Video Poker Strategy Guide
Video poker is one of the few casino games in which it's possible to gain an advantage over the house. The strategy for each video poker variant differs widely but we'll talk about full pay Deuces Wild video poker today because this is one of the easiest games to gain an advantage.
The advantage you can gain with this strategy is small (.76%) so don't be surprised to see major ups and downs during your play at the machine. You won't make tons of money with video poker but if you include all the bonuses, promotions and perks that certain casinos offer, you can do pretty well for yourself.
To achieve this return, you will need to bet the maximum number of coins every hand so you can qualify for the bonus payouts for natural Royal Flushes. The return on this game includes the occasional payout for natural Royals. These don't occur very often but you will see them if you play long enough.
Basic Strategy Guide for Deuces Wild
Some of the recommendations in the strategy guide will appear strange at first glance but you have to keep in mind that nearly one third of the payout percentage in this game is a result of 4 of a Kind hands.
Follow the recommendations in this chart in order from the top down. These hands are listed in order of importance so keep the cards you have that rank the highest on the list.
If you have:
4 Deuces:
- Keep the 4 deuces
3 Deuces:
- Keep the 3 deuces and discard everything else unless you have 5 of a Kind or a Royal Flush
2 Deuces:
- Keep the 2 deuces and discard everything else unless you have:
- Royal Flush
- 5 of a Kind
- 4 of a Kind
- 4 card draw to a Royal Flush
- 4 consecutive cards to a Straight Flush
1 Deuce:
- Keep the deuce and discard everything else unless you have:
- Royal Flush
- 5 of a Kind
- 4 of a Kind
- Full House
- 4 consecutive cards to a Straight Flush
- 3 of a Kind
- Made Straight
- Made Flush
- 3 cards to a Royal Flush
- 3 consecutive cards to a Straight Flush
0 Deuces:
- Discard everything unless you have:
- Royal Flush
- 4 to a Royal Flush
- 4 of a Kind
- 3 of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- 4 cards to a Straight Flush
- 3 to a Royal Flush
- Pair
- 4 cards to a flush
- 4 cards to an open ended straight
- 3 consecutive cards to a straight flush
- Any two cards ten or higher of the same suit
This strategy looks complicated but it's actually not too bad because most of these recommendations make sense. If you print this strategy guide out and keep it next to you at the video poker machine, you'll catch on pretty quickly.
You should never discard a deuce and you should never keep two pairs. You'll do better if you discard one of the pairs and draw new cards. The extra hand possibilities make it more profitable to keep one of the pairs and draw three cards instead of keeping both pairs and drawing just one card.
Deuces Wild only pays for hands ranked 3 of a Kind or higher. Most video poker machines pay for any hand that is better than a pair of 10s so don't get confused if you're used to getting payouts for one pair and two-pair hands.