Waks Household Wiki: Poker Rules

This page describes a large number of poker games that we play at our monthly table. It doesn't claim to be complete -- it's mainly the games that I call from time to time. I assume that the reader is familiar with the basic rules of Poker. These rules are described pretty briefly; feel free to ask questions about details. Some of these are moderately well-known variations, but about half of them were invented by members of the table (mostly by Charley).

House Rules

The following are some details about how we usually play, which often have some impact on the games. It is not a complete list.

Implicit at the end of all games is the "Reveal", where the remaining players show their cards and figure out who won. The cards always speak for themselves: if you reveal a better hand than what you thought you had, you can win accidentally. If only one player is left, they are not required to show their hand.
A low Ace counts for a straight. This implies that, in a low game, 5-4-3-2-A is a straight, not a low hand. You could count the Ace as high, resulting as an Ace-high hand -- that will usually, but not quite always, lose a low game. All this implies that the lowest possible hand (the "perfect low") is 6-4-3-2-A.
We almost always play with an ante, rather than using blinds. Blinds must be done as a full round.
When I say "bet" below, this implies a normal round of betting. If there is new, individualized visible information on the table, the high hand leads the bet (or low hand, in a low game). If there is no new information (such as the down card in Seven Stud), the last raiser (or last opener if none) leads. In games where there is no public information (such as Hold 'Em), the open usually passes one step to the left each round.
When I say "roll your own", this means that, instead of getting a face-up card, you get dealt a face-down card, and choose one to flip up. Everyone usually flips simultaneously.
In high-low split-pot games that require you to declare which way you are going, we do this by everyone taking chips into their hands, sticking out one hand, and revealing simultaneously what you are holding. Zero chips means you are going low; one chip means you are going high. In some games (typically ones where you are holding seven cards, and can therefore make two different hands), you may hold out two chips to indicate that you are going both high and low; if you do this, you must win both ways in order to win anything, otherwise you lose both ways.

Base Games

These are standards, from which the other games are mostly built.

Five Draw: Deal five cards to each player; bet. Each player in turn discards up to three cards, or optionally four if they show that the remaining card is an Ace, and receives fill-in cards. Discards are shuffled if necessary. Bet.
Five Double-Draw: Same as Five Draw, but with an additional round of discard and bet.
Five Stud: Deal one card down and one up to each player; bet. Do three more rounds of dealing one card up and then betting each time.
Seven Stud: Deal two cards down and one up to each player; bet. Do three rounds of dealing one card up and then betting each time. Deal one more card down, and final bet.
Texas Hold 'Em: Deal two cards down to each player; bet. Deal three common cards to the center (the "flop") and bet. Deal one more to the center (the "turn") and bet. Deal a final card to the center (the "river") and bet. You can use any combination of your two private cards and the five up cards to make your final hand.
Shotgun: Deal five cards to each player. Make a stack of your cards and lay them in front of you. Play four rounds of everyone revealing their top card simultaneously, then betting. You may not change the order of your cards after you stack them.

Seven-Stud Variations

These games are all similar to Seven Stud in their basic design. The rules describe how they differ from that.

Chicago: Seven Stud, but the high hand splits the pot with the highest face-down ("hole") Spade. Analysis: A popular game with a strong dash of luck. Keep track of which Spades get burned face-up; if you find that you have the highest face-down Spade possible, there is no particular reason not to bid up the pot aggressively.
Detroit: Like Chicago, but the low hand splits with the low Spade in the hole. Other variations happen occasionally, varying the high-low combinations and suit.
Choose Your Own: The first three cards are dealt as normal, and the first betting round happens. In the next three ("up") rounds, deal one card face-up to the table for each remaining player. Take turns choosing a card, starting with the lowest showing hand, then the next-lowest and so on. Betting happens as normal, and this is a high game. The last card happens normally. Analysis: perhaps my favorite poker variation, rich in nasty strategy. In this game, you want to show as low as possible (in order to get a good pick), but you're going high, so flushes or well-hidden boats tend to win.
Auction: Similar to Choose Your Own, but instead of the low card choosing first, you instead hold an auction. Everyone palms some chips as their bid, and reveals simultaneously; choose cards in order from highest bid down to lowest. Ties go to the eldest player. Maximum bid is the maximum bet. Analysis: not as strategically deep as Choose Your Own, but less likely to break brains. Should probably get named "eBay".
Bargain Basement (also known as "Filene's Basement"): Instead of dealing the face-up cards directly to players, place three face-up cards out. The receiving player can take the first for free, the second for five cents, or the third for ten cents. After he makes his selection, the remaining cards "slide down", with the five-cent sliding into the free slot if open, and the ten-cent into the five. The ten-cent slot is filled from the deck, and the next player chooses. At the end of the round, the visible options remain available for the player who gets to choose first next time. After the final up round, the remaining two cards are burned to the bottom of the deck. Analysis: Another favorite, inspired by the old "automatic markdowns" made famous in Filene's Basement's downtown store. Pay attention to what the other players are choosing, which will often tell you a lot about what they're trying to do. Never pay for a card if you expect to fold anyway.
Secret Squirrel: Played as normal, but each player's low down card, and all others of that rank in his hand, count as wild cards for him. (So if your low down card is a 7, all 7s in your hand are wild.) Common Variation: if the dealer declares it in advance, you may pay 25 cents in order to receive your last card face-up. Analysis: With everyone guaranteed at least one wild card, and two being common, this usually falls to at least a boat. Four of a kind is common, and five of a kind not terribly rare.
Canary in a Coal Mine: Like Secret Squirrel, but you get to roll all your face-up cards. Last card is always down. Analysis: With you getting to choose your wild cards, this winds up with even higher hands than Secret Squirrel. Probably the highest-hand game we've ever played. (Designed by Alex Newman.)
Moose and Squirrel: Like Secret Squirrel, but if you have a visible pair you don't get any wild cards. Analysis: "That trick never works!"
Shove the Junk: Aka "You Want It?". Normal Seven Stud, but instead of simply dealing the face-up cards, the dealer offers them to the players in turn. If you want the card, you get it; if not, the offer passes to the left. As soon as someone takes the offered card, the rest immediately get a random card from the deck. If the offer passes all the way around, the card is burned to the bottom of the deck and everyone remaining gets a random card. The first offer rotates one seat to the left each round.
Follow the Queens: Seven Stud, but the rank that is faced after the last faced Queen is wild. That is, if a Queen is dealt face-up, and the next face-up card is a 3, then 3s are wild. However, if another Queen comes up, followed by a 6, then 6s are wild instead of Queens. If the last face card is a Queen, nothing is wild.
Wonder Twins: Similar to Follow the Queens, but instead whenever a visible pair is made, the Dealer burns a card from the top of the deck to make the new wild rank. Analysis: works, but in retrospect there is some danger of running out of cards.
Retcon: Similar to Follow the Queens, but after an up Queen is dealt, the player who received it gets to choose which rank is now wild.
Running Mates: The top two hands split the pot. Analysis: since it's a split pot, you don't win as much. But more people typically stay in to the end.
Camelot: Queens can pair with either Kings or Jacks. (And can make trips, boats, etc, with them.) Analysis: Very nearly straight Seven Stud, with a slightly elevated chance of a higher hand.
Kneecapper: on rounds 2 and 4, before the bet, you palm some chips as your "protection money"; everyone reveals their protection in advance. In turn, each player may choose to match someone else's protection money to whack any of their cards; in this case, the victim gets their protection money back. If they are not whacked, they must pay their protection into the pot. You can only be whacked once per round.
The Screw: For the up rounds, if N players are still in, give N cards to the first player, who takes one and passes the rest around, everyone choosing their own card. Who gets to start rotates left around the table. Your last card is dealt face-up. Analysis: A high-information game like Anaconda, where you know a lot about the players downstream of you. Slightly sucks for the three players who don't get to start, but that includes the Dealer. (Designed by Alex Newman.)
Blackjack (v1): High hand splits the pot with the best face-down Blackjack hand. You can pay 50 cents to get your last card face-up. Variation: roll your own first up card.
Fifty-Two: Seven Stud, but after the last round of betting, everyone takes in their hands, makes one five-card hand and one two-card hand, and reveals simultaneously. The best five-card splits with the best two-card. There is no additional round of betting after you split your hand, since there is no new information. Analysis: Inspired by Pai Gow, a popular casino variation, this is an interesting tactical game, trying to figure out how the others will split their hands. Note that a pair of Aces is almost guaranteed half the pot.
Pass and Roll: Roll your own on all up cards. Before each roll, pass 1 card to your left.
Spittoon: Seven Stud, but before the up cards are dealt, an up card is placed in the center. After receiving your up card, you may trade it for the card in the center.
Yankee Swap: After the sixth card, everyone (in table order) puts one card in the middle, either face up or down as it was. In the same lowest-first way as Choose Your Own, each player picks one card from the middle; bet. Play the last card as usual. Variation: this can be played as Five Stud, but the final card must be played down (thus, you deal 1-3-1).
Queen's Choice: Starts out as normal Seven Stud, but when a face-up Queen is dealt, the game toggles between high and low. Variation -- "Harvey Dent": Same game, but toggles on the 2s instead. (Designed by Alex Newman.) Analysis: since you don't know whether the game is high or low until the last up card, this tends to keep people in rather longer than usual.
Katamari: the normal winning hand takes half the pot, and leaves half for the next game of Katamari to be played. The winning player must add one rule that, had it been in effect, would have resulted in someone else winning; these rules accumulate during the evening. The final game of Katamari takes the entire pot. Analysis: doesn't quite fit the style of our table, and the accumulating-rules can get brain-breaking by the end of the evening. But an amusing occasional change of pace. (Designed by Darker.)
Sidewinder: 7 stud, pass one, roll your own. That is: start by dealing two cards down to each player (as usual for Seven Stud). Then do the four usual Seven Stud face-up rounds, except that: each players gets a card dealt face-down, then each player passes a face-down card to the left, then each reveals a card. The final card is passed, but not revealed, so you wind up with four up, three down, like Seven Stud. Analysis: a table favorite, loosely inspired by Anaconda. (Hence the name.) Has a key strategic point, that many people miss their first time -- it is often crucial to show a card that you really like, or you may be forced to pass it next time.
Liege Lord: Sidewinder, but the winner splits with the remaining player to his right. (The one who was passing to him at the end.) Analysis: in my opinion, the best invention we've come up with. Whereas you try to pass crap in Sidewinder, you want to pass good and consistent cards in Liege Lord, to help the person you are passing to win. By convention, table talk about what you are trying for is forbidden: signaling is done only through the passes and the revealed cards. Played frequently.
Addition: number cards can be added together, to make larger number cards. Aces are not number cards, nor are royals. Analysis: makes the high number cards a tad more valuable, since it becomes easier to use them for boats.
Femme Fatale: Like Follow the Queens, but the rank after the last up Queen is dead instead of wild. If the final up card is a Queen, the game becomes lowball.
Johannesburg: Pairs and straights must be a single color, trips (and thus boats) are illegal. High hand splits with the high diamond in the hole. Analysis: stretches the metaphor a little, and there tends to be a fair amount of confusion about the trips rules.
Friday the 13th: Every face up round, the lowest rank dealt that round is killed. (Previous cards of that rank are untouched.) Dead cards are set aside to form a 'ghost hand'. If the ghost hand is the best hand, the pot stays and you play a 'sequel' hand of Friday the 13th. Analysis (from Chad): Played pretty well. Basically 7-stud, but some people ended up with 6 card hands, and killing off a face up pair was an interesting result at one point. (Designed by the group on Wave, at Halloween.)
Madison Avenue: similar to Bargain Basement, but the person downstream from you can pay 10 to choose your card for you. If they don't, you get to choose for free.
Zombie Apocalypse: When a player folds (dies), the remaining players immediately scavenge their cards, before betting continues. Going in clockwise order, beginning with the dead player's position, each player can pick one card from the dead player's carcass. Face-up/down orientation remains the same. No one chooses more than one card from the carcass. Analysis: chaotic and complex, and results is wildly high hands by the end. Lots of strategy and tactics involved in who folds, and who then gets their cards. Variation: might be worth trying with roll-your-own, so you can hide information about what you're going for.
Volcano: when the betting comes to you, you may sacrifice a face card to the volcano god, and get a new card. If you get another face card, the volcano god is angry, and you must toss in three times the current bet. (This does not count as a raise.) Otherwise, the volcano god is happy, and you get to call for free. Analysis: the statistics slightly favor you when you make a sacrifice, and getting to exchange a card can be very useful.

Five-Stud Variations

These all have Five Card Stud as their basic template.

Pair and Drop: Five Stud Lowball -- the lowest hand wins. Analysis: So named because the most common behaviour is to stay in until you get a pair, then give up. A good bluff can sometimes win this one.
Cribbage: The high hand splits with the highest cribbage hand. Analysis: A cute and silly variation, but should only be called if everyone knows cribbage adequately.
Blackjack (v2): The high hand splits with the highest unbusted Blackjack hand made up of either their black or red cards. Blackjack ties are split between those players, but a proper Blackjack beats a simple 21. Analysis: the restriction to red or black cards is necessary to prevent this game from being utterly pointless.
Pig: Five Stud, but after the last round of betting everyone picks up their cards and plays like Five Draw -- discard and take in cards, and one more round of betting.
Highlander: You can choose a rank to be wild for you, if and only if you only have one of that rank.

Five-Draw Variations

These are all based on Five-Card Draw.

Six Down to Five: Deal six cards to each player. At the discard phase, you must discard at least one card; you receive one fewer card than you discarded. Analysis: a nice little change of pace, which produces slightly better hands. At a large table, it is usually necessary to shuffle the discards.
Crapper: Five Card Double-Draw, but only flushes count. If no one has a five-card flush, best four-card flush wins, going down to three or two-card if needed. Analysis: A popular and strange game. It's often tempting to go with the smaller but higher flush, but it is always best to go with the longer one. (Designed by Alex Newman.)
Breeder: Like Crapper, but only straights count. Analysis: less interesting than Crapper, but less deterministic. Gets called occasionally.

Other Games

These are games that don't fall into the big buckets above.

Anaconda: Deal seven cards face-down to each player. Each player passes three cards to the left, then takes in three. Do the same with two cards. Do the same with one card. Make your best high or low five-card hand, and stack them. Play Shotgun, but after the fourth betting round everyone declares high or low, and another betting round follows. Common Variation: "Anaconda Revenge" -- same game, passing to the right. Analysis: The game of our table, always called at least a few times per session. You see an enormous amount of information for your ante. Choose which direction you are going, and pray that the guy passing to you is going the other way. Remember that the person upstream of you knows a good deal about your cards. Usually falls to a strong low (7-5 or better) and a boat or better, but this is a great game for bluffing.
Virtual Anaconda: Five-card Double-draw High-Low Shotgun. That is, play Double-Draw, then take the results and play Shotgun, ending with a high-low declaration similar to Anaconda. Analysis: Not quite as rich a game as real Anaconda, and possessing even more rounds of betting, but an interesting variation that feels somewhat similar.
Fall of the House of Usher: Anaconda, but full houses don't count. (That is, they are simply trips.) Analysis: thoroughly messes with normal Anaconda strategy, which is usually full-house-oriented; this favors flushes instead. (Invented by Aaron.)
Omaha: Similar to Hold 'Em, but deal four cards to each player instead of two. You must use exactly two cards from your hand and three cards from the table to make your hand.
Omaha Eights: Like Omaha, but the low and high hands split the pot, provided the low hand is 8-high or lower. If no one can make a hand lower than 8-high, the high hand takes the entire pot. Analysis: we usually play this instead of straight Omaha. Note that, for the split pot to happen, there must be at least three low cards showing; otherwise, it's automatically high-only. This is probably the single most important game to remember that "cards speak": players frequently screw up the rules, so everyone else checks their work.
Elevator: Deal four cards to each player, and seven in an H formation in the middle of the table. Do seven rounds of the Dealer revealing one card, and then bet. The Dealer should establish the order of reveal before game start; this can vary, but it is recommended to reveal one full side, then the other, then the middle card. The middle card is the "Elevator", and can be used in combination with any of the pairs surrounding it -- that is, it can move up and down the H. You make your hand from your four cards, and any three-card "floor" on the table.
Fifty-Five: Sort of like Five Stud, Roll Your Own, but doubled. Deal two cards face-down to each player, for each of five rounds. You get to build two Five Stud hands in front of you, allocating the cards to those hands. You may build the hands as you like, but you cannot move a card once it is committed, and you must end with two standard Five Stud hands (one down, four up). At the end, the lowest and highest showing hands split the pot. Analysis: A strategically messy game, which I call now and then -- you are ideally trying to build one low and one high hand, but there is a lot of guesswork. A good game for five players, but cannot be played with more than that.
Alaska Holdem: like Texas Holdem, but bigger. Deal three cards to each player initially; discard one after the flop. An additional card, the Avalanche, is dealt after the River -- at this point, the lowest showing rank on the table (which may be the Avalanche) is discarded. (Invented by Alex Newman.)
Spinal Tap: like Texas Holdem, but you may combine 2 or more number cards that add up to 11 to make a single wild card. Aces do not count as "number cards", and each card can only be used once in this way. Analysis: produces a surprisingly large number of wild cards, so this falls to pretty high hands.
Holdem Loosely: like Texas Holdem, but after each round of betting, you may pay 5 cents to trade in one of your hole cards, or 10 cents for both.

Stupid Games

These variations are widely acknowledged to be fairly idiotic, but we seem to play them around once per session anyway.

Mexican Sweat: Deal seven cards to each player -- DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR CARDS! Show the top remaining card. The first player flips cards, one at a time, until he has a better hand than that, and then leads a round of betting. Continue to go around, with each player successively either beating the previous hand or folding, and then betting. Analysis: this game has a zillion rounds of betting, so it is regarded as tacky to bet more than a nickel unless you're showing a real hand. It is a bit lame to drop before showing any of your cards.
Vice-President: Five draw, but the second highest hand wins. Analysis: the most unpredictable of all games, since it involves guessing what the others are all going to do. DO NOT PLAY THIS AS STUD! We tried that -- it led to silliness like people offering to pay others to stay in the game.