Playing for Fun: Wild Cards 2 - Non-fixed Wilds

In this kind of wild card game, the wild status is not fixed on any particular rank, but is determined by each player’s individual hand, and is subject to change. A good simple example of this type of game is “Low in the high, high in the low” 7-card stud (the betting structure follows regular hi-lo stud’s).

Each player’s lowest card in their own hand is wild in their high hand, and the highest card wild in their low hand. Ace is neither high nor low and cannot be wild. For this example, A-5 is the best low.

So, on fifth street two hands might be as follows:

Dana (Ks As) 2d 4h 6h
Ben (4c 4d) Qd Qc Ad

Dana’s low card, wild in her high hand: 2. So her high hand is at present a pair of Aces, (one being the 2d) with a King kicker.
Dana’s high card, wild in her low hand: K. So her low hand is at present A 2 K(3) 4 6.

Ben’s low card, wild in his high hand: 4. His high hand is at present four of a kind, Queens, Ace kicker.
Ben’s high card, wild in his low hand: Q. He has no low – the best is A Q(2) Q(3) 4 4, which contains a pair of fours. A low card (5-8 ONLY) would give him a low hand, however.

Fast forwarding to the end of the hand, and you can see what a difference moveable wilds make.

Dana (Ks As Kc) 2d 4h 6h 6c
Ben (4c 4d 5s) Qd Qc Ad 2c

Dana’s low card, wild in her high hand: 2. High hand: Full house, Ks Kc 2(K) 6h 6h.
Dana’s high card, wild in her low hand: K. Low hand: A 2 K(3) 4 K(5) nut low.

Ben’s low card, wild in his high hand: 2. High hand: Full house Qd Qc 2(Q) 4c 4d.
Ben’s high card, wild in his low hand: Q. Low hand: A 2 Q(3) 4 5 nut low.

Ben had an extra low wild (Q) but didn’t need to use it. There are rules whereby the fewer wild cards used to make a hand, the better it is (see Wild Cards 3 - The Purity Rule) but in this case the outcome of the hand would be simply that Dana wins the high with the bigger full house, and the low is chopped evenly between them.

Ben being dealt the 2 on sixth street messed up his high hand, as it undercut his previously lowest card, the 4. There’s nothing you can do about this – it’s just part of the game. There are obviously ‘safer’ wild cards like the K and 2 which cannot be changed during the course of a hand as they are the highest and lowest cards respectively.

Another couple of interesting non-fixed wilds games are Jumpers and Leaners:

Jumpers: Alternate cards of the same suit become wild
Leaners: Consecutive cards of the same suit become wild

There are a couple of extra rules which govern each of these games – you can connect a string of, say, Leaners so if your hand is 2h 3h 4h Jd 8d you hold a straight flush in diamonds, 8 to Jack.

You can lean (or jump) round corners i.e. Kc Ac 2c would all become wild in Leaners. Qd Ad 3d would all become wild in Jumpers.

You can only use one set of Leaners (or Jumpers) as wild cards. Therefore 5h 6h Js Qs Ac is not a Royal Flush in clubs, but a straight, 5(10) J Q 6(K) A.

To use a set of Leaners or Jumpers as wild cards, both must be used in your final 5-card poker hand, you can’t just treat a single one on its own as wild.

Playing flop games (well, mainly Omaha) with these wild cards adds an extra few minutes on to the hand-reading, decision-making process, at least at first, because it adds the extra dimension of Leaning (or Jumping) with the flop…Remember that in Omaha you must use Two And Only Two cards from your hand, and exactly three from the board. A different two-three combination may be used for your high and low hands (A-5 the best low in this case).

Example:
Dana holds: 2d 3h 4h 8d
Ben holds: Ad 3c 6h 6s
The board is: 4s 5h 8s Jd Kd

Dana’s high hand: Royal Flush 3h(10d) Jd 4h(Qd) Kd 5h(Ad)

Dana’s low hand: 4h(A) 2d 5h(3) 4s 8s (although there are multiple ways of making this low, for example, using the set of three wilds: 3h(A) 4h(2) 5h(3) 4s 8s). Either way, the best low she can make is an eight smooth, A 2 3 4 8.

Ben’s high hand: Royal Flush 5h(10d) Jd 6h(Qd) Kd Ad

Ben’s low hand: A 2 3 4 5 (again there are multiple ways of achieving this, one being Ad Kd(2) 3c 4s 5h. The Ad-Kd are leaners, and therefore wild (they are both used here) but the Ad can stand for itself; as long as it is used in the hand, the Kd is a wild card).

In this instance, Ben and Dana would tie for the high, and Ben win the low. For an extra set of rules to break this tie, see Wild Cards 3 – The Purity Rule.

This kind of game is usually played fixed limit – with such huge hands possible and such possibility for improvement at the turn of one card it’s usual for most players to be in quite a long way. The unpredictability of these games makes for an imprecise science when it comes to actually playing them, but I’ve found that if they’re played predominately for fun, then that is what you get.

There are lots of other wild card varieties, but if you can play these then all others will be obvious. The nice thing about kitchen table poker variants is that they are endless: a brief search online will turn up dozens of them.