I don't write about Deuces Wild video poker primarily because I hardly ever play it. The reason is that there are not, to my knowledge, any games in this area (St. Louis, MO) which offer a payout approaching 100%. But I may have missed some, simply because the pay schedules on Deuces Wild games are so varied and I don't have a quick 'key' to them, like I do for the Jacks or Better games. That's the purpose of this article, to give both of us a quick way of determining the approximate long term payback of Deuces games.

The first place to look is at the Four-of-a-Kind payout. In full-pay Deuces (100.8% return), a 4K pays 25 for 5. In most of the short-pay games, 4K is 20 for 5 and, while that may not seem like such a big cut, it is because 4K is a hand which occurs quite often in a Deuces game. If the full-pay version returns 100.8%, cutting the 4K payout by 5 reduces the payout by 6.5%!! So, if all other payouts remain the same, a game with a 20 for 5 pay on 4K returns only 94.3%. You won't often see that, since the pay on other hands is often increased, and that only compounds the confusion. But the payout on the 4K is the place to start; if it's 20 for 5, you need to do a lot more checking to see if the game's playable.

There are several good Deuces games which have a 20 for 5 pay on 4K: Loose Deuces, Double Pay Deuces and Triple Pay Deuces. In these versions, what you give up on the 4K is, at least partially, returned in the pay for Four Deuces. This gives us another key to our quick evaluation: If the 4 Deuces pay less than 1250 coins and pays only 20 on the 4K, it probably shouldn't be played. But, if the Deuces pay at least 2000 coins, it may be a good game in spite of the 20 on the 4K. It's a lot like the two-pair pay on Jacks or Better games; if it only pays 5 for 5, the 'high end' of the pay scale has to go waaaay up to compensate.

Another important payout to consider in Deuces games is the Full House. In the full-pay version, it returns 15 for 5 and contributes about 6% of the total return. In some games, the full house returns 20 for 5 , so it adds 2+% to the payback, but it also changes the proper playing strategy quite a bit. That's because the lowest-paying hand in most Deuces games is three-of-a-kind, so two-pair are never held. However, a 20 for 5 on the Full House makes holding two-pair the proper play.

Most of the games where the 4K is cut compensate a bit by pumping up the pay on the Flush. A Flush will occur, on average, once every 60 hands or so in the full-pay Deuces game. With a payout of 10 for 5, that adds 3.3% to the total return. Thus, an increase of 5, to 15 for 5, increases the payout by 1.6%. But, since the cut to 20 for 5 from 25 for 5 on the 4K costs us 6.5%, you can see that even with increases of 5 coins each on the Full House and the Flush, we're still left more than 3% 'short'. Some minor increases may come from the Straight Flush and/or 5-of-a-Kind, but we need to do some figuring on the Royal.

There are a lot of Deuces Wild games with progressive Royals and I often see them with $2000+ jackpots in quarter format. But that's somewhat deceiving, at least when compared to Jacks or Better games. The problem here is that 'natural' (no wild cards) Royals are less frequent in Deuces games. In the full-pay version, Royals occur, on average, once every 45,000 hands, so each $250 increase in the Royal adds .4% to the total return, not .5% like the Jacks or Better games. So, if you run across a progressive Deuces game with a 10 for 5 payout on the Flush, a 15 for 5 on the Full House and a 20 for 5 on the 4K, it takes a $3000+ Royal to get the long term return over 100%. (And the proper playing strategy changes somewhat.)

Now that I've written this, I'm still not sure I can do a quick 'field' evaluation on the Deuces games, but I like the idea of comparing the payout on the Four Deuces with the 4K; the 4 Deuces has to be more than 1250 to get my attention if the 4K is 20. But I guess what I'll do is memorize the pay schedule mentioned above for progressive Deuces and just add in the increase from the Royal. Or maybe I'll carry a printout of the pay schedules I published in "The Video Poker Bible"; either way, I'll continue to search for a good Deuces game, because they're so damn much fun to play!

See you here next time.

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