Anything's Wild is a great video poker game. You get to choose which card to declare "wild" before each new game. The game uses a standard 52 card deck, so there are always 4 wild cards in play.
This game appeals to the superstitious gambler, in my estimation. Anything's Wild lets players with a "gut" feeling choose their own fate. If you think a five's going to be lucky, then you choose a five as your wild card on one hand. Or if nine is your everyday lucky number, choose 9 as your default wild card.
Of course, for a person like myself who enjoys figuring odds, Anything's Wild offered another kind of fascination. It was figuring out which number or face card offered the best odds of winning. After crunching the numbers, two is the number you should choose every time you play this game. It offers nearly 97% expectation.
Conversely, avoid choosing the number 10 at every cost. It offers the worst expectation, coming in at a sickening 92.7%. Interestingly, every number between 2 and 10 decreases your chances of winning, while each succeeding face card from Jack to Ace gives you a better chance to win.
Of course, what all of this means (if you choose to play perfect strategy) is that Anything's Wild is actually Deuces Wild. Sure, you can choose to play any wild card you want. But you end up choosing two every time, so you might as well be playing Deuces Wild. Since there are more of those machines out there, you are more likely to find one with better payoffs, anyway.
The coin options are pretty standard on this game. You can bet between 5 and 1 coins per hand. The coins usually cost between 25 cents and a dollar. You'll find the occasional five dollar version, too.
Be sure to click here for Antyhing's Wild Video Poker Payout Charts, Pay Tables, and Odds.
You might also be interested in the list of video poker games or our article about free video poker. And you can find more about video poker strategy here.
This page was written on August 9, 2006 and was last updated on September 18, 2007.
