Winner's Guide Volume 3: Full Pay Deuces Wild
by Bob Dancer
From the authors of the best-selling video poker strategy cards, the Video Poker Winner's Guides cover both strategy and non-strategy aspects of play that are important for winning. Choose among four levels of strategy, via the presentation and explanation of basic principles. Strategies for full-pay as well as the more widely available non-full-pay versions are covered. These reports present the most complete and accurate strategies available for these games.
Read a review of Winner's Guide Volume 3: Full Pay Deuces WildIncrease Your Deuces Wild Odds!
The Deuces Wild video poker game at All Slots Casino has a 96.77% return with five coins in. You can play in denominations from $.05 to $5.00 and the machine gives you hints on what to hold for obvious hands, but you'll still need your strategy cards or your rules memorized to get the biggest payback. The graphics and design are well-done.
Winning at Deuces Wild
Video poker strategy increases in complexity after you've got the basics of Jacks or Better play down pat. With Deuces Wild, the wild symbol changes the best plays. What seems obvious in Jacks or Better makes no sense at all as a strategy for Deuces Wild.
Keep in mind that even though Deuces Wild is the generic name for the games where the deuces become wild symbols for any other card (except another 2), the payout schedules can vary a great deal. For players in the know, these games go by nicknames like Ugly Deuces, NSU Deuces (not so ugly), SNSU Deuces (super not so ugly deuces) and other colorful terms. If you really want to hone your strategy, you'll need to be aware of the pay table for the machine you are playing and adjust your strategy accordingly.
This article will teach you the best ways to play the most common Deuces Wild machine and steer you away from bad paying machines.
First, let's take a look at the basic Deuces Wild winning hands.
Deuces Wild Winning Hands
Royal Flush
Royal Flush that includes a Wild Card
Four Deuces
Four wild deuces
Wild Royal Flush Royal Flush that includes a Wild Card
Five of a Kind
Four cards of the same rank and a Wild Card
Straight Flush Five cards in sequence and all of the same suit or with wild card substitutes.
Four of a Kind
Four cards of the same rank or with wild card substitutes.
Full House
Three of a kind, plus a pair or with wild card substitutes.
Flush
Five cards of the same suit or with wild card substitutes.
Straight
Five cards in sequence. (Ace can be high or low) or with wild card substitutes.
Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank or with wild card substitutes.
Note: Two pair or jacks or better doesn't pay in Deuces Wild. This fact affects strategy dramatically.
If you have any of the hands above, you’ve won. How much you’ve won depends on the machine’s pay table. Below is a standard Deuces Wild pay table along with the probability of that hand being made. Among video poker afficiandos this is the NSU (Not So Ugly) paytable because it has a payback percentage of 99.73% compared to the best paying, but hard to find, Full Pay Deuces Wild.
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NSU Deuces Wild Pay Table
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||||||
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Coins
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
% of hands
after draw
|
|
Royal Flush
|
300
|
600
|
900
|
1200
|
4000
|
0.0025%
|
|
Four Deuces
|
200
|
400
|
600
|
800
|
1000
|
0.2%
|
|
Wild Royal
|
25
|
50
|
75
|
100
|
125
|
0.19%
|
|
Five of a Kind
|
16
|
32
|
48
|
64
|
80
|
0.31%
|
|
Straight Flush
|
10
|
20
|
30
|
40
|
50
|
0.51%
|
|
Four of a Kind
|
4
|
8
|
12
|
16
|
20
|
6.09%
|
|
Full House
|
4
|
8
|
12
|
16
|
20
|
2.61%
|
|
Flush
|
4
|
8
|
12
|
16
|
20
|
2.08%
|
|
Straight
|
3
|
6
|
9
|
12
|
15
|
5.77%
|
|
Three of a Kind
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
26.69%
|
When you sit down at a video poker, you'll usually find the pay table above where the cards are displayed. If it isn't there, press the help button to see what the machine pays. Here are some other video poker pay tables and the resultant payback percentage. These games can be hard to find.
Full Pay Deuces Wild - 100.76% payback
1 Coin: 1-2-2-3-5-9-15-25-200-250
5 Coins: 5-10-10-15-25-45-75-125-1000-4000
1 Coin: 1-2-2-3-5-9-15-25-200-250
5 Coins: 5-10-10-15-25-45-75-125-1000-4000
Loose Deuces - 100.15% payback
1 Coin: 1-2-2-3-4-8-15-25-500-250
5 Coins: 5-10-10-15-20-40-75-125-2500-4000
Deuces Wild Basic Strategy 1 Coin: 1-2-2-3-4-8-15-25-500-250
5 Coins: 5-10-10-15-20-40-75-125-2500-4000
The most important thing to remember is that you can't use your Jacks or Better strategy with Deuces Wild and expect to do well. You will need to reprogram your responses when you play the game. As mentioned above, the game does not pay for two pair or Jacks or Better. This means that high hand rank (Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces) is not as important compared to Jacks or Better. The second thing to remember is that getting one or more deuces sets off a whole different set of discard decisions. You'll have to be more careful when you look at your hand, because the lower level of what is important has been extended.
The following playing strategy chart is just one of many that can be found in Jean Scott's and Larry Wolf's exceptional video poker training software -- Frugal Video Poker. The program has charts for over 15 Deuces Wild games alone, plus you can create your own cards based on paytables you come across.
To read this chart, first determine if you have a wild card dealt in your initial hand. Then find the hand you have on the chart and determine which cards to discard. With a more complicated strategy game than Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild is is great for people who like challenges, but can be a bit daunting when it comes to memorization. ReadyBetGo recommends printing out a strategy card to take with you to the casino or when you play online. In either case, there's no pressure to make a quick decision; just take your time and do it right. It will pay off.
Another approach is to use a program like Frugal Video Poker in learning mode to reinforce the correct playing decisions. Either way, the most important thing is to have fun.
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