Starting Out With Double Joker Poker

In the category of video poker games that use wild cards, players generally have to pick between the ultra-volatile Deuces Wild and the seemingly boring Joker Poker. Double Joker Poker is a game that strikes a balance between these two video poker variations. It’s played with a 54-card deck that includes two fully-wild jokers that can be used to make the strongest hand possible. You need at least two pair to qualify in this game, and that makes non-wild, single pair hands stronger than they are in Deuces Wild. However, because you can’t qualify with any single pair hand, they’re not as strong as kings or aces in Joker Poker.

The first place to focus in Double Joker Poker is the draws. When you have a draw to a flush or straight, you’re going to notice that you’ll have more outs than normal if there are wilds left in the deck. This gives you better chances to hit your draws, but there’s some compensation for the house here in the fact that flushes and straights typically pay lower than they do in non-wild card games. It works out to be about even when everything is said and done.

Playing pair-based hands is pretty important in this game as well. If you have a single pair without anything to keep with it and no wild cards in your hand, then you should keep it and discard your other three cards. There is no qualifier on the two pair hand for getting paid, so hands as low as threes over deuces will get you a minimal payout. As far as strategy goes, this means that you should never keep a kicker with a small pair like you might do in five card draw games to try to get stronger two pair hands.

If you have a draw with a wild card (or even two), then you’re going to have an interesting time, especially if it’s a straight flush draw. Even if it’s a plain draw, you’ll also have outs to three of a kind because any pair will give you three of a kind thanks to the wild. This means that draws with a wild are extremely valuable hands in Double Joker Poker, and they should be played even more aggressively than you would play them in other forms of wild card video poker like Deuces Wild or plain Joker Poker.