How to play
Joker Deuces Stud is five-card stud poker against the dealer, played in the style of the casino game DJ Wild Stud Poker. The deck has 53 cards: a standard deck plus one joker, and the joker and all four deuces (2s) are wild. A wild card becomes whatever card makes your hand best.
- Bet the Ante. An equal Blind bet goes down with it automatically. You can add the optional Trips side bet (10, 25 or 50).
- You and the dealer get five cards each; the dealer’s are face down.
- Fold, losing the Ante and Blind, or Play: a Play bet of twice your Ante.
- The dealer’s cards are turned over and the two hands are compared. The dealer doesn’t need anything to qualify.
The Ante goes from 10 to 250 in steps of 10. To deal you need credits for the Play bet too, so the table keeps twice the Ante aside.
Hand ranks
With wild cards in play there are two extra hands at the top. From best to worst: five wilds (all four deuces and the joker), royal flush (with or without wild cards), five of a kind, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, pair, high card.
Hands of the same type are compared the usual poker way: the pairs or sets first, then the remaining cards from the highest down. A hand made with wild cards is worth exactly as much as the same hand made without them, so if all five cards match in rank, it’s a tie.
Who wins
| Result | Ante | Play | Blind |
|---|---|---|---|
| You win | pays 1:1 | pays 1:1 | pays by the table for a straight or better, otherwise returned |
| Tie | returned | returned | returned |
| Dealer wins | lost | lost | lost |
Blind (when you win):
| Your hand | Pays |
|---|---|
| Five wilds | 1,000:1 |
| Royal flush | 50:1 |
| Five of a kind | 10:1 |
| Straight flush | 9:1 |
| Four of a kind | 4:1 |
| Full house | 3:1 |
| Flush | 2:1 |
| Straight | 1:1 |
| Three of a kind or less | returned |
Trips
The Trips side bet pays on your hand alone, whether you win, lose or fold. It wins with three of a kind or better, and most hands pay much more when they’re made without wild cards (“natural”).
| Your hand | Natural | With wild cards |
|---|---|---|
| Five wilds | 2,000:1 | 2,000:1 |
| Royal flush | 1,000:1 | 90:1 |
| Five of a kind | 70:1 | |
| Straight flush | 200:1 | 25:1 |
| Four of a kind | 60:1 | 6:1 |
| Full house | 30:1 | 5:1 |
| Flush | 25:1 | 4:1 |
| Straight | 20:1 | 3:1 |
| Three of a kind | 6:1 | 1:1 |
A hand with the joker always counts as wild. A deuce that isn’t needed for the hand counts as a natural 2: a flush of spades that happens to include the 2 of spades is a natural flush and pays 25:1. You’re always paid the better of the two readings.
The odds
Trips returns 93.84% of what you bet on it (house edge 6.16%). We counted every one of the 2,869,685 possible five-card hands from the 53-card deck to get this, and the test that checks it runs on every build.
Ante, Blind and Play: the result depends on when you fold. Playing the simple strategy below, the house keeps about 3.2% of the Ante: our 2,000,000 simulated hands gave 3.23% (give or take 0.25%). You play about 69% of hands.
Strategy
The game’s hint follows a simple strategy published for this game:
- Play with a pair of 4s or better. Any made hand better than that, from two pair up, is always played. A pair made with a wild card counts.
- One exception: with exactly a pair of 4s, fold if your hand also holds a 3.
- Fold everything weaker: a pair of 3s, or no pair at all.
Two things that are easy to forget:
- Wild cards make every hand stronger, the dealer’s too. A single pair is a much weaker hand here than in ordinary stud.
- Folding costs two bets (Ante and Blind) and playing a loser costs four. That’s why you play surprisingly weak pairs: you’re often ahead, and the Blind can pay big when you hit.
If you enjoy Joker Deuces Stud, try Joker Poker or Keno next.
