Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Draw Poker—Joker Wild
Draw Poker—Joker Wild This variation of standard Draw Poker, commonly referred to as Joker Wild, is played exactly like standard Draw Poker, Jacks or Better, except that a joker is added to the standard 52-card deck, making it a 53-card deck. In this game the joker has unlimited powers and can be made to represent any card the holder desires. The addition of the joker to the standard deck adds 270,725 more hands—an increase of about 10 1/2%.
In an eight-handed game the favorable odds are about 3 to 1 that one
In an eight-handed game the favorable odds are about 3 to 1 that one of the eight players will be dealt the joker. However, unlike the Bug in California Draw Poker, the workings of the joker are found throughout most rank hands. For a player to play an expert game of Joker Wild, the player must be adept at the strategies described under standard Draw Poker and those involving California Draw Poker with the Bug. Study the distribution table that follows, which depicts the rank of hands in Joker Wild in descending order, and you'll develop a feel for how often the various rank hands are expected to appear pat when dealt from a 53-card deck.