Local Poker Rules

If you have new games to add, please e-mail me at mike.tsao at gmail.com (change "at" to "@").

General Rules, Clarifications of Game Rules, and Local Rules and Customs:

Five-card ranking, best to worst: Five of a kind; straight flush; four of a kind; full house; flush; straight; three of a kind; two pair; pair; high card.

Three-card ranking, best to worst: Straight flush; three of a kind; straight; flush; pair; high card.

There is no ranking of suits. Therefore, for example, an A-K-Q-J-10 straight ties another A-K-Q-J-10 straight, regardless of suit.

In high-low, players must use the same five cards to win the high hand and the low hand.

In high-low, the A-2-3-4-5 is the highest straight (and, where appropriate, the highest straight flush). This is true even if a player holding A-2-3-4-5 goes for the high hand only.

In a lowball game (including the low half of a high-low game), aces can count as ones if the player desires. Thus, a pair of aces beats a pair of twos for low.

All split pot games have a declaration.

All declaration games have a bet after the declaration.

A player who shows his cards after a declaration but before the bet following it must match the pot or fold. This rule is printed in bold red type because it will make you very angry if you forget it. Problem is, without this rule you will make other players even angrier if you forget about the bet after the declaration.

Declaration: Without anyone seeing you, put between zero and two chips in your hand and close it. Simultaneously all players open their hands. Zero means you're going for the lowball hand (or the non-high hand, as in High Chicago). One chip means you're going for the high hand. Two means you're going "pig," or both ways. If you win both you get the whole pot. If you lose one or both you get nothing. If you tie one way you share with the other tied players going that way. If nobody wins (e.g., two players go pig and neither wins both), the pot carries over to the next game (note: when that happens it's a great time to call a game like Baseball). In human history, there have allegedly been instances of players allowing another player to retract his declaration when he puts the wrong number of chips in his hand. More typically, such an occurrence is merely cause for glee and mirth among the other players.

Most of the hard dollar figures in the given rules were originally designed for a 25 cent ante/minimum, one dollar maximum fixed-limit game. Feel free to adjust for balance if you're playing with different limits.

When there are too many players for a game (such as eight players for a seven-card stud game), it's usually OK to call the game anyway. It's almost certain that players will fold midway. If they don't, either or both of the following rules may apply as appropriate: (1) discards are reshuffled and dealt (appropriate for draw games and Anaconda); (2) a single card is dealt face-up and becomes a community card instead of the usual dealing of one card to each player (appropriate for Seven-Card Stud, for example). Caution: rule #2 typically enrages the players still in the game.

For the most part, any time a betting round could follow something, it does. That isn't a rule, but it makes it easier to remember exactly how games progress.

Ties split a take equally.

"Washing" means paying money, discarding a card, and getting a new card dealt in the same fashion (up or down) as the discarded card.

"Buying" means paying money to get an extra card (note that some games, like Anaconda 25, use the term "buy" but are in between buying and washing, because the player is given the option to accept the extra card but if he accepts must discard another card).

It is legal (and in fact encouraged) to look at other players' cards. It is polite to inform players whose cards can be seen that they are holding their cards in a way that makes them visible. This rule isn't designed to encourage unethical card playing. Because unprotected cards often put other players in the uncomfortable position of having to avert their eyes from parts of the table, it's easier to make a blanket rule that players are allowed to benefit from whatever they can see in plain view.

Never touch or move another player's money without that player's permission. This rule has the side effect of allowing players to leave the table in the middle of a hand and not worry about the previous rule. If you put your cards face-down on the table and put a chip on top of them, your cards are safe.

Never touch or move another player's cards before the pot has been raked by the winner or winners.

Cards speak. No matter what you say you have at a showdown, the winning hand is the one having the best ranking (assuming, of course, that in a split-pot game you played for that part of the pot). Beware, however: if you are the one having that hand, it is your responsibility to recognize it and call it out. Once the person claiming to win has begun raking the pot, the game is over.

Making up games is discouraged, especially the "blah blah normal game but threes and twos are wild" type of game. There isn't anything inherently wrong with wildcard games, but new games usually suffer from the following problems: (1) they aren't poker, or are only very loosely based on poker; (2) they are poorly balanced; (3) they are tougher for players to judge the value of particular hands -- which makes the game less a game of skill and more of a game of luck.

At Mike Tsao's house, the following games are prohibited: War, Blackjack/21, Gin or its variants, Acey Deucey or its variants. This rule supersedes the general "dealer's choice" rule. If you want to call these games, don't play at Tsao's house.

Generally, if the dealer calls a game or a rule you don't like, your only recourse is not to play. Complaining about the dealer's rules is discouraged. Exception: see previous rule.

It's traditional for a dealer to offer a cut of the deck to the player to his right (i.e., the one second-to-last in dealing order and thus the one least able to benefit from a dishonest cut). The player may cut, tap (signifying no cut), or pass the cut to the player to his right.

Answering your cell phone in the middle of a hand is considered the equivalent of folding your hand. There are no exceptions to this rule.

It is assumed you know all the rules of a game when it's played. These rules, the common rules of poker, and any rule the dealer calls control the game. If you don't know a game, speak up. If someone -- especially another player -- explains the game to you, caveat emptor. Don't blame that person if he explained the game incorrectly or incompletely. The best way to learn a game is to play it. If you get hosed by a rule that you didn't understand or that someone forgot to explain to you, take heart in knowing that you'll never forget it ever again.

4-2-1: A two-hand split-pot stud game. The "hand" hand is made of four cards plus one community card. The "table" hand is made of two cards plus one community card. Play of the game goes as follows: Deal 4 cards to each player. Bet. Deal 2 more to each player. Bet. Split hand into a two-card table hand and a four-card "hand" hand. Bet. Reveal the "free" community card. Bet. Reveal the "money" community card. Bet. Wash (table is $1.50; hand is 75 cents). Bet. Declare whether you want the option to use the "money" card. Bet. Declare whether you are playing the hand or the table. Bet. Show. The money card is a "use and lose" penalty. If you have declared for the option to use the money card, and you are in for the final bet and you lose, you must pay the penalty amount. If you drop out before the final call you do not have to pay the penalty. If you declare for the option, and you do not use the money card as part of your hand, i.e. a bluff or a mistake, you must still pay the penalty.

Add ‘Em Up (a.k.a. Add It Up): A high-low sum game. Twos are worth 2, threes worth 3, and so on through kings, which are worth 13. Tens are worth zero or 10. Aces are worth 1 or 14. Each player is dealt five cards. Four cards are then revealed, first two, then one, then one, on the table. If a player has any cards of the same value as one on the table, he must discard it immediately. Finally, before the declaration, each player may buy a card for two dollars. However, that card has no value unless the player has at least one card of the same value in his hand already (and it hasn't been discarded). If he does have one or more such cards, he may add or subtract the value of all those cards to or from the sum value of his hand.

Anaconda Twenty-Five: Anaconda with three variations. (1) After the initial seven cards are dealt, any player may pay five dollars to keep five cards. Instead of passing three cards, he passes one to his left and one to his right. Other players pass cards through the paying player so that each player still has seven cards after all cards are passed. (2) After all cards have been passed and the extra two discarded, the players may simultaneously elect to pay one dollar to receive another card dealt face up. If accepted, the card remains face-up and becomes the player's first of his five cards, and the player must discard the sixth card. If rejected, the face-up card is discarded. (3) The betting round following the declaration is double the usual maximum in a fixed-limit game.

Anaconda Thirty-Three: Anaconda with one variation: There are three consecutive rounds of passing instead of just one in the standard game. In the first round, each player chooses three of his cards to pass the player to his left. Next he passes two cards. Finally he passes one card. A player may not look at the card or cards passed to him until he has passed his card or cards for that round. After the third passing round, play continues as in standard Anaconda, with each player discarding two cards from his seven-card hand.

Baseball: Seven-card stud. Threes and nines wild. If a player is dealt a face-up four he is then dealt an extra face-down card. Face-up threes are a strike: the player must match the pot or fold. The Feierstein Variation: If a player is dealt three face-up threes, for the third three the player must match the pot and fold.

Car Wash: Five-card lowball, first and last dealt face down. A player may wash a total of two times during the game. A player may exercise one or both wash options at any time immediately after the player receives a card. Optional rule: washing costs money.

Chicago: Seven-card stud. High winner splits with the highest spade in the hole. Default is "high Chicago," variant is "low Chicago." Local rule: always played as "Follow The Queen High Chicago."

Elevator: High-low seven-card stud. Five cards are dealt to each player. Seven community cards arranged in an H shape. The single middle card is the "elevator" and is wild. The seven community cards are revealed one-by-one with a betting round following each. One side of the building is revealed, then the other, then the elevator. Players make their best five cards using either all five cards from their hand or two from their hand and three from any single floor of the building. Local rule: the highest card in the winning low hand must be 8 or lower.

Five by Two: Five-card stud high-low, first card face down. There are two washing rounds at the end before the declaration. During each washing round, each player must declare in order whether he will wash a card, after which the actual washing happens. The washing costs 50 cents in the first round, and $1.00 in the second. During a wash, a player who's declared that he's washing has three options: wash an up, wash a down, or flip a face-down up, discard another up card, and have the new card dealt face-down. The order of washing is best high hand showing to worst high hand showing.

Follow the Queen: Seven-card stud. Queens are always wild. Any time a queen is dealt face up, the next face-up card becomes a wild card in addition to the wild queens (replacing any wild cards following previous queens). If a queen is the last face-up card, only queens are wild. The dealer must deal a face-up burn card before the first normal face-up card dealt to a player in order to give that first player an opportunity to "follow the queen" on the first card. Local rule: always played as "Follow The Queen High Chicago."

Go for Broke: Five-card stud, first and last cards hole cards. High winner splits the pot with the player having the lowest sum of his cards (tens and face cards are worth zero; aces are worth one). Before the declaration, players may wash one card. Face-up costs 50 cents. Face-down costs one dollar. To "cloak" a face-up (meaning it is dealt face-down) costs two dollars. Washing is done in order of lowest sum of visible cards to highest sum.

Hawaii Five-Low: Five-card stud lowball, first and last dealt face down. Low winner splits with the player having the highest two hole cards. Before the declaration, each player is given the option to wash a single card. Face-up is 75 cents; face-down is $1.50. Washing happens in order of best to worst (best means lowest visible cards).

Hold ‘em: Seven-card stud. Each player is dealt two cards. Three community cards are dealt, followed by a betting round. Two more community cards are dealt one at a time, each followed by a betting round. Also works well as a high-low game (with the 8-or-lower rule for the low hand). It's common for a dealer to burn the top card on the deck immediately before dealing each round of community cards.

Mickey Mantle: Five-card draw, sevens wild.

Omaha: A community-card high-low stud game based on Hold 'em. Each player is dealt four cards and makes his best hand using exactly two cards from his hand and three cards from the board. The community cards are dealt in three rounds: first three, then one, then one. Local rule: the highest card in the winning low hand must be 8 or lower.

Omaha Thirty-Three: Omaha with one variation: An additional betting round precedes the declaration. At the beginning of this round each player declares whether he wants the option to use either one or three cards from his hand instead of the normal two. If he wants this option, he pays three dollars right after the option declaration.

Pass the Card: High-low seven-card stud. As each face-up card is dealt, a player is given the option to pass that card to the next player but must pay the betting minimum to do so. Each player has one such choice per dealing round. The starting position for dealing rotates each round.

Seattle Six: High-low stud; six cards dealt; first two down and one up card; then three rounds of single face up cards. There is a wash at the end: $1.00 for face-up or face-down.

Seven Twenty-Seven: A high-low sum game. Tens are worth zero or 10. Aces are worth one or 11. Face cards are worth one-half. Other cards are worth the same as their face value. The player closest to a sum of seven splits with the player closest to a sum of twenty-seven. "Inside the post" beats "outside" (e.g., 8 beats 6, and 25 beats 29). Dealing begins with each player receiving one hole card and one face-up card. After that, each player has the option whether to be dealt a card during a round, but he may refuse no more than three times (after which he is "frozen"). The dealing part of the game ends either when all players are frozen or when no players take a card during a dealing round.

Spit: High-low five card draw. A single community card is dealt after the first betting round. This card becomes the sixth card of each player's hand (of which each player makes his best five). Variant that we don't play locally: spit card is wild.

Double Spit: Spit with two community cards, each revealed during a separate betting round. Players must use both cards or neither. Best played as a lowball game only.

Stake in the Heart: Seven-card stud, high-low. Any time a player receives a face-up heart, he has the right to take a card from any other player and add it to his own hand. If the taken card was a hole card, it remains a hole card, and if the taken card was an up card, it remains an up card. A player may specifically request "the hole card you took from me earlier." Note: this last rule works only when you're playing among friends. You really don't have any recourse if the player gives you the wrong card, or claims not to remember which card he took from you.

Windows: Five card draw, sevens wild, two draw rounds, each card drawn is dealt face-up. All players must declare in order how many cards they will draw before any cards are drawn in a single round of drawing. Variant: "Macintosh," in which eights instead of sevens are wild (if/when OS 9 is released, nines instead of eights will be wild; same with desktop version of OS X, in which case tens instead of eights will be wild). Note: proper term for drawing all five cards is, of course, the "Full Monty."

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