Wild Card Poker Games
	If you love wild card poker games, try some of these at your next dealer's choice home game. At the bottom of the page there are playing tips for wild card games.

Bummer

Deal 4 hole cards to each player. Place 2 cards face down on the table. This game has a requirement that you MUST either fold or bet (or raise). No checking is allowed. Board cards are exposed one at a time after rounds of betting. The second board card (and any like ranked cards) is wild. May be played high-low split. The mandatory bets can be fixed (ie. the same bet amount on each round) or may be progressive. In progressive betting the required bet increases on each round. (eg. 1st round = $1, 2nd round = $2, 3rd = $3, 4th = $4). Click here for playing tips for Bummer

Wild Hex

"Hex" as in hexagonal. Each player is dealt 4 hole cards. Six cards are placed face down on the table in a hexagon shape. A seventh card is place in the middle of the hexagon and it designates the wild card, but is not itself used in play. 2 cards are revealed at a time in this order (starting with 1 at the top): 1&3, 4&6, 2&5. The middle "wild" card is revealed last. Any other cards of that rank that are held in a players hand are wild. Any cards of the same rank that are among the 6 board cards are not wild. Thus there are a maximum of 3 wild cards. Players make their hand by choosing from any 3 consecutive board cards (ie. 123, 234, 345, 456, 561, 612) along with their 4 hole cards. May be played high-low split.

Criss-Cross Wild

Place 5 cards face down on the table with 1 vertical row of 3 cards, and one card placed on either side of the middle card to form a horizontal row of 3 cards. The middle card and all like ranked cards are wild. Four cards are dealt to each player. Players select any 5 cards from their 4 hole cards plus the 3 cards in either the vertical row or the horizontal row to make their hand. Each down card is exposed after a round of betting, with the middle wild card exposed last. May be played high-low split.

7 Card Stud - Low Hole Wild
	7 card stud with the lowest hole card (and like ranked cards) held by each player being wild. It can be played exactly like the "regular" 7 card stud, but there are also several variations that can be employed based upon the options that are provided below.

Roll your own hole cards. Deal each of the first 3 cards down. Each player is the allowed to select the 2 cards to keep in the hole and the one card to expose.

7th street option. In stud your 7th street card is normally dealt as a down card. This raises the possibility of drawing a lower card that changes your wild card. The 7th street option allow you to expose that card should you wish to. You would then have 5 exposed cards instead of 4 and only 2 hole cards. This option protects you from having your wild card suddenly changed, something you wouldn't want happening if you held 2 threes in the hole as wild cards and drew a deuce on 7th street.

Roll all your own. Deal all the cards face down. The player makes the decision of which card to expose on 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th street. This variation almost guarantees that a player is able to select and keep the most advantageous wild cards in the hole. Obviously, the roll all your own option makes the other 2 options unnecessary.

Baseball

7 card stud with 3s and 9s wild. Any wild card that is dealt as an exposed card requires that player to either pay into the pot or to fold. The payment can be a pre-determined fixed amount or it can be the total amount in the pot at that time. Addtionally, any player who is dealt a 4 as either an up or hole card receives another card (dealt as a hole card). A less costly version will designate only one of the wild cards (ie. either 3s OR 9s) as requiring a payment to the pot.

Follow the Queen
	Played as 7 card stud. Whenever a queen is dealt as an up card, the very next up card dealt becomes a wild card (and the other 3 of the same rank). If subsequent queen(s) are dealt as up cards the next up card is wild and the previous wild card is no longer wild. If the very last up card is a queen or there are no queens dealt up there are no wild cards.

Countdown

Countdown is typically played as 7 card stud, although it could also be used for most poker games. In Countdown the wild card is variable and is determined at the end of the game prior to the last round of betting. The wild card is determined by the number of players remaining in the hand at that point. For example, if played as 7 card stud if there are 4 players left at 7th street, then 4's are wild. If 3 players, 3's are wild, etc.

5 Card Stud - Hole Card Wild
	Played exactly like 5 card stud. Each player's hole card and any like ranked card they hold is wild. Can be played high only or high-low split.

Draw Poker with Joker

5 card draw poker with 1 joker added to the deck. It is played high only. The joker serves as a wild card, but in a limited way. It may be used to complete straights and flushes and also as an ace, but not for any other purpose. This variation of draw poker is sufficiently "main stream" that you may actually find it played in a casino card room. If you are interested, you can find out quite a bit more in Doyle Brunson's Super System

Ace to Five Lowball with Joker
	Draw poker played low only with the best hand being 5432A. One joker is added to the deck. The joker is wild and may be used as any card. Only the ranks of the cards are important as straights and flushes are ignored.

Deuces, Jacks & the Man with the Ax
	5 card draw poker with all deuces, all jacks and the king of diamonds (i.e. the "man with the ax") wild. Nine wild cards. Go nuts!

Playing Tips for Wild Card Poker Games
	Playing wild card games is virtually the same as playing in any non-wild card game. The adjustments you make are determined by the number and nature of the wild cards and the realization that holding wild cards is far better than holding any other card.

Wild Cards are Much Better
	This is by no means a revelation of any hidden truth. Intuitively, anyone who has played wild card poker knows that holding a wild card is better than holding any other card. Even so I want to demonstrate how important wild cards are. Let’s say you are playing a wild card version of 7 card stud and there are 4 wild cards.

Imagine that in two consecutive hands you are dealt the same starting hand: trip aces. In the first hand you have a pair of aces and one wild card. What are your chances of improvement to 4 of a kind? On fourth street 5 cards will make you 4 of a kind: 3 wild cards and 2 aces. Likewise, on fifth, sixth and the river you have these same 5 cards to make your hand. Of course, if you end up pairing one of your other cards you will improve to a full house. But, that might just be a problem. Aces full may seem to be too good to throw away but might still be vulnerable, especially with lots of players in the hand. It is the kind of hand where you may win a small pot, but lose a big one.

In the very next hand you have the same trip aces, but this time made from a pair of wild cards and a single ace. What are your chances of improving to 4 of a kind? Again, on fourth street there are 5 cards: 3 aces and 2 wild cards. But this is where the similarity to the first example ends. Because you have 2 wild cards all you need to do to make 4 of a kind is to pair any of your other cards. Thus, on fifth street you now have 8 outs, on sixth street you have 11 and on the river it’s 14. Granted, your chances of improvement in either example is reduced whenever one of the cards you need is dealt to another player.

How Many Wild Cards?

Be sure you differentiate between games where players share a common wild card or cards (like Bummer or Criss-Cross) and games where each wild card belongs to just one player (like Baseball or Follow the Queen). When there are shared wild cards you must consider that everyone has (at least) one. It is as though there are as many wild cards as there are active players, plus any other cards of the same rank. If there are 6 active players, that is a total of 9 wild cards. Another thing to keep in mind is that you will have no advantage over any of the other players unless you have additional wild cards yourself.

Without shared wild cards, there is just the number of wild cards that were designated for the game. Additionally, every wild card that you hold is one less for another player to hold. On the other hand, if you don't have any wild cards yourself you are the one at a big disadvantage.

Wild Cards Mean Higher Hands
	Again, this is something that you know intuitively. The more wild cards that are used in a game, the higher the hand you will need to win. You must adjust your standards to reflect this.

Read Your Hand Correctly

With wild cards determining your hand can sometimes be complicated. Take your time to evaluate and determine the best hand you could have. Often at the beginning of a hand you'll make an assumption on where your hand is heading. Be alert for the possibility that your hand has turned out differently by the end. At the showdown, don't be too quick to muck a hand that you think is beaten. The other player may have misread his hand or you may actually have a better hand than you originally thought.

An Alternative Point of View
	Apparently, even at HomePokerEdge.com, not everyone thinks well of wild card poker games. One of them found this quotation and is making us insert it.

"Poker teaches self-reliance, self-control, self-respect, self-denial, and independence. But when cards are wild or are given fictitious authority, the noble game is robbed of its romance, grace and stimulation and degenerates into a gambling scheme." ~ Henry Fountain Ashurst