Deuces Wild Strategy – How to Increase Your Chance of Winning
10 minutes
Last Updated: January 4, 2024
Deuces Wild is one of the best video poker variations for players looking for maximum returns on their bets. But, as this variation puts a twist on the standard video poker gameplay, the strategy and approach differ from what you’d use in other variants.
If you want to learn to play Deuces Wild optimally, you’ve come to the right place. In this detailed guide, we’ll share the best Deuces Wild strategies that will help increase your winning chances.
How Do You Play Deuces Wild?
Deuces Wild has very similar rules to many other video poker variations. It uses the standard 52-card deck, with the same rankings and hand values.
In this regard, it’s almost identical to other popular video poker variations, including the most prevalent one, Jacks or Better.
Like other video poker variations, Deuces Wild doesn’t use Jokers. However, one aspect in which it differs from its counterparts is that it uses the number 2 cards as wilds.
As the game’s name implies, 2s (deuces) serve as wilds and can replace cards or contribute to certain hands to deliver more rewarding payouts.
Every Deuces Wild game starts with you selecting how much the credits are worth and how many credits you want to bet. You can bet anywhere from one to five credits, with the game offering a “bet max” button to conveniently bet the maximum allowed number of credits in one go.
After betting, you press the “deal” button to receive five cards. Next, you have to decide which cards you want to hold and discard the rest. This is where the Deuces Wild strategy comes into play and what we’ll focus on in the following sections.
Once you’ve selected the cards you want to hold, press the “draw” button again to get new cards. After that, you will automatically receive a payout if you have a winning hand.
Many modern Deuces Wild video poker games also offer the auto-spin option. This feature enables you to set the game to play automatically for a number of hands, with it holding the cards it assesses to give you the best winning chance in each hand.
Deuces Wild Poker Strategy Explained
As the number 2 cards act as wilds, the strategy in Deuces Wild revolves mainly around how many of these cards you receive after your bet.
With this in mind, there are four scenarios for every hand, so let’s cover each of them. Here’s an in-depth overview of the optimal Deuces Wild strategies:
Strategy for Hands Without Deuces
The game is most tactical when you don’t get any deuces after the initial deal. This leaves an open field and many strategic options for playing your hand.
The first option is the easiest. If you don’t want to overthink it, just discard all five cards and hope for the best. That said, if you have two cards to a Royal Flush (starting with a Jack or higher) or a pair, discard the other three cards.
Additionally, if you have three cards to a Straight Flush or a Royal Flush, discard the remaining two. Lastly, if you have four cards for a Straight Flush, Flush, open-ended straight, or inside Straight, discard the fifth card.
Strategy If Your Hand Contains 1 Deuce
With one deuce in your hand, you can gauge your hand’s potential, but strategy is still very much a deciding factor that could make or break your hand. Again, the simplest choice is to just keep the deuce and discard the other four cards.
That said, if you have three cards to a Straight, keep them if they’re consecutive and at least 5-7 or higher. You can use a similar strategy if you have three cards needed for a Straight Flush, provided that this includes two connected cards that are 6-7 or higher.
You should also hold every Three-of-a-Kind hand while discarding the remaining two cards. The same principle applies to Four-of-a-Kind hands, for which you would only discard the fifth card.
If you get a Full House, hold your entire hand. If you have three out of the five cards needed for a Royal Flush, hold them and discard the other two.
Strategy for Hands Containing 2 Deuces
With two deuces, you’ll see that your possible decisions narrow down to a handful of options. If you have Four-of-a-Kind or better, keep your hand.
If you hold four out of the five cards needed for a Royal Flush, discard the fifth card. The same applies if you have four cards for a Straight, provided the cards are at least 6-7 or higher.
For any other combination, the rule of thumb is to keep the two deuces and get three new cards.
Strategy If Your Hand Contains 3 Deuces
If you’re lucky enough to have three deuces in your hand, the strategy is pretty simplified, and you won’t have as many variables to consider compared to previous examples. In fact, there’s only one decision you can make.
If the three deuces help form a Royal Flush, you should keep all five cards. Otherwise, keep the three deuces and get two new cards.
Strategy for Hands With 4 Deuces
If you receive four deuces, there isn’t any room for strategy, as you already have one of the strongest hands in the game. Just keep these four cards and collect your payout.
The Dos and Don’ts of Deuces Wild Strategy
Using the Deuces Wild strategies outlined above will certainly put you on the right track for maximizing your long-term winnings.
But, you shouldn’t only rely on this, as there are other aspects you can tweak or implement in your game that will complement your Deuces Wild video poker strategy. With that in mind, here are some of dos and don’ts to keep in mind:
Play Deuces Wild for Free First
If you’re a complete beginner in this game, don’t jump right into real-money Deuces Wild. The perk of playing video poker online is that you can do so for free without any limitations.
Most online casinos feature free demo versions you can use to practice and familiarize yourself with all of the key aspects of Deuces Wild.
Beyond learning how the gameplay works, there are a couple of things you should learn by heart. First, make sure you understand the poker rankings. Knowing these will help you make the right decisions and balance risk and reward for the best results.
Additionally, it’s essential to know the game’s paytable and the correlation between each hand and its payouts. As the paytable clearly displays each hand’s value, it can be a useful tool that lets you know which cards to keep and which to discard.
Don’t Play Without a Bankroll
Once you start playing Deuces Wild for real, make sure you have a bankroll. This will be the money you will set aside to be only used for the game.
If you want to keep tight control of your money, create separate long-term and session bankrolls and make sure you stay within the set parameters.
When it comes to the specific numbers, there are some general pointers you can use when drafting your bankroll. For your long-term bankroll, you should have a minimum of 5,000 betting units. For session bankrolls, this should be a minimum of 50 to 100 betting units.
Avoid betting more than what you previously decided on. Playing responsibly will enable you to enjoy the game without worrying that you’ll lose more than you can afford.
Take Advantage of Bonuses
When playing Deuces Wild online, you can collect all kinds of bonuses and promotions. While this game isn’t the best in terms of bonus wagering contribution, it’s still worth considering.
Moreover, if you plan on playing regularly, loyalty points and VIP bonuses can be very valuable in the right online casino.
With that in mind, you can also maximize perks if you’re playing in a land-based casino. See if the casino offers comps, as these amenities can add solid value to your video poker experience.
Don’t Deviate From the Optimal Deuces Wild Strategy
Once you’ve learned the optimal decisions for each hand, there’s no reason to make choices that differ from this strategy.
Video poker players often think that they can make exceptions in certain situations. In reality, most of the time they deviate from the optimal Deuces Wild strategy, they’re just lowering their expected returns.
The more you diverge from the optimal play, the more your long-term bankroll will suffer. It’s understandable that following a strict strategy for every decision might not always be fun.
But if you want to gamble by heart and without any strategy, it’s better to stick with a luck-based casino game like online slots.
Only Play Full Pay Deuces Wild
If you’ve been playing video poker for some time, you probably know that different variations have dissimilar payout percentages.
Moreover, even different variants of the same video poker game, like Deuces Wild, can offer different payouts. This is why it’s crucial to carefully pick the version that pays best.
In this regard, always look for the Full Pay Deuces Wild game. This version offers the best payout percentage.
Not only that; it’s the only Deuces Wild version that can pay over 100%, as it comes with an RTP of 100.76%. Compared to this, the 20/10/8/4/4 Deuces Wild version has an RTP of only 95.96%.
Deuces Wild Video Poker Paytable
Knowing that the Full Pay Deuces Wild video poker version pays the best, we’ll only cover the payouts for this game. Here are the payouts you can expect when betting one coin in Deuces Wild video poker:
- Three-of-a-Kind (Any three cards with the same value) — 1
- Straight (Five consecutive cards) — 2
- Flush (Five cards with a matching suit) — 2
- Full House (A pair and a three-of-a-kind) — 3
- Four-of-a-Kind (Any four cards with the same value) — 5
- Straight Flush (Five consecutive cards of a matching suit) — 9
- Five-of-a-Kind (Four cards with the same value and a deuce) — 15
- Deuces Royal Flush (A 10-Ace hand, but one card is a deuce) — 25
- Four Deuces — 200
- Natural Royal Flush (A 10-Ace hand without deuces) — 800
As you can use the deuces to replace a missing card, some hands are easier to make and are therefore excluded from the game.
For example, the lowest-paying hand is a Three-of-a-Kind hand, while many other poker variations pay for a two-pair or even one-pair Jacks or better hand.
Which Betting System to Use for Deuces Wild?
Many video poker players play the game without any betting system. They just bet whatever they feel is right for every round. On the other hand, some video poker players advocate that you should always bet the maximum amount every time.
With that in mind, is there a universal system you can rely on for every bet?
If you have the bankroll to back it up, betting the maximum amount every time is the best way to play video poker. This particularly plays well on a variation with 100%+ returns, such as Deuces Wild.
The logic behind this is simple: by betting the maximum amount, you will be in play to win the biggest payout of 4,000 coins if you get a Natural Royal Flush.
That said, betting the maximum amount of coins isn’t the right strategy if you’re risk-averse or have a fairly small bankroll that could be depleted quickly.
