Royal Flush hand with a Joker as Queen in poker game

A wild card in

card games A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

is one that may be used to represent any other

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a ...

, sometimes with certain restrictions. These may be jokers, for example in

Rummy Rummy is a group of matching-card games notable for similar gameplay based on matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build '' melds'' which can be either sets (three or four of a k ...

games, or ordinary ranked and suited cards may be designated as wild cards such as the and in Classic Brag or the "deuces wild" in

Poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

.''The Language of Cards: A glossary of card-playing terms''
by David Parlett at www.parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 1 Jun 2018. A card that is not wild may be referred to as a

natural card The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to Bridge, Hearts, Poker or Rummy), ...

. Jokers, however, may also have other uses, such as being a permanent top trump.

Use

In most cases, the wild card or cards must be agreed upon by all players before the cards are dealt and play commences. There are two common rules regarding wild cards: "fully wild" cards and the " bug". A card that is fully wild can be designated by its holder as any card they choose with no restrictions. Under this rule, for example, a hand with any natural pair and a wild card becomes three of a kind. Conversely, a bug is a limited wild. The common rule in

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...

s is that a wild card plays as a bug, which is given the rank of ace unless designating it as a different card would complete a straight, flush, or

straight flush In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called ''hands'', according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In hi ...

. Under this rule, a hand such as is just a pair of kings (with an ace kicker), but any four same-suit cards with a bug make a flush, and a hand such as makes a straight. There is also a variation of the "Fully Wild" rule in which the wild card (in this instance they are usually jokers as there are traditionally only two and there is only one black and one red) can be any card of the suits matching the cards colour or current suit. For example, in a jokers wild game with these rules, the red joker could be used as any card of hearts or diamonds. Inversely, the black joker would be any card of clubs or spades. Two exceptions to standard poker practice sometimes seen in home games are the double-ace flush rule, and the natural wins rule. The latter rule states that between hands that would otherwise tie, the hand with fewer wild cards wins. This is not common in casinos and should be treated as an exception to standard practice (as is the double-ace flush). Watten

In some Austrian and

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

ean card games, one or more other cards may be used as wild cards, including the '' Weli'', a special 6 of Bells, the 7 of Bells and 7 of Acorns. In the game of

Perlaggen Perlaggen (regionally also ''Perlåggen''), formerly Perlagg-Spiel ("game of Perlagg"), is a traditional card game which is mainly played in the regions of South Tyrol in Italy, the Tyrolean Oberland and the Innsbruck areas of Austria. It is the ...

there are six or seven wild cards: four permanent ''Perlaggs'' - K or ''Maxl'', 6 or '' Weli'', 7 or ''Little Weli'', the 7 of Bells or ''Bell-Spitz'' and 7 or ''Eichelspitz'' - as well as 3 "Trump ''Perlaggs''" - the 7, Unter and Ober of Trumps.

Examples

The following is a selection of cards and the games in which they are wild, based on Parlett:Parlett (2008). * J -

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, Guimbarde and

Reversis Reversis, or more rarely, Réversi, is a very old trick-taking card game of the Hearts group whose origin is supposed to be Italian, transformed into Spain and then in France. It is considered one of the two probable ancestors of Hearts, Black La ...

* 7 -

* K -

S -

Mus Mus or MUS may refer to: Abbreviations * MUS, the NATO country code for Mauritius * MUS, the IATA airport code for Minami Torishima Airport * MUS, abbreviation for the Centre for Modern Urban Studies on Campus The Hague, Leiden University, Neth ...

C -

* Matto -

Ottocento Ottocento is Italian for "eight hundred" and usually refers to the 19th century. It may also refer to: * a variant of the tarot card game Tarocchini * a 2010 album by Ödland * a typeface developed by Nebiolo Printech See also * Italian Neocl ...

* Bègato -

Deuce Deuce, Deuces, or The Deuce may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deuce, in the '' Danger Girl'' comic book series * Deuce, a character in ''Shake It Up'' * Deuce, in the '' Wild Cards'' science fiction universe * Deuce Bi ...

s - Wild-card Rummy, Push Rummy,

Canasta Canasta (; Spanish for "basket") is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with t ...

, Brag

Footnotes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Card (Card Games) Card game terminology Poker gameplay and terminology