Who wins this game of high low Hurricane with wilds?

Question

In a game of high low Hurricane with deuces and 2 jokers wild, who wins between one player with Ace joker and the other deuce deuce?

Here are the rules we were going by:

• Players must declare whether they are going for high, low, or both
• When going for both, the player must win both to win any
• Aces are high in the high, low in the low
• The lowest possible hand is Ace deuce
• In the high, at least, when two ranks are identical, the one using more naturals wins

For the high, Ace joker (pair of aces) wins because the ranks are the same, but the ace joker uses a natural ace.

The ranks for the low are the same (Ace deuce). One hand used a natural ace, the other had a natural deuce (although deuces are wild).

As far as I can tell, it comes down to if a natural is better or stronger. If it's stronger then deuce deuce wins the low because the opponent's natural ace is stronger. If the natural is better then the natural two wins the low.

Answer 1

Personally, I would rule this a split pot. I haven't read anything that explicitly defines rules for dealing with wild cards, but in my mind the hand someone holds is the hand they hold. Changing that based on whether or not the hand contains a wild card seems akin to saying that a spade flush is worth more than a club flush (which is never the case in any poker game I've played).