We’ve compared slots and video poker in the past, with the general consensus being that slots is good for players who want strategy-free gameplay, while video poker is nice for those who like using intricate strategy.
But if you play slot machines, chances are that you’ll try video poker at some point in your life. And when doing so, you’re likely to get curious about which machines pay the most.
While there are rare video poker variations that offer up to 103% payback, the most-common high-paying game is Deuces Wild, which pays 100.76%.
Deuces Wild video poker is one of the most popular forms of the game, and is particularly popular among video poker aficionados. This is due to the fact that if you can find a full pay table version of the game, the payouts are enormous; the full pay version of Deuces Wild actually leaves the player with an advantage with perfect play! With expert strategy in full-pay Deuces Wild, you get four of a kind once per 15.4 hands, while full houses come only once per 47.1 hands and flushes once per 60.5. Strategy adaptations change that in the version you’re used to, but quads (1 in 16.3 hands) still show up more than full houses (1 in 38.2) and flushes (1 in 48.9) combined. Colorado Deuces vpFREE2 has 10 unique pay tables for the Deuces Wild (aka: DW) video poker game. Of these, vpFREE2 considers 5 games 'good' or 'playable', under typical circumstances, with a return of at least 99%, including FPDW (FP). Not-So-Ugly Deuces Wild (NSUDW) represents another good gaming option for beginners, which offers an expected return of 99.73%. Some experts refer to it as a 20/20 game, as a player will earn 20 coins for every 5-coin bet made, if they hold a Full House or Four of a Kind. In addition, the game will pay 16 coins per 1-coin bet for a combination such as Five of a Kind and 10 coins per 1-coin bet for a Straight Flush. Full Pay Deuces Wild - 100.76% The first pay table we'll analyze is the full pay version of the game. This pay table is the best possible version of Deuces Wild you can find, and if you play correctly you can actually attain a payout percentage of 100.76%. Here is the pay table.
Of course, the word “common” is lightly used here because it’s hard finding full-pay Deuces Wild. So there are a few big factors that you need to keep in mind when looking for these machines.
What Does a Full-Pay Deuces Wild Paytable Look Like?
The defining characteristic of a full-pay Deuces Wild game is that it pays 5 coins for a 4 of a kind. Most Deuces Wild games only pay 4 coins for a 4 of a kind.
What’s interesting is that lower-paying Deuces Wild games pay more for a full house and flush. But because of the frequency of 4 of a kinds in Deuces Wild — due to the wild 2s — the full-pay version still offers 100.76% payback.
Where can I Find Full-Pay Deuces Wild?
You won’t find full-pay Deuces Wild online. Instead, you need to look in land-based casinos, namely downtown Las Vegas.
The best resource when researching video poker machines is VPFREE2.com, which shows you what video poker games are offered at each casino.
Can I Become a Video Poker Pro?
Even with the positive expectation offered on a Deuces Wild game, you won’t be looking at very big profits with 100.76% payback. If you were to play perfect for 1,000 hand per hour — something that’s very hard to do — you’ll only win $7.60 an hour. Add in $2-3 per hour for comps, and you’re pulling in around $10.
Of course, the few video poker pros out there also take advantage of double points promotions and/or find machines that pay even higher than full-pay Deuces Wild.
So if you really feel like getting into video poker, you can this. But in the beginning, just try to find full-pay video poker.
Learning how to play Deuces Wild video poker is fairly different to that of learning to play Jacks or Better. Deuces Wild introduces the wild card to video poker, which creates whole new layers of strategy and many card options that don’t exist in straightforward Draw Poker.
Having a wildcard offers you the chance to hit on a lot more hands, which gives many video poker players the action they crave. It helps that Full Pay Deuces Wild has a +100% expectation, meaning someone who learns to play the game right can win more than they lose.
I know that sounds like someone wanting to sell a gambling e-book, but it’s true in this case. The truth is, casinos know that most gamblers aren’t going to play correctly.
Men like Dan Paymar wrote a famous book or two discussing “optimal play”–the idea that people aren’t going to play perfect, but advises how players can maximise their talents.
Play Deuces Wild Free Now
But whether your play is perfect or only optimal, the numbers state that a person can have a confident expectation when playing the best version of Deuces Wild video poker. This is a game you have to learn how to play.
Twos in Deuces Wild
Let’s start with the wild cards. In Deuces Wild, 4 of the 52 cards in the deck are wildcard: they substitute for any other card in the deck. These wild cards are the 2 of Diamonds, the 2 of Hearts, the 2 of Clubs, and the 2 of Spades.
Anytime you receive a deuce; it can be used as any other card in the deck to make a winning hand. You should receive a deuce every 6 or 7 hands in Deuces Wild, so this gives you a good chance of building excellent hands.
Deuces Wild – What’s the Drawback?
To compensate for the better hands that are going to be built in Deuces Wild, the pay table looks considerably different to how it does in Jacks or Better. In Draw Poker, all you have to get is a pair of Jacks or better to win money.
That’s not the case in Deuces Wild, which requires you to get at least a three of a kind to earn money. You might be saying, “A three of a kind? Good grief,” but if you remember back to those nights playing wild card draw poker with friends in your living room, those wild cards create some wild hands.
Full Pay Deuces Wild Pay Table
It happens more often than you think. You do have to jump a high hurdle, but you’re given a trampoline.
Deuces Wild Strategy
Finding Full Pay Games
If you can see the full pay version of Deuces Wild, it helps your bottom line significantly. As mentioned before, Full Pay Deuces Wild video poker has an expectation of 100.76%. Even if you don’t play perfectly, you should be hovering around 100% if you can figure out the strategy of this game, but you have to find the version of Deuces Wild with the best odds.
Video poker game designers know this, so they made it a little tougher to spot the full pay Deuces Wild pay table. They got tricky because some of the payouts are larger on the Not-So-Ugly Deuces Wild game.
The lesser version of Deuces Wild is called “Not So Ugly” because the expectation is still pretty darn good: 99.73%. That’s beside the point because you’re again throwing away money by missing the full pay machine, so here’s how to tell the difference in the two.
Full Pay and Not-So-Ugly Deuces Wild Compared
About half of the payoffs are the same in these two games, so let’s boil this down to the payoffs you should be focusing on: five of a kind, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, and flush. Four of these pay out more on the full pay version, while one of these has a more significant payoff on the not-so-ugly version.
Poker Hand | Full Pay | Not So Ugly |
5 of a kind | 15x bet | 16x bet |
Straight flush | 9x bet | 10x bet |
4 of a kind | 5x bet | 4x bet |
Full house | 3x bet | 4x bet |
Flush | 2x bet | 3x bet |
The pay charts are counter-intuitive because one look at these two pay tables and it would be natural to assume the Not-So-Ugly payoffs are the better odds. But paying off five times the original wager on the four of a kind makes all the difference.
Think about it: those wild cards mean you’re going to hit a four of a kind a heck of a lot more times than usual. You have eight cards in the deck that could make that happen, instead of the original 4.
The 5 of a kind is still rare, while the flushes and full houses are still hard to fill out. So if you want to look at any one payout on the table, look to see what the game offers on a four of a kind.
Playing Deuces Wild
Sitting down at the Deuces Wild machine and playing the game is not much different than playing Jacks or Better. You’ll need to insert your slots card (always) before you play one hand.
You’ll choose the coin denomination and the number of coins you want to play. Note that Deuces Wild doesn’t have a graduated jackpot for 5-coin bets that you have in Jacks or Better. The coin selection is more straightforward in Deuces Wild.
Full Pay Deuces Wild Video Poker
Once you have your money option figured out, hit the “Deal” button and get your cards. Like 5-card draw, you’ll decide which of the five cards you want to keep and which you want to discard. When you make that decision, you’ll hit deal again and get your new cards.
At this point, you have to have a 3 of a Kind or better to win. If you don’t, it’s time to move on to the next hand. If so, you get paid according to the pay chart.
The whole process of playing a hand of Deuces Wild video poker takes seconds, though I urge you to make as much time as you need to use the right video poker strategy. Finding a good online casino to play at like Yebo Casino will help you on your way to learning this game.
Whatever the case, once you learn how to play Deuces Wild, you’ll probably play big sessions where you see more than 100 hands or more before you quit or move on, especially if you followed my instructions and played the Full Pay version of Deuces Wild.