in the extra effort, Multi Strike Poker video poker is a rewarding game due to its higher potential payback.