DJ Wild

No, this is not DJTeddyBear's latest roulette side bet. It is a poker-based game in which deuces and a joker are wild. It involves a blind bet, no dealer opening hand, and a fold/raise decision. You can find all the rules plus my analysis and strategy at my new page on DJ Wild.

I saw the game at the New York New York on Thursday. The table was packed at the time and the players seemed to like it.

As always, I welcome comments, questions, suggestions, and especially corrections.

The question for the poll is would you play DJ Wild?

Definitely some potential in that game, I'd think.

Should say "hands are ranked highest to lowest" no?

I watched a bunch of hands at Greektown a few weeks ago. The players seemed to like it. I mentioned it in the Detroit casino thread. Would I play it? No, unless... :-X

I wonder if there's a "disc jockey" that goes by the name DJ Wild in vegas. It would seem fitting for out here.

The frequency of getting paid on the Blind bet seems to be about 1 in 17 hands. Wiz, did you figure out what the RTP on the Blind bet only? Wonder how it compares to the Blind RTP in UTH?

Quote: Paradigm

The frequency of getting paid on the Blind bet seems to be about 1 in 17 hands. Wiz, did you figure out what the RTP on the Blind bet only? Wonder how it compares to the Blind RTP in UTH?

I'm surprised it's only 1 in 17. With 5 wild cards to work with, and starting with the same threshold as in UTH, I would've guessed it would be about 1 hand in 5 would qualify, with maybe 20-25% of those losing to a better dealer hand. Total SWAG on the numbers, but 1 in 17 seems really low.

EDIT: ok, I take it back; I ran the numbers, and Paradigm is on target. Sure feels like better than 1 in 17 to play it, but it must be the 5 out of 5 cards (rather than 5 out of 7 like UTH) that makes such a difference in frequency (all Blind pay hands use 5 cards except 4OAK).

Looks awesome! hope they bring it to STL sometime! I LOVE wild cards! It's kind of a shame that only Pai Gow uses the joker as far as common games go, they should use the joker more often! glad to see the most fun card in the deck getting more use.

Quote: Wizard

No, this is not DJTeddyBear's latest roulette side bet.

Sigh, no. But I'll take the eye-candy!

I have only one comment about the review. You list the odds of the five wilds as 0.000000 . Shouldn't you list that as <0.000001 ?

No, I wouldn't play. Way too carnival for my tastes.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

You list the odds of the five wilds as 0.000000 . Shouldn't you list that as <0.000001 ?

It just rounds to 0.000000 to six decimal places. The actual probability 1/combin(53,5) = 0.0000003484703.

Interesting. I stayed at NYNY end of March and the table was always empty, the rack was always completely full of chips, and the dealers always looked miserable. I thought it looked like a failure. Never even saw them raise the table above a $5 minimum, even on weekend nights.

Quote: Paradigm

The frequency of getting paid on the Blind bet seems to be about 1 in 17 hands. Wiz, did you figure out what the RTP on the Blind bet only? Wonder how it compares to the Blind RTP in UTH?

The Blind wins with probability 5.98%, or 1 in 16.7 hands. The expected LOSS on the Blind is 38.2%.

I noticed it at Horseshoe Cleveland when I was passing through a couple of months ago. They had two tables and both were jammed with people waiting for seats. I'd try it, since strategy seems simple enough. I'd be curious as to how much the pit worries about collusion in this game.

Quote: Wizard

The Blind wins with probability 5.98%, or 1 in 16.7 hands. The expected LOSS on the Blind is 38.2%.

Yeah, that seems a bit steep to me and will impact the feel of the game to the player, IMHO. I believe the Super Bonus in Crazy Four with its -0.34 RTP gets paid about twice as often.

I don't know what the limitations are on using a mandatory highly negative compensating bet as the mechanism to claw back HE, but DJ Wild has to be getting close with its Blind set up. That being said, the only opinion that matters is the players voting with their $$$ and that seems to be working so far.

Quote: Paradigm

Yeah, that seems a bit steep to me and will impact the feel of the game to the player, IMHO. I believe the Super Bonus in Crazy Four with its -0.34 RTP gets paid about twice as often.

I'm hoping to play at the NYNY this evening to get a better feeling for the "fun factor." Anybody want to join me?

I must admit that before I heard of Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em I would have been skeptical of this idea of mandating a very negative side bet. I considered such an idea for my own Ties Win Blackjack, but only briefly, as I didn't want to complicate the game and I thought forcing a side bet would seem like a jip.

However, I would have been proven wrong. UTHE is a big success. Players don't seem to view the Blind as a mandated side bet but as a natural part of the game. Multiple times I've heard players debate about how the casino gets its edge in the game. I've tried to explain that it comes from the Blind bet, which rarely wins, but of course other players look at me like I'm just another clown who doesn't know what he's talking about.

Wish I could join you.....I think the fact that this Blind bet rarely gets paid (the 1 in 17 hands frequency) is going to highlight the bad bet component of this game's blind. Wiz, I didn't see on UTH and it is quite a task to add up that results pay table (unlike the Crazy Four Blind pay table results), how frequently does the UTH Blind get paid? I know the expectation is like -0.31, but if it got paid like one in 7-8 hands, that would be disguised to the player.

Quote: Paradigm

Wish I could join you.....I think the fact that this Blind bet rarely gets paid (the 1 in 17 hands frequency) is going to highlight the bad bet component of this game's blind. Wiz, I didn't see on UTH and it is quite a task to add up that results pay table (unlike the Crazy Four Blind pay table results), how frequently does the UTH Blind get paid? I know the expectation is like -0.31, but if it got paid like one in 7-8 hands, that would be disguised to the player.

In UTH, the blind hits 8.74% of the time, or once in 11 hands or so, so that during a typical session, you are subliminally aware enough "that it pays," that it feels like a positive bet to make.

It's when the negative prop bet hit frequency exceeds this 1 in 11-or-so hands by too much that we become aware that "it ain't really paying." But the blind bet allows the Raise feature, which is what we really notice - getting paid on the raises, but the blind bet must not be essentially dead all the time, or else its disguise wears off and it becomes noticed that it is functioning as a heavy vig or commission for that raise feature.

I don't know if it is too rare on DJ Wild, time and patronage will tell.

I think the mindset of the player is how much did he win/loss in total. He doesn't care which bet it came from or why. I bet if an errant dealer didn't mandate the players make the blind bet in UTHE, most players will would.

I tend to agree with the 1 in 11 threshold......sort of like a side bet, anything less than that starts to feel like a sucking sound on your bankroll. With UTH you also get that 4X raise (HUH gives you the 3X raise). DJ Wild is a 2X raise and a less frequent pay on the Blind..... but as PGD says, it will come down to patronage!

I played for about an hour this evening. The table was running cold so the excitement level was subdued. One thing that struck me was the pace of the game was very slow. Normally casinos put their worst dealers on field trial games, which may partially explain it. One thing that could speed up the game is if the player folds then he automatically loses his Trips bet. It wasted a lot of time to check the hands of players who folded for a win on the Trips. If a player had a paying trips hand, then he probably isn't going to fold to begin with.

Nevertheless, the table had a couple die hard players who I think had been playing it a long time. Another player looked like a boxer who was there for the big fight. He just sat there and played -- very badly -- raising on garbage.

Quote: Wizard

I'm hoping to play at the NYNY this evening to get a better feeling for the "fun factor." Anybody want to join me?

I must admit that before I heard of Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em I would have been skeptical of this idea of mandating a very negative side bet.

Hey it worked out well for Lunar Poker too mandating that Super bet, I love that game! They need to make a 7 card stud table game with a joker and a wild jack of clubs (or whatever is wild in that one version of stud) that would be freaking cool! Like I said before, we need more games with wild cards so I really hope DJ Wild makes it out my way, based on your experience can you see it becoming more widespread?

I played it for a good session tonight, 11PM to 1AM.

Very Decent. Fun, easy to deal and play, no dealer had a problem.

And, I was on constant anticipation of getting dealt wilds. I must admit, the anticipation of getting a few wild cards was a draw as a player; I was thinking about it every time I was getting my cards, - as the first thing to look for in the hand. This was a bit counter-balanced by frequently seeing the dealer get them. [Once, the dealer had a wild quint 7's - three deuces, a joker, and a 7. People screamed, but that's rare.]

Because wilds are so big in this game, I did appreciate the higher payouts for natural good hands. The layout pay tables were well designed with a natural payouts to the right of the wild payout on the same payout line; having a 16-line paytable is a chore, so, this was an elegant solution. Plus, I saw a lot of natural trips, so the added natural payouts were sweet. In $500, out $300 hours later, but had fun, no regrets.

It was a Saturday night at NYNY, and the game was a little bit slow. I bought in on a dead game, and played for 10 minutes when two guys, apparently friends, jumped on for a half-hour. Aside from that, it was just me, and later my wife joined.

Overall, very fine, but not UTH-level compelling, yet way better and near the top of the sea of new game field trials this spring, of a crop of five.

Good points:
1. As a player-versus-dealer game, it had very good give and take. Winning every other hand on average means a lot, which asks why play table games like MS, LIR, and the like that are rough, especially if multiple units to play out the hand. No "paytable sweat-the-win" here. Actually, it feels like Crazy4Poker to play, which is good. Minimum hand? 4's. Try it, face the dealer, win half the time, and find yourself a streak or a big hand, - more likely either way with wilds present.
2. This game has GREAT "Poker Eye effect:" you can see your playing position strength, how strong you are from what's dealt. No counting outs, no heavy strategy like Double Draw Poker, etc. Got a pair of 4's? Okay, play, else fold. Very sensible and straightforward play with a combination of anticipation [of getting wilds], and a decision point [to Play/fold].
3. Dealer always qualifies: Scratch out a win, especially when you gamble on a borderline hand, - your Ante is always paid, too. Much appreciated.
4. Games like this, [and High Card Flush and Poker with a Joker] that are getting traction may help to finally kill off old dogs like LIR, MS, etc. Evolution is relentless.
5. Easy to jump onto for slot players who dabble on table games, like my wife. They know what wild deuces are. "I have a King and two deuces - so that's trips - play it!" That's part of the appeal and sensibility of the game.
6. The lack of the raise bet really helps players to play by correct strategy, and keeps them in the game. On a new game, not knowing when to raise when a raise is a "should do" burns out players for the abandonment of the game. In this way it is a "safe" game like Three Card Poker, and not a rough game like Double Draw Poker, which had a lot of casualties and abandonment.

"Neutrals:"
1. One can say that this might Cannibalize SHFL's older games that are still on the floor with these newer games replacing them. So what. This is actually not a con: If DEQ, Galaxy or AGS were to cannibalize their games, however, then that would be SHFL problem to allow a market share loss. This replacement scenario may be just updating the portfolio and cycling in better products to maintain market share, which is a win in a competitive industry. In this regard, and if DJ Wild becomes popular, it'll serve both expansion and maintenance to remove the obsolete, which is something every company does to shore up things. It if just swaps out the older stuff, then every such replacement keeps the operator in the fold, even if not a blockbuster.
2. Decent, but not awesome.

Other:
1. No raise: play 2x or fold, pick one. Again, so what, but the raise would be nice, and is desirable for top-level players who can play strategy. But this also promotes the Trip plus to be bet, to win bigger on big hands, which is a plus for the operator. Plus, adding a raise would have sacrificed the nice "Dealer always qualifies" feature and the blind bet pay table, so this is a good solution.

Does anyone else think it's a little wierd that 5 of a kind beats a straight flush and loses to a royal?

Quote: bigfoot66

Does anyone else think it's a little wierd that 5 of a kind beats a straight flush and loses to a royal?

Isn't it in between the two in DW video poker? Yes I know there is no joker there but still...

Quote: bigfoot66

Does anyone else think it's a little wierd that 5 of a kind beats a straight flush and loses to a royal?

The knee-jerk reaction is that a Royal is nothing but a specific Straight Flush, so why slip the Five of a Kind in-between?

But once you give the Royal it's own payline, it's quite acceptable to put the next item ranked by probability on the next line.

I.E. 5oak is more more likely than a Royal, but less likely than a SF.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

The knee-jerk reaction is that a Royal is nothing but a specific Straight Flush, so why slip the Five of a Kind in-between?

But once you give the Royal it's own payline, it's quite acceptable to put the next item ranked by probability on the next line.

I.E. 5oak is more more likely than a Royal, but less likely than a SF.

They are allowed to structure the game however they want. But I can't see this flying in a live poker game. Also a royal is just a certain type of straight flush. It is just as hard to make a 5-9 straight flush as a royal.

Not sure how often you update the WOO page, but in California this game is at Red Hawk Casino in Placerville. Not sure which paytables are in use, but did see it there about a month ago (table was open and a couple of people were playing, midweek, midday)

Seems fun. Glad they didn't make the trips bet rediculous HE. I'll try it next time I'm in Vegas.

One of my favorites!

Quote: Hittem

One of my favorites!

Another old thread with a new life, cool, I hit, took me back to the beginning. I kept trying to read the intelligent responses, but I kept being drawn into the initial pic. I'm lost in here, but it's warm and cozy.....

I am heading to Vegas next week. I heard that DJ Wild is at Harrah's now. Is there any truth to that? Is it anywhere else in town? Thanks for the heads up in advance.

Quote: BirdiemachineDF

I am heading to Vegas next week. I heard that DJ Wild is at Harrah's now. Is there any truth to that? Is it anywhere else in town? Thanks for the heads up in advance.

I can verify that it was there Labor Day weekend when I was there.

I don't think the table is open 24/7 though...

Quote: ams288

I can verify that it was there Labor Day weekend when I was there.

I don't think the table is open 24/7 though...

Sorry to be a pest, but did it have the two way bad beat and trips side bets? Did you also see the table minimums? Thanks for your helo

Quote: BirdiemachineDF

Sorry to be a pest, but did it have the two way bad beat and trips side bets? Did you also see the table minimums? Thanks for your helo

$5 mins.

I have no idea about the side bets, I didn't look that closely. I just saw the table in passing a few times as I was going to and from the monorail station.

Harrahs has the 2way. The bad beat is the real money
Maker in this game . I just hit Quads vs straight flush for 300:1 on my 20 bucks.

You will not Come out ahead just banking on winning hands it is hard to play for a long time and a small bankroll . I enjoy it here in Cleveland and at harrahs .

Quote: Wizard

You can find all the rules plus my analysis and strategy at my new page on DJ Wild.

Update, Greektown no longer has DJ Wild. Hollywood Toledo did but not sure if they still do.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

Quote: Wizard

You can find all the rules plus my analysis and strategy at my new page on DJ Wild.

Update, Greektown no longer has DJ Wild. Hollywood Toledo did but not sure if they still do.

I was just at Hollywood on Tuesday and I played it for the first time. Didn't do well but still had fun.

Thunder Valley Casino near Sacramento, California is advertising this game. I'll try to visit soon.

Question about strategy on the WOO page:
Raise with a pair of fours or better, except with two fours and a three singleton. Otherwise fold.

I don't understand the "except with two fours and a three singleton" part—if you have two 4s and a 3, that's still a pair of fours or better. The next sentence is "The three singleton exception makes sense because a pair of fours will beat a pair of threes, and the chances of the dealer getting a pair of threes is significantly less with one of them in the player's hand."

Am I misinterpreting how it's written?

Oh wait, I think I'm getting it—you FOLD when you have a 3 because then it's unlikely the dealer has a pair of 3s, so having two 4s is less of an advantage? Is that it?

That's it. The 3 in your hand is one less for the dealer to have. The math makes that the tipping point between raise and fold.

This is a fun one. Enjoy.

How often should you get a qualified trips hands with 5 wild cards. I’ve been getting crushed not playing trips, had several natural 4 of a kind and full houses, etc. I seem to get one 4 of a kind every hour. Back to back or up to 3 or 4 quads in an hour. I think you are better off playing trips in DJ vs playing Trips in UTH. Also getting paid off on the ante on every winning hand is huge, since the dealer does not have to qualify. So it’s equivalent to betting 3x on UTH. The beauty about this game is it allows you to vary your bets vs UTH which becomes difficult as it gets really expensive. The game goes in streaks, kind of like black and red in roulette or player vs banker in Baccarat. Bet the minimum when you lose, and when you win start pressing up to 3 or 6 times the minimum bet. I’ve been putting in massive hours in this game. No longer playing UTH.

With 5 wild cards, you will get a qualified trips hands 22.0855% of the time.

See the table here: WOO

Quote: gordonm888

With 5 wild cards, you will get a qualified trips hands 22.0855% of the time.

See the table here: WOO

So about 1 every 4 or 5 hands. I've begin to play them after the 5th non qualified hands. I think I went all the way up to 10 hands without trips, and after the 9th hand I bet $50 on the trips and $25 on the BB and ended up getting quads and the BB. But it rarely gets past 6 hands, and you will see at least trips

My local casino recently installed DJ Wild, however a couple of the dealers who are used to Caribbean Stud sometimes deal it with one of their cards face up. Does anyone know a strategy for this or if it is beatable?

Quote: Noncompete

My local casino recently installed DJ Wild, however a couple of the dealers who are used to Caribbean Stud sometimes deal it with one of their cards face up. Does anyone know a strategy for this or if it is beatable?

Good question. I do not.

I saw this game at Granton casino and I even took a pamphlet of the game. I will share it with you guys. I never play any game I can't gain a greater edge than my edge in poker.

P.S. I think it's in storage, just need to find it.

Quote: Noncompete

My local casino recently installed DJ Wild, however a couple of the dealers who are used to Caribbean Stud sometimes deal it with one of their cards face up. Does anyone know a strategy for this or if it is beatable?

For the life of me I can't remember where I saw it but somebody did the math on this and posted publicly that seeing one dealer card does not shift the edge to the players in this game. That info was not taking into consideration seeing the other players cards. With the covid rules it's probably dealt face up which I imagine will barely be enough to shift the edge in the players favor but developing a near-perfect intuitive strategy would be tough. The only 2 installations I knew about of this game disappeared shortly after the re-opening.

If anyone sufficiently skilled here is willing to do the simulation work (for a reasonable fee) let's talk.

I'm sure running simulations is reasonable easy - as you just cycle through all the cards left, after looking at the other hands, to work out what the dealer might make each time. I believe there's already a report that suggested that casinos should not deal this with too many players.

Even if you knew the game was beatable, or near even money, simulations would work out when you should play/fold, but only give you totals that with lower hands you often played and higher hands you occasionally didn't.

I did this for 3-card poker once, depending on how many cards you peeked, you fairly often played less than Qxx and sometimes folded good Qxx's. I suspect for reasonable numbers, you always played Kxx.

I can imagine running simulations for this game would create a similar result.

I will be posting a series of posts, every couple of days, on Strategy and Analysis of DJWild. I will include some analysis of collusion in my later posts.

Rules of DJWild 53 cards in the deck, deuces and Joker are wild. Player makes an Ante bet and an identically sized "Bonus" Bet. Player and dealer are dealt 5 cards each, face down. Player looks at cards and either Raises 2 units or Folds. Dealer then turns over all the cards. If Player has a higher 5-card poker hand he wins and the Ante and Raise Bet are paid, and the Bonus pushes (unless player has a winning 3oaK or higher.) If the Player and Dealer's hand tie, all bets are pushed, if the player loses he loses 4 units: Ante, 2xRaise and Bonus.

A critical feature is that the difference between winning and losing with a raised hand <3oaK is a net of 7 units. So small differences in player's cards may lead to surprisingly larger differences in player EV. 

Basic Strategy. The WOO basic strategy, credited to T. Eliot is:

Raise on Pair of 4s or higher, Fold with a pair of 3s or lower.
Exception: Fold a pair of 4s if there is a 3 in your hand.
DJWild Poker house edge with this strategy is reported in WOO to be -0.03467361

I believe that you can learn things when looking at numbers. So ,in the table below I report some calculated EVs for hands ranging from a pair of 5s to AK high. In the Category column, O means "overcard to the pair" and U means "undercard to the pair." An EV that is less than -2.0 means that the hand should be folded.

Category	Specific Hand	Raise EV
55-OOO	55-KJ9	-1.789323041
55-OOU	55-K94	-1.875981718
55-OUU	55-643	-1.982316224
44-OOO	44-AKQ	-1.962386936
44-OOO	44-KT7	-1.97035
44-OOO	44-965	-1.990974733
44-OOO	44-865	-2.002463592
44-OOO	44-765	-2.003609009
44-OOU	44-AK3	-2.047578
44-OOU	44-KT3	-2.056032106
44-OOU	44-Q63	-2.065655398
44-OOU	44-653	-2.079477126
33-OOO	33-AK7	-2.141423486
33-OOO	33-Q97	-2.156978551
AK-High	AKQJ9	-2.148743447
AK-High	AK543	-2.371191097

Observations
1. Notice that the best 44 pair hand has a higher EV than the worst 55 pair hand. This is because kickers count! - which is illustrated in the next two observations.

2. My calculated results are consistent with the WOO Basic Strategy with one very insignificant exception: I calculate that it is best to FOLD a pair of 4s when the kickers are 765 or 865. Why? Well, the rank of your kickers in a one pair hand affects the EV in two ways:
a) Kickers determine whether you win or lose when the dealer also gets a 44 pair + 3 singletons.
b) Kickers are 'straight blockers': they block the frequency with which Dealer will get straights.
The kickers in 44-765 and 44-865 are very inefficient at blocking possible Dealer straights and are extremely weak in a showdown with a dealer 44 pair hand. Thus, these hands are the weakest possible 44 pair hands and have an EV that is (microscopically) worse than Folding. Although of no real practical importance to house edge, if you want to be perfectly optimal you should FOLD a 44-765 and 44-865.

3. Kickers that are under cards to the pair in a One Pair Hand are very important. The following two hands are different by one card, a kicker, but they have a ΔEV >0.085.
44-AKQ; EV = -1.962386936
44-AK3; EV = -2.047578

In my next post (in a few days) I will show EV calculations and describe strategy for those instances when you see one (and only one) other hand at the table. In later posts I plan to present calculations and discuss strategy for when you have information about 2 other hands and about 5 other hands, if I feel it's appropriate to do so.

Here is my first post on changes in basic strategy if you can see one other hand at the table - say your neighbor's hand

The player hands of interest for this strategy discussion is when you have a hand in the range of A-High to '55 pair+3 singletons'; all of these hands of interest are "natural hands" because in DJWild Poker you should always raise when you have a wild card in your hand.

The most important card to look for in your neighbor's hand is a wild card: a deuce or the joker. You should understand that that there are 5 wilds cards and the lowest possible Dealer hand when he has a wild is a pair of 8s. Thus, the appearance of a wild card in the dealer hand is an automatic loss for player when he holds 77 pair or lower.

The existence of one or more wild cards in your neighbor's hand greatly strengthens your hand.

How strong of an effect is this? Here is a table showing an example of the effect on the Players EV when he holds a 33-pair hand and the neighbor's hand has 0 to 5 wild cards:

Player Hand	Neighbor's Hand	EV
33-AQ7	J,9,9,5,4	-2.231158801
33-AQ7	J,9,9,5,2	-1.991743178
33-AQ7	J,9,5,2,2	-1.694617068
33-AQ7	J,5,2,2,W	-1.396865566
33-AQ7	J,2,2,2,W	-1.063510417
33-AQ7	2,2,2,2,W	-0.694747963

Since a FOLD decision will result in a loss of two units (EV = -2.0) you would fold this hand whenever you see no wild cards in neighbors hand and raise the hand whenever you see one or more wild cards.

What's the probability of seeing wild cards in your neighbors hand? The next table assumes you hold a 5 card hand with no wilds and gives the probability of seeing 0-5 wild cards when looking at 1 to 5 other hands at the table.
PROBABILITY of SEEING 0-5 WILD CARDS in OTHER CARDS


In this post we'll be focusing on the first column, where only 5 extra cards are seen:
You'll see NO Wilds ~56.2% of the time
One Wild ~36%
Two Wilds ~7.2%
Three Wilds ~ 0.5%

The most common case of seeing NO wilds is not a neutral result; it weakens your hand because the dealer is now more likely to have a wild card.

Below is a strategy chart that I have developed when you see one extra hand, based only on the presence or absence of wild cards in that hand.



When there are NO Wilds observed, your hand is weakened. Deviations from Basic Strategy are to fold all 44 pairs and the weak 55-pairs with a 3 and 4 in its kickers. Again, this situation will occur about 56% of the time.

With ONE wild observed (at a frequency of 36%) your hand is strengthened slightly. Deviations from Basic Strategy are to Raise the 44 pairs that have a 3 kicker and to Raise 33 Pair when its kickers are A8x or higher.

With TWO wilds observed (at a frequency of 7.2%) your hand is significantly stronger. Deviations from Basic Strategy are to Raise all 33 and 44 pairs, and High card Hands that are AK8xx or higher.

In the rare case when THREE wilds are observed (at a frequency of 0.5%) your hand is much stronger. You should raise any hand higher than AJ87x.

This is not an AP opportunity. My ball park guess is that looking at one other hand and using my strategy can reduce the house advantage by about 0.05% with an uncertainty of a factor of 2 (so an 0.025% to 0.1% reduction). A simulation would be needed, but the 5 wild cards makes the scoring of DJW Poker hands a bit tricky. If anyone is moved to do this simulation, please post results!

The next analysis I post will be a strategy when you know the number of wild cards in exactly two other hands.