The dealing cards are right beneath the paytable, customary branded with Wizard of Odds visuals and deuces (2s) marked as wild symbols. The information strip (displaying win amount, bet size, balance) and the control panel are positioned at the bottom of the screen. All controls are placed to give you ample time to focus on your game. Deuces Wild video poker is a simple and easy to play game as it plays in more or less the same way as most other video poker variants. A bet is placed at the beginning of a hand and players are dealt five cards.
Deuces Wild is one of the original variations of video poker. This has been around since bar-top and stand-alone cabinets first appeared in casinos and bars around the country. The idea is simple. Deuces (twos) are wild. They can replace any of the other cards to make poker hands.
You’ll have a single drawing round in this game. To win you need a minimum of 3 of a kind. There are extra payouts that don’t appear in other games. Get four deuces with an ace, 3, 4 or 5 kicker in some variants – and you could win as much as a Royal Flush.
Deuces Wild is now available online in the regulated states. You can find it in live casinos, including in the famous GameKing consoles. This page has everything you need to get started. Below you’ll find how to play, payouts and strategy for this fast-paced game. There is also a look at the new ‘Elite’ version which is found at a handful of real money casinos.
How to play Deuces Wild video poker
Before you start a hand, you need to decide how many coins you’ll bet and whether you’ll play for real money or free. There is an incentive to bet 5 coins per hand. The default minimum coin size for a single hand game in live casinos is 25c – or $1.25 per hand. $1 is common, and bigger bets are available. Online you’ll be able to bet much smaller amounts.
You should reduce your coin size to a level where you are happy to play 5 coins. This gives you the best possible return. The top prizes listed below will assume 5-coin bets.
When you hit the ‘Deal’ button, 5 cards appear. Any Deuces (twos) will have ‘Wild’ written on them. These can replace any other card. They should always be held. Depending on what other cards you have, you’ll hold anywhere between zero up to all 5 of your cards. A message will appear, usually over the top of each card, indicating that it is held.
The strategy for which cards to hold is different from other video poker games. This is covered in the ‘strategy’ section below.
Next, you hit the ’Draw’ button. This instantly replaces any non-held cards with new ones.
Your best poker hand, including the wilds, is then calculated and you are paid if you qualify with 3 of a kind or better.
Payouts: A typical pay table for Deuces Wild Poker
There are two ways to get a Royal Flush in Deuces Wild video poker. You can get this as a ‘natural’, with ten through ace of the same suit. You can also get it with one or more wild deuces. There is a big difference in the pay table between them. Another unusual entry is the 5 of a kind line.
Deuces Wild Pay Table:
- Royal Flush (no 2’s): 4000
- 4 Deuces: 1000
- Royal Flush (with 2’s): 125
- 5 of a Kind: 75
- Straight Flush: 50
- 4 of a Kind: 20
- Full House: 20
- Flush: 15
- Straight: 10
- 3 of a Kind: 5
Return to player of Deuces Wild
A good pay table like the one listed above gives a big RTP (return to player), this can be around 99.46% with optimal play. While compared to pay tables in other games, these returns seem small – it is significantly easier to create good hands with one or more wilds.
As you will see below, there are alternative pay tables which include much bigger prizes for hands involving multiple deuces. Naturally, these are at the expense of lower prizes for other more regular hands.
Standard video poker games vs. Deuces Wild strategy
In a regular game like Jacks or Better, you’ll hold high cards when they are unpaired (especially suited ones). In Deuces Wild the rank of your cards makes no difference. There is no advantage in holding cards based on their rank alone.
You’ll always hold deuces. You also always hold 3 of a kind (with or without a single deuce). 3 to a Royal Flush and 4 to a straight flush (inside or outside) with a deuce should also be held – along with 4 to either an outside straight or a flush.
If you don’t have a deuce, you are holding made hands (3 of a kind or better), plus the best draws to straights and flushes only.
Deuces Wild Elite
Legal US online casinos, you’ll find a variation called ‘Deuces Wild Elite’. The game play and strategy are the same as the regular game described above. What is different are the payouts awarded for different hands containing 4 deuces.
Here is the pay table for 5 coins:
- Royal Flush (no 2’s): 4000
- 4 Deuces + Ace: 2000
- 4 Deuces: 1000
- 5 Aces: 400
- 5 3’s through to 5’s: 200
- Royal Flush (with a 2): 125
- 5 6’s through Kings: 100
- Straight Flush: 45
- 4 of a Kind: 20
- Full House: 20
- Flush: 15
- Straight: 5
- 3 of a Kind: 5
Compared to the regular (bar-top style) games of old, Deuces Wild Elite has a polished and modern look. You’ll find the game play fast and smooth and all the information/rules available at the click of a button. The RTP for the Elite version of the game is 99.45% with 5 coins and 97.22% with 1 to 4 coins.
Wrapping up: Will you go crazy for Deuces Wild?
Having four potentially wild cards in every hand makes it easier to create big poker hands in this video poker variant. To balance this, the prizes for those hands are smaller than in other games. Deuces Wild became one of the ‘standards’ for video poker fans thanks to this all-action format.
You can now enjoy this game online as well as in live casinos. Many states including NJ, PA, MI and WV are launching online casinos. This means you’ll be able to gamble online within state lines. Check out the many video poker titles from the comfort of your own home.
Basic Game Play
Deuces Wild is a popular variant of video poker, where the objective is to get the best possible poker hand, but with the twist that all deuces counts as a 'wild' card. This means that if you have a pair of kings and a deuce on the board, you will actually have three of a kind kings, since the deuce will count towards being a king, thus the name Deuces wild.
To play the game you will first need to insert credits into the game and then choose the amount of credits that you want to bet on the hand you are about to play. Then you press the 'deal' button and the machine will then show you the first five cards, where you have the option to 'hold' as many as them as you want, which means that when you press deal to go to the next betting round those cards will not be changed.
How Do You Play Deuces Card Game
This is a good idea to do if you have a pair or any deuces on the board, to ensure that they will not change the cards. Once you have chosen the cards you want to hold, you simply press deal again and the cards that are not held will change to other cards. Once the cards have been dealt the second time the betting rounds are over and the machine will see if you have a good enough hand to get a prize or not and if so, pay you accordingly with the hand you have.
Deuces wild is a fun game to play and is a great change for the players that normally play regular video poker, providing more good hands to the players because of the wild deuces. There is a difference in the strength of the hand you need to have in order to actually win a prize, you can read more about that in rules and payouts.
Rules
The deuces wild game only uses one regular 52 card deck at a time, eliminating the chance of you getting multiple cards of the same denomination and suit in the game. It also provides a more fair chance of winning by only using one deck of cards, so overall it is a good thing. The deck will be reshuffled automatically after you finish playing a hand, so you will not be able to count which cards that has already been used.
All deuces are wild cards, which means that they will count towards what benefits you the most. This means that if you have three queens in a hand and one deuce, then you will have four of a kind as the deuce will count as an extra queen.
There are two rounds of each game of deuces wild, the first is where the first five cards are shown and you can hold the ones you want to keep to the next round and the second round is the showdown round where you will see if you have won a prize or not.
Hand Rankings
The hand ranking system for deuces wild is similar to the one you know from regular poker, however there are some differences towards it that you should be aware off before starting to play the game. Below you can see which hands qualifies as a winning hand, so you will know if you are about to win or have to try again. We will start from the lowest winning hand to the highest winning hand:
- Three of a kind - When you have three of the same cards in a hand or have a pair with a deuce on the board
- Straight - When you have five cards in sequence of any suit, one of the cards can however be replaced by a deuce and still form a straight
- Flush - When you have five cards of the same suit or four of the same suit with a deuce on the board
- Full House - When you have three cards of the same denomination and a pair, or when you have two pairs with a deuce on the board
- Four of a kind - When you have four of the same denomination or three of a kind with a deuce on the board
- Straight Flush - When you have five cards in sequence with the same suit or if you have you have four cards in sequence of the same suit with a deuce on the board
- Five of a kind - When you have four cards of the same denomination and a deuce
- Deuces Royal Flush - When you have 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of the same suit, with one of the cards being replaced by a deuce
- Four Deuces - When you have four deuces on the board
- Royal Flush - When you have 10, Jack, Queen, King and a Ace of the same suit on the board with no deuces.
As you can see it is slightly more difficult to win a minimum prize when you play deuces wild, but there are more payout methods in general in deuces wild, making it a great game to play if you love video poker.
Payouts
Deuces Card Game Rules
Below you will find a general payout scheme for deuces wild, which should only be seen as a general guideline as some casinos offers better or worse payouts:
Deuces Card Game
- Three of a Kind Pays 1:1
- Straight Pays 2:1
- Flush Pays 2:1
- Full House Pays 4:1
- Four of a Kind Pays 5:1
- Straight Flush Pays 8:1
- Five of a Kind Pays 12:1
- Deuces Royal Flush Pays 0:1
- Four Deuces Pays 100:1
- Royal Flush Pays 500:1
Dirty Deuces Card Game
Always check what the casino you are playing in pays, so you can see if you are getting a fair payout when you win or if you have to change the casino you are playing at. The higher the payouts, the better your overall odds are, which is something that is important when playing against the house.