how to adapt for wild cards

[jaundice]

I'm sorry for bringing up this topic that has probably already been discussed thousands of times and been written in books that I don't have, but how do you adapt for wild cards in a home game? We normally play NL Texas Holdem, but lately we've switched to dealers choice, and we've started playing a lot more draw with wild cards, up to five per hand- we still play no limit though. I've read the Super/System section on draw poker, but it doesn't really help with no-limit. We seem to end up with 3 or for people in each hand, most often ending up with 3 different trips with the highest taking it all. Sometimes there's a bigger raise, which is occasionally a flush but is more probably a full house or better.

In my first experience with this, there were two specific hands that I got spanked on, it really seemed that the maxim "don't raise when worse hands will fold and better hands will call" just ruined me.

First, I drew one card and ended with a jack high straight, and bet $5, a moderately high bet for this game. (antes are a quarter). He called after drawing 2 and showed an ace high straight with 2 wilds... probably had trips before the draw.

Second, I had trip jacks before the draw, and my opponent drew 3. I got two fours to make a full house, and bet $10, and then the other guy raised me $10. He showed down 4 aces. I could tell he had an eager look and he raised quickly, but I didn't expect a draw of 3 cards to make something better than jacks full.

How can I adjust my play to deal with this? Any suggestions?

[hutz]

with wild cards, up to five per hand

Are you talking about up to five different ranks of cards being wild? If so, you're talking about twenty wild cards in a deck. The minimum average expected winning hand with that many wilds will be quite high compared to a normal game. I'd be much less inclined to feel comfortable holding a flush, let alone a straight. You also need to establish a rule about whether five of a kind or a straight flush is higher (and whether having a "natural" version of a hand is better than using wild cards). Playing with that many wild cards is quite loopy but it should still give a skilled player an advantage because typical players will overvalue their weak (for this game) holdings like straights and flushes.

[jaundice]

First of all, I can't trust any legal advice from Lionel Hutz.

Second, I meant 5 separate cards- for example, all the jacks and a joker. From my first impressions of the game, this makes drawing to full houses or better from trips or less much, much easier.

[hutz]

First of all, I can't trust any legal advice from Lionel Hutz.

Well, it's a darn good thing I'm not giving any legal advice as part of our poker discussion then, huh? In fact, your card game well may be unlawful if you're playing in Illinois.

If there are five individual cards that are wild, it will increase the expected average winning hand, but not nearly as much as if five different ranks were wild. I'm no draw expert, but I'd expect that the average high hand would be a straight in the circumstances you described.