What is "wild card"

1950 in figurative sense, from literal use in certain forms of poker (1941), from wild (adj.) + card (n.). The phrase was used occasionally c.1900 in British and Irish writing to mean "drinking, free-spirited man."\n

alt. 1 In card games, a card that can be assigned any value or used to substitute for any needed card. 2 (context sports English) A competitor or team that is allowed to compete in a tournament despite not reaching the normal standards to qualify for inclusion. 3 (context computing English) a character that substitutes for other characters in regular expression and globbing n. 1 In card games, a card that can be assigned any value or used to substitute for any needed card. 2 (context sports English) A competitor or team that is allowed to compete in a tournament despite not reaching the normal standards to qualify for inclusion. 3 (context computing English) a character that substitutes for other characters in regular expression and globbing

1. n. an unpredictable factor; "the weather was a wild card"

2. a playing card whose value can be determined by the person who holds it

Card games, particularly poker games, may contain one or more cards designated as wild. These may be jokers, or they may be normal ranked and suited cards pressed into wild card duty ("deuces wild" is a common variant). 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. With wild cards in play, the best possible hand is a natural royal flush. The common rule in casinos 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 royal flush. Under this rule, a hand such as K-K-Joker-5-2 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 7-Joker-5-4-3 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).

There is a tendency among some players to regard wild cards as "impure" or treat wild card games as silly or amateurish. While it is certainly true that a game with too many wild cards can become so random that all skill is lost, the occasional use of wild cards is a good way to add variation to a game and add opportunities for skillful play. In particular, five-card draw is traditionally played with a joker in California (which plays as a bug), and also plays well with deuces fully wild. Seven-card stud plays well with one or two bugs, especially when played high-low split. Other games such as Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold'em do not play well with wild cards. For some players, the problem with wild card games is that the winner is almost always the hand with the most wild cards, making the other cards irrelevant, and making skill less important.

Another issue with wild cards is that they distort the hand frequencies. In 5-card stud, the stronger hands are less frequent than the weaker hands; i.e., no pair is most common, followed by one pair, two pair, three of a kind, etc. When wild cards are added, the stronger hands gain frequency while the weaker hands lose frequency. For example, if a player holds a pair and a wild card, they will always choose three of a kind rather than two pair. This causes three of a kind to be more common than two pair. But if two pair ranks above three of a kind, the two pair will become more common.

Wild card may refer to:

• Wild card (card games), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games
• Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play
• Wild card (foresight), low-probability, high-impact events

Wild Card (also known as Zoe Busiek: Wild Card) is an American comedy-drama series starring Joely Fisher. It was broadcast in the United States on Lifetime, and on the Global Television Network in Canada from August 2003 to July 2005.

A wild card (or wildcard, or wild-card) is, in general, a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.

Wild Card is an album by New Zealand band, The Warratahs released in 1990.

Wild Card is The Rippingtons' thirteenth album which was released in 2005.

In futurology, future research, horizon scanning, and foresight, wild cards are low-probability, high-impact events. This concept may be introduced into anticipatory decision-making activity in order to increase the ability of organizations and governments to adapt to surprises arising in turbulent (business) environments. Such sudden and unique incidents might constitute turning points in the evolution of a certain trend or system. Wild cards may or may not be announced by weak signals, which are incomplete and fragmented data from which foresight information might be inferred.

Arguably the best known work in wild cards comes from John Petersen, the author of Out of The Blue – How to Anticipate Big Future Surprises. Petersen's book articulates a series of events that due to their likelihood to surprise and potential for impact might be considered 'Wildcards'. He defines wild cards as "Low Probability, High Impact events that, were they to occur, would severely impact the human condition".

Building on Petersen's work, futurist Marcus Barber developed an additional wild card tool called a "Reference Impact Grid" (RIG) in 2004 which helps strategists and risk managers define vulnerabilities within a given system and to then consider what type of event might destabilize that system. Challenging Petersen's hypothesis, his additional thoughts on cascading discontinuity sets' broke away from idea that wild cards are always a singular one off event, to introduce the idea that a series of interrelated events might also achieve a similar outcome to the big one-off event. A cascading discontinuity set can achieve a similar outcome to a one off wild card via a series of smaller, unplanned events that eventually come together to overwhelm the system's ability to cope. Like the big wild card, the end result is the same – the system no longer has the resources available to it to continue functioning and is overwhelmed.

The concept of wild cards comes close to the black swan theory described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book The Black Swan. Black swans however can be seen as events that somehow are written in destiny (or the stars) and will occur anyhow.

The title refers to the "black swans" that existed already for millions of years in Australia but became only known to non-Australians only when they sailed there. Nicholas stresses therefore the surprising side and unpredictability of the black swan as well as their certainty (or unavoidability).

Another concept that comes close to the concept of wild cards and black swans is the tipping point of Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, which actually is a special form of a wild card that realizes itself by accumulation within a system that reveals itself in a drastic change of the system.

Some authors plea for a better understanding of the nature of events that people share under the concepts as wild cards, black swans, breakthroughs and so on. Victor van Rij uses the concept of wild card and sees these as events which shake but also shape the future he distinguishes between "human caused" events where the "good" and "bad will" of actors is involved (like the fall of the Berlin wall, or 9–11), where the surprise is more or less subjective, and nature caused events (like tsunamis, large volcanic eruptions, asteroid impact) where destiny plays a larger role, where people by using their knowledge may influence the impact of the event or even the occurrence of the event itself by influencing its development. Making it worthwhile to develop early warning systems and to take precautionary measures. He also distinguishes between imaginary wild cards and the really occurring ones. These imaginary wild cards may have the same impact as really occurring wild cards and may be used to influence decision makers and the public opinion either by informing them on real threats or opportunities that may appear in future or by falsifying these. Early warning signals for human caused wild cards should be looked for in Human communication and psychology as well as historical science.

Angela and Karlheinz Steinmüller use wild card imagination to enhance the resilience of enterprises by evoking out of the box thinking on positive and negative wild cards and creativity in handling these. They see wild cards as earth quakes of the human mind, opening up new possibilities in thinking.

Wild Card (for part of its history Wild Card 2) was a lottery game that was available in Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, although at no point did the five lotteries offer it simultaneously. The game was administered by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which is best known for Mega Millions and Powerball. Wild Card (2) was drawn Wednesdays and Saturdays until February 24, 2016.

The original version of the game began in 1998; it was known as Wild Card, and lasted 15 months; it was played in Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The game's format was changed, with a "2" added to the name, in May 1999; Nebraska dropped out upon the format change. North Dakota joined in 2004.

In late 2015, the "2" was dropped from the name, although the game itself was not altered.

Wild Card is the second album by the Dutch progressive metal band ReVamp. The album was released on 23 August 2013 in Europe, on 26 August in the UK and on 3 September 2013 in the USA.

Wild Card is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Kim Yoo-jin.

Wild Card is a 2015 American action thriller film directed by Simon West, and starring Jason Statham, Michael Angarano, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Milo Ventimiglia, Hope Davis, and Stanley Tucci. The film is based on the 1985 novel Heat by William Goldman, and is a remake of the 1986 adaptation that starred Burt Reynolds. The film was released in the United States on January 30, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand.

Wild Card was a " box office bomb", making only $6.0 million against a $30 million budget.