Anything's Wild Video Poker

Anything's Wild is a special version of the normal draw poker game. This game closely resembles Deuces Wild, same rules, similar payouts. The only difference is that the player gets to choose which card rank will become the Wild Card. Any card rank can be designated as Wild Card before each hand is played. Once selected as Wild Card, the four cards of that rank can be substituted for any other card rank in order to help the player created the strongest poker hand. To neutralize the player's advantage the machine only pays hands equal or over the three-of-a-kind (most video poker game lowest winning hand is a pair of Jacks or better). There are important things to keep in mind before playing this game. Below you will find tips and a strategy for playing Anything's Wild Video Poker.

Where to Play Anything's Wild Video Poker

Anything's Wild is not found in all brick and mortar casinos. The game was developed by International Game Technology or IGT. More and more casinos in Nevada, especially Las Vegas and Reno are furnishing their floor with IGT games. Anything's Wild is usually found in IGT's Game King, a multi-game machine that offers various video poker games.

Some Game King machines allow you to play Anything's Wild in multi-hand option. The multi-hand option is set for Triple, Five or Ten time play (the number of hands you play simultaneously).

How to Play Anything's Wild

If you have played a game such as Jacks or Better then you are ready to play Anything's Wild. The game rules are almost the same. Insert the money into the machine and select how many coin bets you want to wager per hand (1 through 5). Select which card you want as a Wild Card, any card from deuces to aces. Press the Deal button for the machine to deal your five initial cards. These five cards are dealt from a standard 52-card deck. After each hand is played this deck is shuffled electronically by the machine's random number generator.

Once you have your five cards select which cards (if any) you want to keep. Discard the rest by pressing the Deal button again and getting new cards. If you have anything equal or above a three-of-a-kind, the machine will make a payout according to this table:

Poker Hands	Coin 1	Coin 2	Coin 3	Coin 4	Coin 5
Natural Royal Flush	800	1600	2400	3200	4000
Four Wild Cards	200	400	600	800	1000
Wild Royal Flush	25	50	75	100	125
Five of a Kind	16	32	48	64	80
Straight Flush	13	26	39	52	65
Four of a Kind	4	8	12	16	20
Full House	3	6	9	12	15
Flush	2	4	6	8	10
Three of a Kind	1	2	3	4	5

There are two extra hands to the normal poker hand rank. The wild cards make it possible to get a five-of-a-kind and to create a Wild Royal Flush.

Tips and Strategy to Anything's Wild Video Poker

The first thing you must know before playing this game is which card is most efficient as a Wild Card. You might think that it really does not matter but in fact it makes a difference in the overall payout of the machine. Take a look at this chart:

Wild Card	Return in %
2	0.967651
3	0.959808
4	0.951641
5	0.943172
6	0.941659
7	0.940714
8	0.940348
9	0.939244
10	0.926779
J	0.935642
Q	0.944437
K	0.953023
A	0.950363

As you can see, selecting the 2's as Wild Card rather than the 10's makes a big difference. That's a 4% payback rate less if you pick the 10's. The payback return number you see is the estimated percentage of bets the machine will return over a long period of time. That means that if in 2 or more years the machine receives $10,000 in bets, optimally it will return $9,600 of those bets when it has a 96% payback rate. To insure getting the best payback rates the game has to be played with an optimal video poker strategy.

If you wonder why 10's or Jacks reduce the machine's payback rates compared to 2's or 3's, this can be answered with a very simple scenario. If you select the 10 cards as wild cards that means you can never complete a Natural Royal Flush. That's simply because you will always have a wild card, no matter which suit the 10 card has when you get a A,K,Q,J,10. You would only get paid a Wild Natural Flush.

Another way of understanding this is by studying the value of cards. A natural deuce (not as wild card) can complete less winning poker hands than, say, a 7. With deuces you can complete only two straights A,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6 while with seven you can complete several combinations: 3,4,5,6,7 – 4,5,6,7,8 – 5,6,7,8,9 – 6,7,8,9,10 and 7,8,9,10,J. As you can see the natural 7 card is more valuable than the natural deuce. Selecting Deuces as wild cards gives you extra edge.

It is hard to develop an optimal strategy for this game since there are many variables (relative wild cards). However, there are a few standard guidelines that can improve your winning rates when playing Anything's Wild:

Always hold a winning hand unless you have 4 cards to a Natural Royal Flush.
Never hold a kicker card with a pair. Two pairs do not pay on this game so you must aim for the three-of-a-kind
Discard everything and ask for 5 new cards if you have no 3 cards to a straight, flush or straight flush, no 2 to a Royal Flush, and no pair.

By the way, you can find information about free video poker games on our friend's site. And about free slots on our other slot machines website.

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