In Deuces Wild, you're faced with an issue that doesn't come up in many other video poker games. This issue is that the wild card density is so high that you're going to be making much better hands on average than almost any other type of video poker game. This creates a focus on playing strong hands, and this takes away from the importance of playing weak starting hands. This lack of attention to playing weaker hands creates a situation where most players have a major gap in their skill set. Our goal here is to help to shore up your skill with weaker starting hands.

Let's start with the simple premise that all pairs are created equal in this game since there are no payouts for single pair hands. With this in mind, let's also remember that single pair hands are only relevant when you have no wilds in your hand. Now suppose that you have to choose between a pair or a flush draw with a hand like TsTd8d6d3d. Which should you play with? As it turns out, keeping the pair is slightly better than keeping the flush draw. Even though you have better chances than usual to hit your draw, the payout for a flush is lower than other games. When you add the better chances of improving your pair thanks to the wild cards, then the pair comes out on top.

With a single wild card in your hand, you can come into some interesting spots since everything is based on draws unless you have three of a kind or better. You actually should discard made flushes or straights when you have a single wild in your hand if you have three consecutive non-wilds to a straight flush. Any other four-card straight flush draw is worse than made straights and flushes, and that distinction is important to make because the minor straight flush draws are not nearly as strong.

Three to a royal, including the wild card, is slightly worse than a minor straight flush draw. However, if you don't have at least three to a straight flush with the two non-wild cards being consecutive, then you should simply discard all four of your non-wild cards and hope for the best. This is hard for some players to understand if they don't get that single pair hands are useless when you have a wild card in this game.