Some video poker machines and online casinos offer the option of doubling your winnings after you have won a hand. If you decide to do this, the machine will deal five additional cards with the first one face up and the last four face down. The player then picks one of the face down cards. If it is higher in value you double you winnings, if it is of lower value, you lose your winnings. In most cases a tie is a push, but in rare cases a tie loses. If you win the double, you are usually allowed to keep doubling.

If a tie is a push, there is no house advantage because your chances of winning are 50/50. If a tie counts as a loss (extremely rare), the house advantage is a very high 5.8% and you must certainly avoid this kind of bet.

Although there is no House Advantage in doubling your winnings, this does not affect the overall long-term payout of a machine. The reason is you cannot double unless you have already won.

But do you really understand the double-up option on Video Poker? A lot of players don't realize the casino has no edge in the double-up bet; the double or nothing feature in video poker is the only other casino bet besides the odds in craps with no house edge!. But, you can get ahead of the curve, so to speak and win a bunch of $$$ at a good session and it'll take quite some time for the casino to get back those winnings..

Whether or not you take it depends on your gambling priorities:

1. If you are playing a negative expectation machine (one with a house edge) then taking the double or nothing feature will increase the total money bet at no cost to the expected loss, thus lowering the overall house edge.
   If your objective is to cut down the overall house edge as much as possible then you should take it as much as allowed. However if minimizing variance is important to you then you should avoid it or perhaps only take it once on small payoffs.
   
   
2. If you are lucky enough to find a positive expectation machine then you should avoid the double or nothing feature which would lower your overall advantage

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