Deuces Wild Online Video Poker

In the majority of home poker games played anywhere in the world, wild cards are used to help spice up the action. In many cases, the joker is assigned as the wild card, but the deck’s four deuces are used just as often. In Deuces Wild online, the two card is given the wild card position.

The lowest card in the deck, the deuce (or a 2), is usually nothing to write home about, but by turning it into a wild card, basic video poker becomes a much more entertaining affair. Wild cards are capable of acting as any other card in the deck, improving your hand no matter what you happen to hold.

Best Deuces Wild Online Casinos

Deuces Wild online is based on the basic Jacks or Better video poker game. If you’re new to the world of video poker, visit our Jacks or Better page for a comprehensive review of video poker history, standard rules and game-play, poker hand rankings, and other essential information.

The inclusion of four wild cards in Deuces Wild clearly changes the dynamics of Jacks or Better, but aside from the role of 2s, everything else plays out in the same fashion.

Below you’ll find a useful rundown of essential information on Deuces Wild online video poker, including an introduction to the rules and game-play, a section explaining pay tables and how to decipher their meaning, and even an optimal strategy chart used by experienced players who know how to play the game properly.

Deuces Wild Rules and How to Play

Deuces Wild online throws a curve-ball at players by virtue of the four wild cards which can now be used to improve your overall hand strength. Hitting your straight and flush draws has been made slightly easier, as now any deuce in the deck can act as the card you need to complete your hand. Even more interesting, wild cards allow for the creation of entirely new hands, turning four of a kind into a powerful five of a kind with the inclusion of a deuce.

However, because wild cards make it easier to make strong hands, the traditional hand ranking hierarchy used to govern poker has been slightly expanded to make room. Take a look below to see exactly how the hands stack up during a Deuces Wild casino game online:

As you can see, a few important changes have been made between the basic Jacks or Better hand rankings and those used in a Deuces Wild casino game.

Leaving aside the role of wild cards, Deuces Wild online plays out in the same style and fashion as Jacks or Better video poker. After selecting your coin denomination and wager amount, you’ll be dealt a five card hand. Depending on the relative strength of these cards, you can decide to hold one, none, or some of them and discard the rest. Replacement cards are then doled out during a single drawing round, and your final five-card hand is assessed according to the hand ranking chart above. If you form a qualifying hand, you’ll receive a payout according to the escalating pay tables described in the following section.

Pay Table in Deuces Wild

The most player friendly pay table found on Deuces Wild online, also known as the “full pay” structure, has been compiled below. This pay table is often termed the 15 / 9 / 5 / 3, in reference to the respective payouts for five of kind, a straight flush, four of a kind, and a full house.

Check out the full pay offerings for Deuces Wild online:

Full Pay 15 / 9 / 5 / 3
	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Natural Royal Flush	300	600	900	1200	4000
Four Deuces	200	400	600	800	1000
Wild Royal Flush	25	50	75	100	125
Five of Kind	15	30	45	60	75
Straight Flush	9	18	27	36	45
Four of a Kind	5	10	15	20	25
Full House	3	6	9	12	15
Flush	2	4	6	8	10
Straight	2	4	6	8	10
Three of a Kind	1	2	3	4	5
Return %	99.67%	99.67%	99.67%	99.67%	100.76%

As is the case with nearly all online video poker games, Deuces Wild online pays out on an incremental basis when players are betting anywhere between one and four coins. Double the coin amount from one to two, and all payouts will double in kind.

When wagering between one and four coins – and playing according to proper strategy, which will be explored in the subsequent section – players hold an expected return of 99.67 percent. In other words, the house edge against you under this scenario sits at a paltry 0.33 percent, making Deuces Wild online an extremely favorable proposition when compared to other casino games.

However, as you can see, the payout for a natural royal flush spikes to 4,000 credits when a maximum bet of five coins has been put in play. The increased payout relative to the odds against making a natural royal flush actually raises the player’s expected return to 100.76 percent. In effect, this gives players a negative house edge, meaning they actually hold a slight advantage over the casino when the long run is considered. With odds similar to card counting in blackjack, playing properly and betting the maximum on a full pay Deuces Wild online offers the casino no inherent house edge over the player.

Unfortunately, casino operators have grown wise to this scenario, and the solution has been to move away from the full pay model whenever possible. This means players searching out Deuces Wild casino games in their favorite sites are likely to encounter several slightly different pay tables to choose from.

Each of these alternative pay tables is structured similarly to the full pay setup, but slight adjustments to one or two payouts can dramatically alter the expected return. A grid containing five of the most common alternative pay tables for Deuces Wild online has been compiled below, so be sure to pay close attention to the different payouts and their overall effect on your expected return rate.

The # / # heading at the top of each column represents the payouts which have been altered from the 15 / 9 / 5 / 3 full pay standard.

Pay Table
	15 / 11 / 4 / 4	16 / 9 / 4 / 4	20 / 12	15 / 9 / 4 / 4	20 / 15 / 9 / 4 / 4
Natural Royal Flush	800	800	800	800	800
Four Deuces	200	200	200	200	200
Wild Royal Flush	25	25	20	25	20
Five of Kind	15	16	12	15	15
Straight Flush	11	9	9	9	9
Four of a Kind	4	4	5	4	4
Full House	4	4	3	4	4
Flush	3	3	2	3	3
Straight	2	2	2	2	2
Three of a Kind	1	1	1	1	1
Return %	99.96%	99.67%	98.94%	98.92%	97.97%

As you can see, playing Deuces Wild poker on either the 15 / 11 / 4 / 4 or 16 / 9 / 4 / 4 pay tables actually offers an extremely favorable expected return. For every $100 you wager on the 15 / 11 / 4 / 4 pay table, for example, you can expect to bring back $99.96, essentially making the game a fair bet with only the most minuscule of house edges to overcome. When betting on the 16 / 9 / 4 / 4 pay table, the expected return is actually the exact same as betting less than the maximum on a full pay Deuces Wild casino game.

After that, the other alternative pay tables for Deuces Wild online drop off significantly in terms of player friendliness, and these games should be avoided whenever possible.

Deuces Wild Strategy

The most important strategic considerations to keep in mind before playing Deuces Wild online have already been described. By limiting your action to full pay machines whenever possible, along with the 15 / 11 / 4 / 4 or 16 / 9 / 4 / 4 pay tables, you’ll keep yourself on the right side of an extremely favorable house edge. In fact, by max betting on a full pay machine and playing your cards as close to perfectly as possible, you can even flip the house edge on its head – one of the rare instances in which this is even possible in the casino setting.

When it comes to holding and discarding decisions, however, the inclusion of four deuces as wild cards can create several difficult spots. Wild cards will often leave you with more than one hand to consider, and in many cases, you’ll have to decide between keeping a pat hand or chasing an even stronger draw. The fact that wild cards are always present, which can help make hitting those draws much easier, gives players plenty to think about on most hands.

The following guidelines for holding and discarding decisions were developed by Michael Shackleford of Wizard of Odds fame, offering players a concise list of hands ordered by relative strength. Because your decisions will always depend on the presence of one or more deuces in your hand, the guidelines have been arranged by deuce amount:

RANK	PRE-DRAW HANDS	OPTIMAL DECISION
Four Deuces
1.	Four Deuces	Draw one card
Three Deuces
1.	Pat Royal Flush	Hold pat hand
2.	Three Deuces only	Draw two cards
Two Deuces
1.	Pat our of a Kind or better	Hold pat hand
2.	Four cards to a Royal Flush	Draw one card
3.	Four cards to Straight Flush, 2 cons. cards of 6 7+	Draw one card
4.	Two Deuces only	Draw three cards
One Deuce
1.	Any pat Four of a Kind or better	Hold pat hand
2.	Four cards to a Royal Flush	Draw one card
3.	Full House	Hold pat hand
4.	Four cards to Straight Flush, 3 cons. cards of 5 7+	Draw one card
5.	Three of a Kind, Straight, or Flush	Hold pat hand
6.	Four cards to a Straight Flush	Draw one card
7.	Three cards to a Royal Flush	Draw two cards
8.	Three cards to Straight Flush, 2 cons. cards of 6 7+	Draw two cards
9.	One Deuce only	Draw four cards
No Deuces
1.	Royal Flush	Hold pat hand
2.	Four cards to Royal Flush	Draw one card
3.	Pat Three of a Kind through Straight Flush	Hold pat hand
4.	Four cards to a Straight Flush	Draw one card
5.	Three cards to a Royal Flush	Draw two cards
6.	One Pair	Draw three cards
7.	Four cards to a Flush	Draw one card
8.	Four cards to an open ended Straight	Draw one card
9.	Three cards to a Straight Flush	Draw two cards
10.	Four cards to an inside Straight	Draw one card
11.	Two cards to a Royal Flush, Q J high	Draw three cards

While this list may seem like a lot to digest at first glance, in actuality the guidelines aren’t all that difficult to grasp. Depending on how many deuces you have in your hand, you’ll simply assess your own five card holding, scan the appropriate list of hands, and determine which position(s) you currently occupy. By always opting for the highest hand on the list, you’ll be making the most mathematically optimal decision possible.

You may want to visit the Wizard of Odds to learn more about these pay tables.

As an example of this strategy chart’s influence on your decision making, consider a deal in which you hold the 3d 8d 9d 10d 2c. By using your deuce wild card as a fifth diamond, you already hold a pat flush, but turning it into the 7d or Jd (it doesn’t matter which) turns your hand into an open-ended straight flush draw.

While discarding a made hand and chasing a straight flush might seem counter-intuitive, by consulting the chart’s section for One Deuce hands, you’ll notice that the straight flush draw holds the 4^th position, which actually outranks the pat flush in 5^th position. Discarding the pat flush and going for the gusto is always the correct play on a mathematical basis when the long run is considered.

After a few dozen hands spent examining your cards and poring over this strategy chart, you’ll soon discover the decision-making process occurring more naturally. Eventually, you’ll be playing Deuces Wild video poker optimally based on instinct alone, making the correct moves by force of habit.