Talk:Wild card (cards)

Wild card (card games)
As I work on links to the wild card dab page, it seems to me that there needs to be a broader description of wild cards that reflects that their usage is not limited to poker. In the meantime, wild card links in entries for other card games are being directed here. Planetneutral 05:31, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Requested move
I've gone ahead and requested a move to Wild card (playing cards) as an effort to incorporate links from the wide variety of non-poker card games that use wild cards. The content of the relocated article would change very little. If you have an opinion about this move, now's the time to voice it. Planetneutral 06:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Support idea to move but I don't like the parenthetical disambiguation in in the nomination. I don't remember if it is still in the MOS (or where it might be) but in general, titles should avoid containing active verbs like the (playing cards) would have. My suggestion would be Wild card (cards) or more likely Wild Card (card games). 205.157.110.11 14:48, 14 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I think that's fair, although playing is used an adjective in this case (although that may very well be what the rule is referring to - I plead a touch of ignorance there). I used Wild card (playing cards) because it was the pre-existing article that had been redirected to this page. If there is no further debate, I could move it to Wild Card (card games) without the redirect conflict that required me to request the move from the admins in the first place. Appreciate the input. Planetneutral 15:27, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

This article has been renamed as the result of a move request. Vegaswikian 09:25, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Weaker hands lose frequency?
I kind of disagree with this statement:

"For example, if you have a pair and a wild card, you will always choose three of a kind rather than two pair. This causes three of a kind to be more common than two pair."

Let's say your hand is KKJ2(wild). The wild card gives you all of the following hands: KKKJ2 (three of a kind), KKJJ2 (2 pair), KK22J (2 pair), KKJ2(kicker) (pair of Kings with any kicker). Those hands are ALL your option. If 2 pair were a higher value in your game than 3 of a kind, you'd choose 2 pair. So it actually doesn't make 3 of a kind a more common hand, it increases the frequency of all hands (since you have 52 options for what your wild card can be), and the player naturally chooses the best option.

-PK9 00:21, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

What I think the creator of the article was ttryign to say is that when you add a wildcard, higher ranking hands tend to appear more often,. This is the result from adding a wildcard to the game.


 * I agree with you PK9 about what was the creator intention, but I think his deduction is a fallacy, thus I added the "citation needed" tag. I actually DO think that, being ( as the article own words ) "no pair is most common" adding a single wild card to a hand with no pair it would produce a pair. Being a pair fairly more common than before but not as common as the "no pair". Well, this was not the topic disputed but, if we agree in that point, definetly "This causes three of a kind to be more common than two pair" is false, because one would (not counting the wild card) need a pair which is far more uncommon than no pair. Any thoughts ?

Sr.Bernat 11:39, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Certainly playing with wild cards will increase the occurence of higher valued hands. Whether it will, as suggested in the article, make 3 of a kind more common than a pair I don't know. It would depend on the number of wild cards used and rules affecting the way they are used. Playing with a joker will not change the odds of getting any particular hand greatly, but I have played in games where a dealer would call for dueces, jokers, one-eyed jacks and king with an ax to all be fully wild! Then you also have the factor of changable wild cards, such as low hole card in 7-card stud, where the last hole card can greatly change your hand if lower than your first 2 hole cards. I imagine that it would be possible to compute the probabilities involved for various wild card structures to see how the likely number of hands of a certain kind varies, but this is a bit beyond me. Wschart 21:10, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

The math of wild cards is not a bit beyond me. With one joker, 3-of-a-kind: 137,280...2 pair: 123,552. With deuces wild, 3-of-a-kind 355,080...2 pair 95,040. These are relatively elementary calculations using the most basic rules of combinatorics. The complete rank of the hands with deuces wild is: 5-of-a-kind, straight flush, full house, flush, 4-of-a-kind, straight, 2 pair, 3-of-a-kind, high card, one pair. Regardless, the normal rank is never re-ordered, no matter how crazy the dealer's choice game may be. At least I've never heard of it. You'd want to pass out cheat-sheets so the players would know what's what. 71.162.113.226 (talk) 18:19, 3 October 2020 (UTC)

no choice
Article says: “For example, if a player holds a pair and a wild card, they will always choose three of a kind rather than two pair.”

This is a fundamental misconception by people who don’t understand how poker is played. Every casino, and I can’t imagine a private game that doesn’t go along with this, has the rule: The cards speak for themselves. This means that it doesn’t matter what the player says he has (“chooses”)…his hand is what it is, and it always is the best it can be, wild cards or no. 71.162.113.226 (talk) 15:09, 3 October 2020 (UTC)