Loose Deuces Video Poker

Loose Deuces video poker commands a lot of attention from the video poker community because it’s one of the most lucrative machines that you can find. It plays like other Deuces Wild games in that the four 2s in the deck are designated as wild cards. But it gives an extreme bump in payouts for any hand with four deuces and also bumps up the payout for other attainable hands.

Video poker can be broken down into several basic types of machines. The most common are Jacks or Better games, which pay out strictly based on how often hands are made during five-card poker gameplay (the less likely the hand, the more it pays out). Bonus poker machines fiddle with the payouts a bit by putting a premium on four of a kind hands.

Then there are wild card games, which allow players to possibly be dealt or draw a wild card, which can be substituted for whatever other card in the deck makes the hand the most valuable. There are Joker Poker games, where the wild card is the joker, added to the deck as the 53rd card. And then there are Deuces Wild games, in which the four 2s in the 52-card deck are all designated as wild.

Loose Deuces video poker essentially falls into the category of wild card games. And it pretty much mimics Deuces Wild, as the four Deuces are wild cards. But where it veers off from those games is in the pay table.

In a lot of ways, Loose Deuces video poker is like a Bonus poker version of Deuces Wild. A few hands at the top of the pay table are given boosted payouts at the expense of some of the payouts for common hands. In particular, the payout for a hand of a four of a kind with 2s really skyrockets over what you might expect in a regular Deuces Wild.

Because of how the pay tables are structured, even the lowest-paying of the Loose Deuces video poker machines, based on payback percentage, are pretty beneficial for gamblers. Meanwhile, the highest-paying games rank among the most lucrative video poker games you can possibly find. It’s for that reason that Loose Deuces video poker machines and versions that you can find in top gambling websites are highly sought after by savvy players.

In the following article, we’ll explain how to play Loose Deuces video poker and what separates it from other common video poker versions. We’ll talk the pay tables and percentages for the game, as well as look at how to develop strategy. Finally, we’ll talk about the advantages and disadvantages of this game when compared to other forms of video poker.

The Basics of Video Poker

Loose Deuces video poker is a relatively common twist on basic video poker. It’s one that shouldn’t be hard to understand for someone with a basic background in the game. But you should still learn the ins and outs of basic video poker before moving on to anything a bit more complicated.

For the uninitiated, video poker is essentially a simulated version of Five-Card Draw poker that many people play informally at home or perhaps even for money. The probabilities of receiving certain cards and making winning hands are exactly the same. If you have a knowledge of Five-Card Draw, you’ll quickly understand video poker.

Even if not, it’s a simple game to learn. Here is a step-by-step look at the process.

Building Your Bankroll

To win money playing video poker, you have to put some money at stake. That money is your bankroll. When playing at a machine in a casino, you can stake yourself with cash or, if you have a redemption ticket from the casino, you can use that too.

If you’re playing video poker online, you’ll need to build an account with the site that you choose. This will require funding your account before you can start playing. Usually, this is done with a credit card, but some sites allow other methods of funding.

Some machines (or online video poker games) have a set denomination at which you will play. Others have the option of your choosing the denomination. The denomination, which can run anywhere from a quarter to several dollars, will also be the determining factor in the number of credits you have in the machine.

Making Your Bet

You will have the opportunity to bet between one and five coins for each hand of video poker that you play. Each coin bet will be equal to one unit of the denomination. For example, a five-coin wager on a 25-cent machine would be a bet of $1.25 (5 times .25).

It’s our recommendation that you make the maximum bet whenever possible. That will give you the opportunity to take in the highest-odds payout for the royal flush hand (ten through ace of the same suit) if you’re lucky enough to come across it. If you hit the royal flush without betting the five coins, you will be short-changing yourself.

Because of the royal flush factor, playing the game at less than the maximum actually reduces your potential payoff if you play the game for a long period of time. That is why you should try to play the maximum bet at all costs. If you find that it’s too expensive for you to do this, you should consider switching to a machine with a lower denomination.

Playing a Hand

Video poker starts out with the deal. You’ll receive five cards, which will show up on your screen. Your chances of receiving a specific hand are the same as if you were playing with a deck at home: 1 in 52 (or 1 in 53 if playing with a Joker).

From those cards, your goal is to make the best possible hand. The more common the hand, the less they pay out. In a game like Loose Deuces video poker, where the wild card comes into play and makes bigger hands easier to make, it takes at least a three of a kind before you can win money on a hand.

Let’s take a look at a sample hand to see how all of this works. Imagine that you receive the following cards:

The hand, as constituted, wouldn’t be enough to be a winner on a Loose Deuces video poker pay table. But there are some promising seeds of a possible winner. For instance, there are a pair of kings, and there are also four hearts, which is one short of a flush.

You will have one chance to improve your hand. This comes with what is known as the draw. On the draw, you have the opportunity to discard any cards you don’t feel are needed and have them replaced with new cards from whatever is remaining in the deck.

Making the decision about what to hold and what to discard should be based on your probabilities of making winning hands and the payouts associated with those hands. Let’s say, with this example, that you decide to hold on to the two kings and discard everything else.

You would hit the “draw” button after pressing the “hold” buttons underneath the kings. On the draw, you receive the following cards.

Playing Again

As long as you have money in your bankroll, you can play as many hands as you want. Keep in mind, however, that you can always cash out your winnings. The machine will print out a ticket that you can use elsewhere in the casino, or you can redeem it for cash.

If you run out of money in the machine, you can simply input some more to continue playing. As always, however, you should remember to gamble in moderation and never risk more than you can afford to lose.

Playing Video Poker With a Wild Card

Wild cards really up the ante on the excitement that you can get from playing video poker. This is especially true with Loose Deuces video poker since there are four wild cards in the deck. Considering there are only 52 cards in a deck, you can see that you’ll have a decent opportunity to see a wild card either on the deal or the draw.

When playing with a wild card, you have to realize that it can be turned into any other card in the deck. That puts rare hands much more into play than if you were playing without wild cards. Of course, the pay tables are adjusted because of this reality, meaning that the hands that pay a lot in Jacks or Better pay less in Loose Deuces video poker.

Let’s take a look at a hand and how it can be transformed by wild cards. Imagine that you received the following cards on the deal:

In a normal Jacks or Better game, this deal wouldn’t give you much to work with. The best play would actually be to toss all of the cards back and hope for a lucky draw.

But in Loose Deuces video poker, you have a two in the hand, which is a wild card. That means it can become anything else that helps your hand the best. It doesn’t do much with the cards in the deal, but, at the very least, you can hold on to it heading into the draw and hope for better.

Let’s see what happens on the draw:

As was the case with the deal, in a normal Jacks or Better game, there isn’t anything here that would make you any money. But, again, the twos are wild. Since this is the draw round, the computer will automatically change them into the cards that help your hand the most.

In this case, the cards would be the seven of hearts and the nine of hearts. Those two cards would give you a straight flush, which is a solid winning hand. And that illustrates just how drastically wild cards can change play.

One more thing to note on wild cards: You don’t have to worry about picking the card into which you will transform the wild card to make your best hand after the draw. The machine (or online site) will automatically do that for you. It will always make the changes that give you the winning hand that pays you the most.

Pay Tables for Loose Deuces Video Poker

The most important piece of information that you have at your disposal as a video poker player is the pay table. This shows you how much you can expect to win for each of the hands that you might make while playing the game. In addition, the pay table allows you to compare the machine to both other types of video poker and other variations of the same game.

What the pay table for Loose Deuces shows is just how much you can expect to win for some of the harder hands in the game to make. It’s a real enticement for those gamblers who like the idea of taking home a big payout by hitting just one or two big hands.

Let’s take a look at the pay table for Loose Deuces video poker. This pay table is one that is known to be the highest-paying version of the game, also known as the full-pay version.

Coins/Hands	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal Flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Four Deuces	500	1000	1500	2000	2500
Wild Royal Flush	25	50	75	100	125
Five of a Kind	15	30	45	60	75
Straight Flush	10	20	30	40	50
Four of a Kind	4	8	12	16	20
Full House	3	6	9	12	15
Flush	2	4	6	8	10
Straight	2	4	6	8	10
Three of a Kind	1	2	3	4	5

How do you read the pay table? It’s easy. All you have to do is follow the rows for the winning hands over to the columns that correlate to what you wagered.

As an example, imagine that you hit a straight flush while playing 5 coins. This would give you a payout of 50 coins. This would mean a profit of 45 coins since you would subtract the original five coins that were wagered.

There are some important things to note about this pay table. First of all, notice how much the payout jumps for a royal flush achieved with a 5-coin wager as opposed to one managed with one through four coins. That’s the big reason why we advised you earlier to play the maximum bet every single hand that you play if at all possible.

In addition, you can see that there is a distinction between a wild royal flush and a royal flush. Very simply, a wild royal flush would be one that is achieved with a wild card involved, while a regular royal flush is one with no wild card in the hand. Examples:

You’ll notice that the natural royal flush pays much more. That’s because it’s a much rarer occurrence.

Without any context, it might be difficult to understand what makes a Loose Deuces video poker special. Well, let’s provide that context by looking at the full-pay pay table for normal Deuces Wild:

Coins/Hands	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal Flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Four Deuces	200	400	600	800	1000
Wild Royal Flush	25	50	75	100	125
Five of a Kind	15	30	45	60	75
Straight Flush	9	18	27	36	45
Four of a Kind	5	10	15	20	25
Full House	3	6	9	12	15
Flush	2	4	6	8	10
Straight	2	4	6	8	10
Three of a Kind	1	2	3	4	5

As you can see, there are several differences between the two. And the main one comes in the payout for a hand of four deuces.

In the normal Deuces Wild game, four 2s pays off at 200 to 1. But in Loose Deuces video poker, it comes in at a whopping 500 to 1.

In most video poker games, there are no winning hands that come anywhere near the royal flush in terms of payoff for a single hand. But in Loose Deuces video poker, the four deuces hand actually pays a significant amount more than the royal flush with one through four coins played. Even with five coins played, it comes closer to the royal flush than just about any other hand in any other video poker game.

That makes Loose Deuces video poker an enticing game for jackpot hunters. You have two chances at a monster payout on a single hand.

There are other differences in the payouts as well. You can see that Loose Deuces video poker pays out more for the straight flush (five consecutive cards of the same suit). This is a hand that is actually somewhat achievable with wild cards in play, at least in terms of comparison to games without wild cards like Jacks or Better.

The only area where normal Deuces Wild pays out more than Loose Deuces video poker is in the four of a kind hand. It wins out by paying 5 to 1, instead of the 4 to 1 offered by Loose Deuces. Because that hand is much more common than the other ones where there are discrepancies between the two games, it helps to lessen the advantage that Loose Deuces has over Deuces Wild.

But there is definitely an advantage. And that becomes clearer when we start to look at the payback percentages of the two games.

Understanding the Payback Percentages of Loose Deuces Video Poker

Think of the payback percentage of a video poker machine and a specific pay table as a kind of estimation of what you can expect the game to pay you back. It’s no more than an average, so your actual experiences might be quite different. This is especially true if you are only playing a game for a short amount of time, which is when luck will cause more of a variance.

The payback percentage is calculated by combining the probabilities of making certain hands with the payouts for those hands. That’s a lot of math, but, luckily, many experts have already done it for you and can quote the percentages for each game.

Imagine that we said that a certain game had a payback percentage of 99.5%. That would mean that, on average, $1,000 played in the machine would leave the player with a bankroll of $995, or a $5 loss.

Again, you might have a much different result if you only play the game once or twice for a small number of hands. But, if you were to play the game over and over again day after day, your payback percentage for all of those sessions would start to resemble that 99.5% mark. (This would be the case only if you were an expert player, which we’ll talk more about when we come to the strategy section.)

In terms of the above pay table for Loose Deuces video poker, the payback percentage comes in at 101 percent. What’s enticing about this is that it essentially removes the house edge. By house edge, we mean the amount that the casino makes from the players gambling, something that is a common factor in most casino games.

Yet in the case of this Loose Deuces video poker, the house edge is actually taken away, and the player has the edge instead. You can play this game and, by making the right decisions, actually expect to make a small profit over time. When you add on top of that the bonuses that you get by playing with a club card, this machine can actually be quite lucrative.

By comparison, the pay table for the Deuces Wild game that we showed you pays 100.76% back to players on average. That’s still an excellent amount, although it falls short of the Loose Deuces full-pay.

Generally speaking, any game that pays back over 99% is a game that is highly recommended. The neat thing about Loose Deuces video poker is that even the variations of the game with slightly less lucrative paybacks still fall above that threshold.

That isn’t the case with most video poker games. Many have full-pay versions above 99%, but the lesser-paying games have payback percentages that plummet down to 97%, 96%, and even 95%.

None of this might mean that much to you if you’re only playing video poker on a casual level. If you’re only playing for a short amount of time just to have some fun in a casino, luck will have a great deal to do with your success, or lack thereof, anyway. But those players wishing to play the game on a serious level in an effort to consistently make money need to be aware of these percentages.

That is why Loose Deuces video poker is so coveted among video poker enthusiasts. No matter where you find it, you’re generally assured of playing a game that is beneficial to you.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t look for the highest-paying versions of the game. But it does mean that you can generally be satisfied with any Loose Deuces machine, or online game, you might encounter.

Loose Deuces Strategy

Strategy is a key component to anyone’s success playing any type of video poker, and Loose Deuces video poker is no different. If you play with perfect strategy, you have the best chance of reaching the payback percentages that we mentioned above. But if you’re constantly making mistakes with your holds and discards, your percentage might dip several points.

Considering the margin between being profitable and losing money at video poker is so slim, it’s crucial that you find ways to develop perfect strategy. Many people misunderstand this notion when it comes to video poker. That’s because the technical wrong play can sometimes be a winner, and the technical right play can sometimes come up short of a winning hand.

But the bottom line is that those who play the game over a long period of time will see a big difference in their winnings if they make the mathematically correct plays over and over again. These plays are the one that bring the highest expected value to the hand based on probabilities and the pay tables.

If you are some kind of math savant, you might be able to figure out how to do all this on the spur of the moment while playing video poker. But, more than likely, you’re better off getting some help for your Loose Deuces video poker strategy. Here are the best ways that you can get that help.

Video Poker Trainers

We’re not talking about actual trainers as if you were training for a boxing match or something. What we’re actually referring to is software that is devoted to teaching people the right plays for every possible hand that they might be dealt when playing video poker. The best of this software is the kind that you have to purchase because that will give you the most comprehensive set of features.

Video poker training software allows you to play a simulated version of video poker as if you were actually playing for real money. If you play the hand correctly, based on the expected value, you can just move right along. But if you hold the incorrect cards, the software will alert you to your mistake and give you the correct option.

By using video poker training software on a regular basis, you will begin to understand the right plays as soon as you see them. Eventually, you’ll be able to walk into a casino, play a Loose Deuces video poker machine, and make quick, correct decisions every time. That will allow you to max out your potential profits, meaning that the initial money spent for the trainer will be well worth it.

Strategy Cards

Strategy cards can teach you the strategy that you need to know without your having to do any of the mathematical work. These cards can be found online for just about every version of video poker you might imagine, including Loose Deuces video poker. Simply print them out and begin to study.

Strategy cards essentially rank every possible combination of cards that you might get on the deal based on their winning potential. When you get your deal, you will look at all of the possible winning hand seeds you have. You then compare those to the way they are ranked on the card.

Once you find the combination that you have that is highest-ranked, it will allow you to know what to keep and what is inessential and can be discarded. Strategy cards would be foolproof if you could just bring them into the casino and consult them, but most casinos would frown upon such a practice.

Even if you could bring strategy cards into the casino and look at them every hand, such a style of play would be slow and would limit your opportunities to win. This is especially true on a game like Loose Deuces video poker where you can have a positive winning expectation.

For that reason, the best way to handle a strategy card is to memorize it. For a game like Loose Deuces video poker, this isn’t an easy task because there will be separate sections based on how many wild cards you receive on the deal. Some of the choices will be obvious, but in many cases, you won’t know which hold is better until you see the strategy card.

Yet the ability to memorize a strategy card will go a long way to being a consistent winner. After all, you can assure yourself of perfect play in this manner. If you really want to win, it’s a good idea to have your memorization down pat before entering a casino to play Loose Deuces video poker.

Quick Tips for Loose Deuces Video Poker

• Don’t Rely on High Cards: Many video poker variations require you to hold on to high cards because of the chance of pairing them up and making winning hands. But your goal in Loose Deuces video poker should be to acquire as many wild cards as possible. So, don’t be afraid to send those high cards back if they’re not attached to anything else that seems promising.
• Watch the Pay Table: If you’re used to playing a game like Jacks or Better, you might be accustomed to certain winning hands. But you have to remember that the threshold for winning hands is much higher in Loose Deuces video poker. As a result, playing for hands like two pair won’t get you very far.
• Play the Max: It can be tempting, especially if your bankroll is running low, to limit your wagers to less than five coins. But you have to remember that you are hurting yourself every time that you do that. On the off chance that you hit a royal flush, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve played the maximum five coins so you reap the ultimate rewards.

Pros and Cons of Loose Deuces Video Poker

Conclusion on Loose Deuces Video Poker

Loose Deuces video poker is one of the most coveted of all video poker variations by those players who really want to profit from the game. Chances are that any machine that you find will be very popular in the casino, and the game will also be a hot commodity on any top gambling websites that carry it. If you can get a seat and get those deuces with regularity, you could be in for some serious winnings.