Baseball

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Hand ranking
3. Betting in short
4. Setup
5. Playing a hand
6. The special cards
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Baseball is a wild home-poker game based on seven-card stud. Everyone gets some cards face down (only you see them) and some face up (everyone sees them), with a round of betting after each new card. The numbers of the American sport give it its special cards: 3s and 9s are wild (three strikes, nine innings), a 4 dealt face up earns you an extra card (four balls for a walk), and a 3 dealt face up forces you to match the pot or fold (strike out). The best five-card poker hand wins the pot – all the chips bet in that deal.

• Players: 3–6, each for themselves; 5–6 is ideal.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and chips (or counters, matches, buttons) – the same amount for everyone at the start, e.g. 100 each. You play for chips, not money.

Hand ranking

Cards rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2; the Ace can also be low in the straight 5-4-3-2-A. Suits are all equal. At the end you make the best hand of exactly five cards out of all the cards you hold. From best to worst:

Any hand of a higher kind beats any hand of a lower kind. Between hands of the same kind, the higher cards win: first compare the most important cards (the four, the three, the higher pair …), then the remaining cards from the top. If all five are equal in rank, the hands tie and share the pot.

Wild cards: every 3 and 9 is wild – it can stand for any card you like. A wild card may not copy a card you already hold (you cannot use it as a second A♥), except to make five of a kind. So 8 8 8 9 3 is five eights. With eight wild cards in play, big hands are common: four of a kind or better often wins.

Betting in short

All chips bet go into the pot in the middle. Before each deal everyone pays a small ante (e.g. 1 chip) into the pot. When it is your turn in a betting round, you can:

• Check – bet nothing, if nobody has bet yet in this round.
• Bet – put in chips.
• Call – put in just enough to match the highest bet so far.
• Raise – match the highest bet and add more.
• Fold – give up: turn your cards face down and put them away. You lose what you have already put in.

A betting round ends when everyone still in has put in the same amount. Agree limits before you start, for example: bets and raises of 1–5 chips, at most three raises per round.

Setup

1. Everyone gets the same number of chips. Choose a dealer; the deal passes to the left after every hand.
2. Everyone pays the ante. The dealer shuffles and deals, one card at a time clockwise starting on the left, two cards face down and one card face up to each player. The face-down cards are your hole cards – look at them but keep them hidden.

Playing a hand

1. First betting round. It is started by the player whose face-up cards make the best poker combination (wild cards count); if tied, the one nearest the dealer's left. Play goes clockwise.
2. 4th, 5th and 6th card: each player still in gets one more card face up, followed each time by a betting round.
3. 7th card: each player gets a last card face down, then the final betting round.
4. Showdown: everyone still in shows all their cards. Each picks their best five cards; the best hand wins the pot, tied hands share it.

If everyone but one player folds, that player wins the pot at once without showing.

Every betting round is begun by the player with the best face-up hand at that moment. So there are five betting rounds in all.

The special cards

Face-up 3 – pay or strike out. If you are dealt a 3 face up, you must decide at once, before the next card is dealt: either match the pot – put in as many chips as are in the pot right now – and the 3 is wild for you, or fold. A 3 dealt face down is simply wild, for free.

Face-up 4 – take a walk. If you are dealt a 4 face up, the dealer at once gives you an extra card face down before dealing on. You can end the hand with eight, nine or more cards – you still use only your best five. A 4 dealt face down earns nothing.

Example: Five players ante 1 chip each, and after the first betting round the pot holds 15 chips. With the 4th card Anna is dealt 3♣ face up. She has a 9 among her hole cards, so she matches the pot – 15 chips – and the pot is now 30. Next, Ben gets 4♦ face up and is given an extra hole card straight away. At the showdown Anna holds K K 9 3 J 5 8 – two wild cards plus two Kings make four Kings. Ben has Q Q Q 4 7 A 2 J – only three Queens. Anna wins.

Winning the game

Play as many deals as you like, or until an agreed time. Whoever has the most chips at the end wins; anyone who runs out of chips drops out.

Tips for beginners

• Four of a kind is an ordinary hand here. Don't bet heavily on a straight or a flush – with this many wild cards they rarely win.
• Hold on to your 3s and 9s; count how many are showing on the table to judge what others might have.
• A face-up 3 late in a big pot is expensive. Pay only if your hand is already strong.
• Watch the face-up 4s: extra cards make a player dangerous.

Variants

All optional – agree beforehand.

• No pay-or-fold: a face-up 3 is simply wild. Or only the first face-up 3 must be bought; after that all 3s are free.
• Price limit: matching the pot is capped at an agreed amount, or replaced by a fixed payment.
• Face-up extra card: the extra card for a 4 is dealt face up (as described on pagat.com).
• Hidden fours: a 4 dealt face down also earns an extra card – shown when dealt or at a moment you agree on.
• Pay for the walk: the extra card must be bought (e.g. for the maximum bet); if you don't pay, you stay in but get no card.
• Football: 3s and 6s are wild, a face-up 2 gives an extra card.
• Woolworth: 5s and 10s are wild.
• Rainy Day Baseball: if the Q♠ is dealt face up, the hand is "rained out" – redeal, and the pot carries over.