Deuces Wild Strategy: Which Cards Should You Keep?

Keep the deuces, then choose the other cards according to the exact paytable and the available draws. In conventional Deuces Wild, deuces are wild cards, but there is no single strategy chart that works for every version.

This guide provides a practical sheet for Full Pay: the complete 800/200/25/15/9/5/3/2/2/1 paytable, plus examples where NSUD calls for a different hold. The 100.76% RTP applies only to the optimized Full Pay model with a natural royal flush paying 800 per wagered credit. It does not guarantee profit, describe every Deuces Wild game, or establish that such machines are currently available.

How a hand works and what pays

You receive five cards, choose zero to five to hold, and draw once to replace the others. In the conventional model used here, replacements come from the remaining 47 cards, and the highest payable category determines your payout.

The practical sequence is:

1. Choose the credit denomination—the monetary value of one machine credit—and the number of credits to wager.
2. Deal five cards.
3. Select the cards you want to hold.
4. Draw once to replace the unheld cards.
5. Check the final payout against the game's paytable.

The deck contains 52 cards, with no extra joker. All four deuces can substitute for the required rank and suit. This makes five of a kind possible, even though a standard deck does not contain five natural cards of one rank.

The lowest paying category is three of a kind, paying 1× gross. That returns the wager; it is not net profit. A pair and two pair pay zero. One deuce alone does not guarantee a payout, while two held deuces guarantee at least three of a kind.

A natural royal flush is 10–J–Q–K–A of one suit without substituting deuces. A wild royal flush uses one or more deuces to replace missing cards.

How to identify Full Pay, NSUD, and Illinois Deuces

Check all ten payouts and the natural royal flush payout condition. The four-of-a-kind row alone is not enough: changes to full houses, flushes, straight flushes, and five of a kind also change the strategy.

These are gross payouts per wagered credit, including the returned wager. The natural royal flush is normalized to 800 per credit.

For NSUD, the sequence from wild royal flush through three of a kind is 25/16/10/4/4/3/2/1. Do not substitute a different schedule.

The Wizard of Odds paytables and mathematical results give the more precise returns as 100.7620%, 99.7283%, and 98.9131%, respectively. Each assumes optimal play for that specific version. For NSUD, use the author's separate intermediate NSUD strategy; the hold sheet below is for Full Pay.

Original English continuation of an official paytable showing Illinois Deuces payout categories

Page 7 excerpt from the official English-language PDF dated September 4, 2024. This is a table continuation, not a complete paytable. It confirms the middle and lower Illinois Deuces rows, not the rules of every current machine.

The game's own Help and Paytable take precedence. For a closer look at identifying the complete schedule, see the Full Pay Deuces Wild paytable guide.

Why credits and denomination matter

The number of credits wagered can change the natural royal flush payout per credit, while the denomination determines the monetary cost of the hand. Do not exceed your budget to qualify for a bonus.

Under a traditional schedule, a natural royal flush often pays 250 per credit when wagering one through four credits. At five credits, the total payout is 4,000 credits, equivalent to 800 per wagered credit. This max-coin royal bonus is not universal: check the actual game.

At a denomination of $0.25:

• Five-credit wager: 5 × $0.25 = $1.25 per hand.
• Natural royal flush: 4,000 × $0.25 = $1,000.00 gross payout.
• Four deuces: 1,000 × $0.25 = $250.00 gross payout.

These payouts include the wager. Net profit is payout minus wager. If five credits cost more than you can afford, a lower denomination or free practice is preferable to exceeding your limit.

How to use the Full Pay hold sheet

Count your deuces, then read the corresponding list from top to bottom and use the first applicable hold. This is a training reference, not a complete list of close decisions or a certified optimal strategy.

Deuces count toward the total number of cards held. For example:

• One deuce plus two suitable same-suit royal cards means three to a royal.
• Two deuces plus two suitable same-suit royal cards means four to a royal.

A singleton here is a non-deuce card that is not paired with another retained non-deuce card. References to consecutive suited ranks mean the actual non-deuce cards, not deuces notionally inserted between them.

A gap is a missing rank within a potential sequence. A penalty card is a potentially useful card that appeared in the initial hand but was discarded, so it is unavailable among the remaining 47 cards. It can change a close decision; it is not a fee or an automatically harmful card.

For exact exceptions, consult the original optimal Full Pay strategy. The source's simple Full Pay strategy has a stated return of 100.7085%, compared with 100.7620% for optimal play—a difference of 0.0535 percentage points. Neither return should be attributed to the abridged sheet below.

Four or three deuces

With four deuces, hold all four. With three, keep a made wild royal flush; otherwise, usually hold only the deuces, with an important five-of-a-kind exception.

Four deuces: the fifth card does not change the 200× payout. Drawing cannot improve this category.

Three deuces:

1. Made wild royal flush: hold all five cards.
2. Five of a kind with a natural pair of tens or higher: hold all five in this practical sheet.
3. Five of a kind with a natural pair of nines or lower: generally hold only the three deuces.
4. Otherwise, hold only the three deuces.

Three held deuces guarantee at least four of a kind after the draw. They do not guarantee a profitable session.

The choice between keeping five of a kind and drawing depends on the paytable. For 2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 3♠ 3♥:

Full Pay favors discarding the threes; NSUD favors keeping five of a kind. These are gross expected payouts per wagered credit, using a natural royal flush payout of 800 and rounded to four decimals. Consult the original optimal strategy for borderline exceptions rather than assuming you should always keep five of a kind.

Two deuces

With two deuces, keep a strong made hand first, then check the royal flush and straight flush draws. If nothing qualifies, hold only the deuces.

Full Pay priorities:

1. Made four of a kind or higher.
2. Four to a royal: two deuces plus two royal cards of the same suit.
3. Four to a straight flush: two deuces plus two consecutive suited non-deuce cards, starting at 6–7 or higher.
4. Only the two deuces.

For made four of a kind, keep the two deuces and the natural pair, then discard the kicker. Do not automatically hold all five.

For example, 2♠ 2♥ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ is already a straight flush paying 9× in Full Pay. It is not a hand in which to discard all three non-deuce cards.

One deuce

With one deuce, look first for a strong made hand or a qualifying four-card draw. If no listed hold applies, keep only the deuce.

Full Pay priorities:

1. Made four of a kind or higher.
2. Four to a royal.
3. Made full house.
4. Four to a straight flush: the deuce plus three consecutive suited non-deuce cards, starting at 5–6–7 or higher.
5. Made three of a kind, straight, or flush.
6. Other four-card straight flush draws.
7. Three to a royal.
8. Three to a straight flush: the deuce plus two consecutive suited non-deuce cards, starting at 6–7 or higher.
9. Only the deuce.

For made four of a kind, keep its four effective cards; for three of a kind, keep its three. A made straight flush, full house, flush, or straight requires all five cards if you choose to keep that category, unless a higher priority directs otherwise.

For 2♥ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ Q♣, hold 2♥ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠:

These are gross expected payouts per wagered credit, not net profits. The calculation draws from the remaining 47 cards, uses the 800 natural royal flush payout, and rounds results to four decimals.

Ace-high royal draws and penalty-card situations have precise exceptions. Do not turn this sheet into a universal rule that three to a royal always beats every other draw.

No deuces

Without deuces, check four or five to a royal first, then made paying hands and qualifying draws. Discard an isolated high card when it does not belong to a qualifying draw.

Practical Full Pay priorities:

1. Four or five to a royal.
2. Made paying hand from three of a kind through straight flush.
3. Four to a straight flush.
4. Three to a royal.
5. A pair.
6. Four to a flush.
7. Four to an outside straight.
8. Three to a straight flush.
9. Four to an inside straight, except when the missing rank is a deuce.
10. Two to a royal: suited 10–J, 10–Q, or J–Q.
11. Discard all five.

In Full Pay, a pair ranks above four to a flush. With two pair, hold one pair; in NSUD, hold both.

For made four of a kind, keep four cards and draw one. For three of a kind, keep three and draw two. Keep a full house, flush, straight, or straight flush intact unless the higher-priority four-to-a-royal hold changes the decision. Unlike Jacks or Better, an ordinary pair does not pay.

An outside straight draw can complete at either end: 7–8–9–10 needs a 6 or J. An inside straight draw needs an internal missing rank: 6–7–9–10 needs an 8. Ace-edge sequences count as inside draws, not outside draws.

Three suited non-deuce cards spanning five consecutive ranks can form three to a straight flush. However, ace-low boundaries, a missing deuce, gaps, and discarded useful cards require the refinements in the original strategy. This simplified list does not replace its full exception set.

What the independently verified calculations mean

Gross EV is the average payout for a particular hold per wagered credit, not the probability of winning or the RTP of the whole game. Net EV equals gross EV minus 1.

These calculations exclude all five initial cards from the draw, including discards. There are 32 possible subsets to hold. If you hold $h$ cards, the number of equally likely replacement combinations is:

Gross EV is the payout-weighted average across those combinations, normalized per wagered credit. A gross EV of 1.0000 means an average return of the stake, not a net profit of one credit.

Unless stated otherwise, the examples use the natural royal flush payout of 800 per wagered credit. Gross EV figures are rounded to four decimals. These are hand-specific model results, not predictions of your next payout.

Two pair: why Full Pay and NSUD disagree

For J♠ J♥ 8♦ 8♣ K♣, keep one pair in Full Pay and both pairs in NSUD. The jacks and eights tie when keeping just one pair.

The decision changes because of the paytable, particularly the higher full house payout—not because jacks outrank eights. Even the best hold in this initial hand has a gross EV below the wager.

A made flush: when not to chase a royal

For A♠ K♠ J♠ 8♠ 3♠, keep the flush in Full Pay. Holding three to a royal is worse.

The held flush pays 2 gross, producing net profit of 1 per wagered credit. The training checker below incorrectly recommends A♠ K♠ J♠ and displays 3.20; that value is not supported by exhaustive draw enumeration.

Four to a royal: why the chance is 1 in 47

For A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 5♣, hold the first four cards and discard 5♣. The single 10♠ among the remaining 47 cards completes a natural royal flush, so its probability is 1/47, not 1/52.

With the Full Pay natural royal flush payout of 800:

Other paying outcomes also contribute to the numerator. These include the four deuces, each of which completes a wild royal flush.

At a five-credit wager, the expected gross payout is 97.87234 machine credits, rounded to five decimals. This is not net EV: subtract the five-credit wager to obtain the expected net result.

If a one-credit wager instead pays 250 for the natural royal flush, the calculation becomes:

That is a different payout condition, so the previous RTP does not carry over. The checker below correctly selects four cards but displays 18.60—a fixed value, not the calculated EV for this hand.

How to use the training checker without relying on its errors

Use this checker only as a training illustration, not an exact solver or a basis for betting decisions. Its fixed rules and values produce demonstrably incorrect results.

Warning before using the checker: it has no paytable, wager, or royal-bonus selector and does not enumerate every possible draw. For A♠ K♠ J♠ 8♠ 3♠, it incorrectly recommends breaking the flush and displays 3.20. For A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 5♣, it displays the unverified value 18.60. Compare its output with the correct full paytable, the independently verified examples above, and the original strategy.

To inspect a training example:

1. Scroll to the checker.
2. Enter the five initial cards using its five card selectors. Duplicate cards are excluded.
3. Click Analyze Hand.
4. Review its suggested holds and discards.
5. Compare the result with the applicable paytable and the verified example in this guide.
6. Click Reset before entering another hand.

English training checker showing four to a royal and the unverified fixed value 18.60

English screenshot from the local localhost test site: A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 5♣. The four-card hold is correct, but the fixed display of 18.60 does not equal the verified gross EV of 19.5745.

English training checker incorrectly recommending that a made flush be broken

Second English screenshot from the local localhost test site: A♠ K♠ J♠ 8♠ 3♠. The recommendation to hold A♠ K♠ J♠ and the fixed value 3.20 are incorrect. In Full Pay, keep the flush for a gross payout of 2.0000.

There is no separate exact Deuces Wild calculator on this site. The Jacks or Better video poker calculator cannot verify these holds: it uses a different game and paytable.

What RTP means for your budget

RTP describes a mathematical average under specified rules and strategy, not the outcome of your next hands. Even Full Pay with positive expected value carries substantial variance and a risk of losing money.

For example, 500 hands at $1.25 each produce $625.00 in wagering turnover. That is the sum of all wagers, not a required deposit.

Using the rounded RTP figures in the comparison table:

Negative figures are expected losses. Full Pay's positive figure applies only under the corresponding payout and strategy conditions; it does not make the game risk-free or provide guaranteed earnings.

The source's optimal Full Pay results put the final natural royal flush frequency at approximately one in 45,282 hands and four deuces at approximately one in 4,909. About 45.31% of hands have a nonzero payout, but that includes break-even returns. It is not the probability of net profit, and rare hands do not become “due” after a losing streak.

Set affordable loss and time limits in advance, and use free practice if appropriate. Do not increase wagers to recover losses or expect to predict random cards.

For budget planning, the key distinction is between mathematical expectation and the result you actually experience. The guide to house edge and expected value explains that distinction: a budget can limit exposure, but it cannot guarantee a win.