Deuces Wild Guide: How to Play and Expert Strategy Tips

• Natural Royal Flush: 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of the same suit.
• 4 Deuces: four 2s.
• Wild Royal Flush: a Royal Flush that includes a wild.
• Five-of-a-Kind: five cards of the same rank. Since there are only four of each in the deck, you need at least one wild.
• Straight Flush: five consecutive cards of the same suit (but not a Royal Flush).
• Four-of-a-Kind: four cards of the same rank.
• Full house: three cards of the same rank and two cards of the same rank.
• Flush: five cards of the same suit (but not a straight flush).
• Straight: five consecutive cards (but not of the same suit).
• Three-of-a-Kind: three cards of the same rank.

1. Pick the Right Deuces Wild Machine

Go to a casino of your choice and pick a Deuces Wild game. Ideally, you want a 15-9-5 pay table. This means you get 15, 9, and 5 coins as a reward for a 5-of-a-kind, straight flush, and 4-of-a-kind, respectively.

A 15-9-5 pay table offers an RTP of 100.76%, giving Deuces Wild the best odds of any video poker game. Such payouts are hard to find nowadays, but most online casinos for video poker do have decent version where the RTP is above 99.5%

2. Place Your Ante Wager

After choosing a Deuces Wild machine to play, the next step is to place your ante wager. Ideally, you want to bet the maximum, usually five coins, to achieve the highest possible payouts.

However, it is also important not to bet more than you can afford to lose, so players with a small bankroll may need to bet less than the maximum.

3. Receive Your 5 Starting Cards

Once your ante wager is placed, you will receive your starting five cards.

This is where the real strategy of Deuces Wild comes into play. You must decide which to keep and which to discard. Remember, your goal is to create the strongest five-card poker hand, and you must have at least a 3-of-a-kind to qualify for a prize.

4. Discard Round

Choosing which cards to replace can be tricky, but your selection skills will improve with practice. When you make your decision about what to discard, the machine will deal you replacement cards. Some machines cap players at a maximum of four new cards per hand, while you can discard your entire hand in others.

5. Showdown

By this point, you will have your final cards for the round. The machine will score your hand to determine if you qualify for a prize and which one. The better your hand, the bigger your payout.

Never Discard a Deuce

Twos, or deuces, are wild in this variation of video poker. This gives players up to four wilds to work with every hand. You should never discard a deuce in this version of video poker.

Stick With Winning Hands, Too

It can be easy to convince yourself to give up a winning hand in hopes of a better one. However, this is almost always a mistake in Deuces Wild. You should keep every winning hand you receive in an effort to minimize your losses in the long run.

Always Keep a Pair

You need at least 3-of-a-kind to win, but you should keep any pair you are dealt in Deuces Wild. A pair puts you one card away from a winning combination. Since there are four wilds, there are six cards in the deck that can make your pair a winner.

However, you should only keep one pair in Deuces Wild. If you have two in your starting hand, discard one of them to maximize your chance to win.

Flushes, Straights, and Royal Flushes

Some of the highest paying hands in Deuces Wild are flushes, straights, and straight flushes. The highest-paying combination is a straight flush, 10-A, also known as a royal flush. If you have three or four cards toward any of these winning hands, you should keep them and discard your other cards.