Airport (Illinois) Deuces Wild Strategy and Pay Table
Airport, or Illinois, Deuces Wild uses the same wild-card categories as NSUD but reduces two upper-middle payouts. Five of a kind pays 15-for-1 and a straight flush pays 9-for-1.
- Perfect-play return
- 98.91%
- House edge
- 1.09%
- Sharper Edge volatility
- Mediumvolatility Medium, level 3 of 5
Overview
How this game plays
The wild-card decision framework remains central, but successful five-of-a-kind and straight-flush outcomes return less than on NSUD. Sharper Edge rates it Medium volatility and Advanced strategy.
The return shown is the configured long-run return at max bet with exact strategy, not a prediction for a single session.
Advanced
Who it suits
- NSUD players learning to recognize a short-pay Deuces Wild table.
- Advanced learners comparing two payout changes inside one ruleset.
- Players drilling wild-royal and deuce-count decisions with exact feedback.
Airport/Illinois
Full pay table and rules
Payouts below are credits returned for wagers of one through five coins. Sharper Edge practice always uses the five-coin maximum, highlighted at right.
| Hand | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,000 | 4,000* |
| Straight Flush | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Four Deuces | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1,000 |
| Wild Royal Flush | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Five of a Kind | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 | 75 |
| Four of a Kind | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Full House | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Flush | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Straight | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Three of a Kind | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
All four 2s are wild and stand in for any card. Minimum paying hand: three of a kind — pairs and two pair pay nothing. Standard play uses a 52-card deck, a five-card deal, one draw, and any hold from zero through five cards.
*The starred royal category returns 250-for-1 below max bet and 800-for-1 at the five-coin maximum. In this Deuces Wild game, that bonus applies to the natural royal; the separate wild royal remains at its listed payout. Return and edge shown on this page assume max bet and exact strategy.
Pay-table identity
What makes it different
The same wild-deuces skeleton as NSUD with two lines shaved: five of a kind pays 15-for-1 instead of 16, and the straight flush pays 9-for-1 instead of 10. Everything else matches.
Those two lines cost 0.82 percentage points of return — 99.73% down to 98.91%. It is the Deuces Wild version of a short-pay table: looks identical to the good one, pays meaningfully less.
What to practice
Strategy priorities
- 1Five-of-a-kind and straight-flush draws lose value relative to NSUD.
- 2Use this exact table for close decisions instead of assuming every NSUD hold transfers unchanged.
- 3The wild-royal, four-deuces, and lower made-hand payouts match NSUD.
Worked decision
The wild-royal draw still beats the flush
Discard 7♦ and keep the deuce with A♦ K♦ Q♦.
Four to the wild royal: 3.489 EV per coin · made flush: 3.000.
Airport changes the five-of-a-kind and straight-flush rows, not the wild-royal or flush rows involved in this deal. The same one-card draw remains the exact best hold.
EV is per coin and comes from enumerating every legal draw for this exact five-card deal.
Baseline
Compared with 9/6 Jacks or Better
Airport (Illinois) Deuces Wild changes both the payouts and the decision priorities. Percentage-point deltas below use 9/6 Jacks or Better as the reference.
| Metric | Airport (Illinois) Deuces Wild | 9/6 baseline | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect-play return | 98.91% | 99.54% | ▼ −0.63 pp |
| House edge | 1.09% | 0.46% | ▲ +0.63 pp |
| Sharper Edge volatility | Medium | Low | ▲ +1 levels |
Keep comparing
Related pay tables
Turn the pay table into a decision habit
Practice Airport (Illinois) Deuces Wild with all 32 holds ranked by exact EV, then review the cost of every decision separately from the cards you happened to draw.