Wild Cards

1. A wild card is designated as a card that can be used to represent any card-value. They are not used in any standardized or commonly played poker games, but sometimes turn up in the rotation for home games.

Wild Card Rules

Fully Wild: A card that is completely wild can be named any card by its holder with no restrictions. For example, any natural pair and a wild card become three of a kind, natural trips become four of a kind, etc. Obviously, the best possible hand in this type of game is five of a kind.

The Bug Rule: When playing in a game where wild cards play as bugs, wild cards are designated as aces unless they can complete a straight, flush, or straght flush. For example, Q-Q-Joker-7-4 is simply a pair of queens with an ace kicker, but four hearts and a Joker can be played as a flush.

Exception: In games that use the 'Natural Wins Rule', if two players tie in any hand, the player who uses less wild cards is deemed the winner.

The Problem with Wild Card Games

While admittedly fun and sometimes a nice change of pace, wild card games are still silly and amateurish. Usually, the winning hand in wild card games is, you guessed it, the hand with the most wild cards. This essentially means that most of the other cards are irrelevant, which renders skill less important in these kinds of games.

Wild Card Bitches!

A common pop culture reference to "wild card" is derived from an episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia in which the character Charlie is the "wild card" among his group of friends.