Q.  Hey Joel,

Here's an interesting one that came up at a game last night:

The brackets indicate each player's hole card, which is wild throughout their hand.

Player 1: [A] 2 3 4 A
Player 2: [6] A 2 3 6

Two key additional factors: a) For this hand, the dealer had called that a Wheel (5-4-3-2-A, not a 6-4) was the Pefect Low.

b) In games with wild cards, this group plays that the more natural hand (using less wilds) wins.

So given all THAT, how would YOU have suggested we deal with the Low half of the pot? (At first it seems obvious, but it's deeply philosophical--as much as garbage poker can be, anyway.)

Thanks for your advice,

skt

A.  Hi Scott,

Great to hear from you. Congratulations on the new book, we'll have it listed as soon as we work the bugs out of the new bookshop.

The quick answer here in my opinion is that Player 1 wins. They're both showing a wheel, but player 1 is using less wild cards. Yes, the low Ace can be considered a wild card, but these properties need not be invoked to make his hand with both of the Aces in his hand. For player two to make this hand, he needs to make both of the sixes wild. So I would give it to player 1. That's my opinion, but here's another way to look at it if you want to find a way to disagree.

If you're a player that is of the mindset that a wild-card can only be a wild-card, and that if an Ace is wild, it's wild even if played as an Ace, you'd chop this pot. Both hands use 2 wild cards to make their wheel by this logic.

For those of you that don't know, Scott has just released a book on playing poker at home called Poker Nights, published through Barron's. Not to be confused with our own Poker Nights: The Dealer's Choice A-Z, published by Brady Games, but similar in content. Both are great books for the home player who wants a handy resource on game variations for the less-serious home player.

Great question Scott!

Joel the Scribe