Poker Variants

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3-5-7
7/27
Anaconda – DAOF
Anaconda – Director’s Cut
Baseball
Beggars & Choosers
Club Your Neighbor
Iron Cross
Jacks & Piss
Steel Pentagon
Triplets


3-5-7

Players: 4-7
Family: Guts
Idea: Players decide if they think their hand is the best and commit to paying the winner if they are not.
Winner: Player with best hand of the round, or player(s) that stay in alone 2 or more times.

Sequence:
•All players ante
•Deal 3 cards down to each player
•For this round, 3′s are wild, and 3-5-7 is the best hand
•Dealer counts down from 3 (3-2-1-drop) and players hold their cards to compete, drop them to bow out
•If 1 player stays, that players gets a chip or “leg”
•If 2 or more players stay, those players review each other’s hands (pass left until you have your hand back) and pay the player with the high hand the current value of the pot (max $5)
•Deal 2 more cards face down to each player for a total of 5 cards, and 5′s are now wild (instead of 3′s)
•Repeat “drop and pay” from 3′s round
•Deal 2 more cards face down to each player for a total of 7 cards, and 7′s are now wild (instead of 5′s)
•Repeat “drop and pay” from 3′s round
•If no player stayed in for the 7′s round, determine which player had the best hand. That player adds .10 for each stack of chips in the center (only counts for final payout)
•If no player has 2 or more legs and sole majority, re-ante and start the 3′s round again
•When a player has 2 or more legs and has sole majority, the game is over, and that player collects the money in the pot

Variant: one or more hands played as low instead of high, usually middle round of 5


7/27

Players: 4-10
Family: Black Jack/Split
Idea: Players add the “value” of their cards to determine the value of their hand
Winner: Split pot, closest to 7 and closest to 27

Quick: Deal like Black Jack, hit or pass (you can hit on later rounds), try to get closest to 7 and/or 27; Face cards = 1/2, Aces = 1 and/or 11, all others face value

Sequence:
•All players ante.
•Deal 1 card face down to each player.
•Deal 1 card face up to each player.
•Determine your hand value by adding all card values together (Face cards = 1/2, Aces = 1 and/or 11, all others face value)
•Highest visible hand value starts the bet.
•After betting, each player declares if they want a hit (chip in hand for hit, no chip in hand for stand).
•Deal a card face up to each player with a chip, if no chips then no more cards can be taken.
•After last best (no more cards can be taken) declare with chips in hand for closet to 7 (1 chip) or 27 (2 chips) or both (0 or 3 chips).
•The player closer to 7 and the player closer to 27 split the pot.
•If there is a tie for either high or low, the tied players split their portion of the pot.
•Note that ties are only for exact values, and (normally) values between 7 and 27 beat values outside 7 and 27 (also known as Inside Beats Outside).

Variant 1: Roll your own
Variant 2: Special cards (A – everyone gets an additional card)
Variant 3: Simultaneous bid auction


Anaconda – DOAF

Players: 4-7
Family: Pass/Reveal
Idea: Make best 5-card hand from 7 cards
Winner: Split pot, closest to 7 and closest to 27

Quick: Deal 7 cards, pass 2 left, 1 right, discard 2, roll and bet after each card; 2′s, A’s and 1-eyed face cards wild

Sequence:
•All players ante.
•Deal 7 cards face down to each player.
•Pass 2 cards to the left, 1 to the right.
•Make your best 5-card poker hand and discard the remaining 2 cards.
•Arrange your cards and place them face down on the table.
•Reveal 1 card at a time and bet (high hand bets first) until all cards are face up.
•Best 5-card poker hand wins the pot.


Anaconda – Director’s Cut

Players: 4-7
Family: Pass/Reveal/Split
Idea: Make best or worst 5-card hand from 7 cards; if best, lowest rank is wild; if worst, highest rank is wild; Ace can be high or low for wild
Winner: Split between best and worst 5-card poker hand after all cards have been revealed

Quick: Deal 7 cards, pass 2 left, 1 right, discard 2, roll and bet after each card; 2′s, A’s and 1-eyed face cards wild

Sequence:
•All players ante.
•Deal 7 cards face down to each player.
•Pass 2 cards to the left, 1 to the right.
•Make your best 5-card poker hand and discard the remaining 2 cards.
•Arrange your cards and place them face down on the table.
•Reveal 1 card at a time and bet (high hand bets first) until all cards are face up.
•Best 5-card poker hand wins the pot.


Baseball

Players: 4-7
Family: Stud/Split
Idea: Players make the best 5-card hand from 7 cards
Winner: Best 5-card hand wins pot

Sequence:
•All players ante
•Deal 2 cards face down, 1 card face up, to each player.
•If any of the following cards are dealt face up, follow the instructions (in the order below):
•3: any players receiving a face-up 3 declare simultaneously if they are folding, or staying. If they stay, they match the pot making the 3 wild.
•4: player can pay .50 for an additional card (face up or down, their choice)
•Best hand starts the bet.
•Repeat “deal, resolve and bet” 3 more times.
•Deal last card face down with one last bet.
•Players make the best 5-card hand with 3′s and 9′s wild.

Variant 1: Roll your own (or roll your own first up)
Variant 2: Little League: face up 3′s become community cards
Variant 3: Reveal 2-3-4-5 (no wilds) to automatically win (home run)
Variant 4: 3-4 or 4-5 face up, in order and sequential lets you steal a card from someone


Beggars & Choosers

Players: 4-7
Family: Stud/Split
Idea: Make the best 5-card hand from your up and down cards
Winner: Players with best 5-card hand using wilds and best 5-card hand without wilds split the pot

Sequence:
•All players ante
•Deal 2 cards down to each player
•Repeat 4 times:
-Deal 1 cards up to each player
-Bet
•Deal 1 card down to each player
•Bet
•All players reveal their hands
•Player(s) with highest 5-card hand with low-in-the-hole wild and player(s) with the highest 5-card hand with no wild split the pot


Club Your Neighbor

Players: 4-7
Family: Stud
Idea: Players make the best 5-card hand from 7 cards
Winner: Best 5-card hand wins pot

Sequence:
•All players ante
•Deal 2 cards face down
•Repeat 4 times:
– Deal 1 card face up to each player
– If 1 or more players receive a club face up, in low to high sequence players may swap any of their up cards for another player’s up card
– Highest hand bets first
•Before dealing last down card, players declare if they want their cards face down for free, or face up for $1.
•Players receiving face up clubs may swap as usual.
•High hand places last bet.
•Best 5-card poker hand wins the pot.


Iron Cross

Players: 4-11
Family: Community Cards
Idea: Make the best 5-card hand using cards from your hand and cards from the community cards
Winner: Player with best 5-card hand

Quick: Deal 4 cards to each player, 5 community cards in cross, center card wild, select horizontal or vertical cards for your hand

Sequence:
•All players ante
•Deal 4 cards down to each player
•Deal 5 cards down to center in shape of a cross
•Flip up 1 outside card in cross (the center will be flipped last)
•Bet
•Flip up next outside card in cross
•Bet
•Flip up next outside card in cross
•Bet
•Flip up next outside card in cross
•Bet
•Flip up card in center
•Bet
•All players reveal their hands
•Player(s) with highest hand using any 5 cards from their 4-card hand plus either set of 3 cards in a row in center, the center card and that rank being wild, wins the pot


Jacks & Piss

Players: 4-10
Family: Guts
Idea: Players decide if they think their hand is the best and commit to paying the winner if they are not.
Winner: Payer with the best hand of the round or only player to stay in

Quick: Make best 5-card hand from 4 cards + 1 community wild and commit to pot

Sequence:
•All players ante.
•Deal 4 cards down to each player.
•Deal 1 card up to center to act as wild rank and 5th card in all players’ hands.
•Decide if you want to compete (best hand or only person to stay).
•Dealer counts down from 3 (3-2-1-drop) and players hold their cards to compete, drop them to bow out.
•If 1 player stays, that player draws as normal and competes against a dummy hand (4 cards dealt from top of deck).
•If that player loses, they match the pot and play continues.
•Otherwise that player wins the pot.
•If 2 or more players stay, all players secretly discard as many cards as they want, then flip their hands up.
•Dealer deals cards to players face up until each player again has 4 cards.
•Best 5-card poker hand wins, all other competing players pay the pot amount to the winner (max $5).
•Repeat (including ante) until only 1 player stays and beats dummy hand to win the pot.

Variant: Piss & Re-piss – After the first hand, instead of Jacks, the previous other wild stays wild for the next round and possibly changes each round


Steel Pentagon

Players: 4-11
Family: Community Cards
Idea: Make the best 5-card hand using cards from your hand and cards from the community cards
Winner: Player with best 5-card hand

Sequence:
•All players ante
•Deal 4 cards down to each player
•Deal 5 cards down to center in shape of a pentagon
•Flip up 1 card in center
•Bet
•Flip up 1 card in center, not next to another up card
•Bet
•Flip up 1 card in center, not next to 2 up cards
•Bet
•Flip up 1 card in center
•Bet
•Flip up last card in center
•Bet
•All players reveal their hands
•Player(s) with highest hand using any 5 cards from their 4-card hand plus any set of 3 adjacent cards in center, the middle card of the 3 and all of that rank being wild, wins the pot


Triplets

Players: 4-13
Family: Community Cards/Split
Idea: Make the best and worst 5-card hand using cards from your hand and cards from 1 of 3 sets of 3 community cards
Winner: Player with best 5-card hand splits pot with worst 5-card hand

Sequence:
•All players ante
•Deal 3 cards down to each player
•Bet
•Deal 3 cards up in center as 3 separate groups
•Bet
•Deal 3 more cards up, 1 to each group
•Bet
•Deal 3 more cards up, 1 to each group
•All players reveal their hands
•Player(s) with highest hand using any 5 cards from their 3-card hand plus one 3-card •group and player(s) with lowest hand using any 5 cards from their 3-card hand plus any one 3-card group split the pot evenly

Note: if there are more than 2 winners, each winning player shares the entire pot evenly, regardless of high or low, i.e. 1 high, 2 low, each gets 1/3 of pot.

•For a longer game with some screwage, the winning player(s) must beat hands made from 2 of the 3 3-card groups for either high or low. If the community hand wins, that share of the pot remains and another hand is played. This continues until all money is taken from the pot.

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