Follow the Queen

Full rules

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

Overview

Follow the Queen is a 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. Queens are wild, and so is the rank of the card dealt face up right after a face-up Queen. Every new face-up Queen changes that second wild rank, so nobody knows which cards are wild until the last face-up card has been dealt. The best five-card poker hand wins the pot – all the chips bet in that deal.

• Players: 3–7, each for themselves; 5–7 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 your seven. 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.

A wild card can stand for any card you like. It 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 Q Q is five eights, and with 8 or more wild cards in play, big hands are common.

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.

Every betting round is begun by the player with the best face-up hand at that moment. If everyone but one player folds, that player wins the pot at once without showing.

The wild cards

• All four Queens are always wild – face up or face down.
• When a Queen is dealt face up, the next card dealt face up – to whoever gets it, even in the next round of dealing – decides the second wild rank: that card and all cards of the same rank are wild.
• When another Queen is dealt face up, the old wild rank is cancelled, and the face-up card after the new Queen sets the new one.
• So in the end, only the rank that followed the last face-up Queen is wild, besides the Queens.
• If the last face-up card of the deal is a Queen, or no Queen is dealt face up at all, only the Queens are wild.
• Face-down cards never count for following: only the order of the face-up cards matters.

Example: On the 4th card Anna gets Q♥ face up and Ben, next to her, gets 6♣ – now Queens and 6s are wild. Carla holds 6♦ 6♠ in the hole and bets happily. But on the 6th card Dan gets Q♠, and the next player, Emil, gets J♦: the 6s are no longer wild, the Jacks are. At the showdown Carla has only two pair (K K 6 6). Emil holds J♦ J♠ Q♣ 9♥ 9♣ K♠ 2♦ – three wild cards plus two nines make five nines, and he 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

• Until the last face-up card, a hand built on the current wild rank can fall apart. Queens are the only wild cards that are safe.
• Count the Queens and wild cards on the table to judge what others might have.
• Four of a kind or better often wins; a straight or a flush rarely does.
• If someone else's upcard follows a Queen, you may gain wild cards in the hole for free – or lose them with the next Queen.

Variants

All optional – agree beforehand.

• Queens not wild: only the rank after the last face-up Queen is wild; if the last face-up card is a Queen, there are no wild cards (as described on pagat.com). Some also count Queens in the hole as wild.
• No cancellations: every rank that ever follows a face-up Queen stays wild.
• Extra card at the end: if the last face-up card is a Queen, the dealer turns up one more card for nobody; its rank is wild.
• Redeal: if no Queen is dealt face up, the hand is dealt again to the players still in.
• Pay for wild cards: anyone dealt a wild card face up must pay an extra ante into the pot (two for a Queen).