Home Poker Variants (Dealer's Choice)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Basics for all variants
3. Chicago and Low Chicago
4. Dirty Schultz
5. Heinz
6. Woolworth
7. Wild-card calls
8. Mexican Stud (Flip)
9. Shotgun
10. Cincinnati
11. Round the World
12. Iron Cross
13. Tic Tac Toe
14. Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple
15. Peg Leg
16. Also on this site
17. Tips for beginners
18. Variants

Overview

In a dealer's choice game, the deal passes to the left after every hand, and each dealer in turn decides which kind of poker is played for their deal. Most home games play this way, and the dealer usually picks something more unusual than plain draw or stud – games with wild cards, shared cards or a split pot. This page collects well-known home variants. Each one is played for chips with the same basic rules, explained first.

• Players: 3–8, 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.

Basics for all variants

Dealer's choice

Before dealing, the dealer announces the game and explains it completely: how the cards are dealt, which cards are wild, how many betting rounds there are and who wins the pot. Settle every question before the first card is dealt. The dealer may choose the variant, but not the stakes: agree the ante and the betting limits for the whole evening beforehand, and everyone pays the same ante. If a game lasts more than one deal, the deal passes on as usual until it is finished.

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 showdown you make the best hand of exactly five cards out of the cards you may use. 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

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. "5s are wild" means all four 5s.

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: put your cards away face down. You lose what you have already put in.

A betting round ends when everyone still in has put in the same amount and has had a chance to act. A simple home limit: bets and raises of 1–5 chips, at most three raises per round. If all but one player fold, the last player wins the pot at once without showing. Otherwise the showdown follows the last betting round: everyone still in shows their cards, and the best hand wins.

Example: Five play and everyone has paid a 1-chip ante, so the pot holds 5 chips. Anna bets 2, Ben calls with 2. Carla raises: she puts in 5 (2 to call and 3 more). Dan folds; his ante stays in the pot. Eva calls with 5. Now it is Anna's turn again: she needs 3 more chips to match, and so does Ben. Once Anna, Ben, Carla and Eva have each put in 5, the round is over. The pot holds 5 + 4 × 5 = 25 chips.

Stud, draw and shared cards

• Stud: some of your cards are dealt face down (your hole cards – only you see them) and some face up, with a betting round after each new card. Each round is begun by the player whose face-up cards make the best poker combination. Seven-Card Stud, the basis of many variants below: two cards down and one up, betting; three more cards up and one down, with betting after each.
• Draw: all cards are face down. After a betting round, each player may once swap up to three cards for new ones from the draw pile (the undealt deck), then there is another betting round.
• Shared cards: cards dealt to the middle of the table, usually face down and turned up one at a time, which every player may use as part of their hand.

High-low and declaring

Some variants split the pot. In a high-low game the best hand and the lowest hand share it. Low hands are usually counted the "ace-to-five" way: the Ace is low, straights and flushes don't count, and the best low hand is 5-4-3-2-A. To declare, everyone still in secretly takes no chip (low), one chip (high) or two chips (both ways) in a closed fist, and all open their fists together. The best high hand among the high players and the best low hand among the low players each win half the pot. If you declared both, you must win both ways, otherwise you get nothing.

Chicago and Low Chicago

Seven-Card Stud, with the pot split between the best hand and the player holding the highest spade face down. Only spades among your hole cards count: if the A♠ is dealt face up, the K♠ in the hole is the best spade. If one player has both the best hand and the best hole spade, they take the whole pot. If nobody still in has a spade face down, the best hand usually takes it all.

In Low Chicago the lowest spade in the hole (usually the 2♠) wins half the pot instead. It is still the best poker hand that wins the other half.

Option: after the last betting round, players declare whether they are going for the spade, the hand or both, as in a high-low game. A player who declares both must win both.

Dirty Schultz

Seven-Card Stud with a wild card that keeps changing, as in Follow the Queen. Whenever a player is dealt a face-up card that pairs one of their own face-up cards, the next face-up card dealt becomes wild, together with all cards of its rank. Any wild card chosen earlier stops being wild. If the very last face-up card of the deal makes a pair, nothing is wild at all.

Agree beforehand what happens when a player with a wild card showing is dealt a second one, or when a pair becomes three of a kind – the usual suggestion: two equal wild cards count as a pair, but a third card of a rank already paired doesn't.

Heinz

Seven-Card Stud with 5s and 7s wild – the name comes from the "57 Varieties" of the Heinz company. A wild card dealt face down is free. A 5 or 7 dealt face up is expensive: at once, before the next card is dealt, you must either match the pot – put in as many chips as the pot holds at that moment – or fold.

With eight wild cards in play, four of a kind is an ordinary hand, and five of a kind is not rare. Some tables play Heinz as Five-Card Draw with 5s and 7s wild instead.

Woolworth

Seven-Card Stud with 5s and 10s wild – a nod to the old Woolworth "five and ten cent" stores. Wild cards dealt face down are free. If you are dealt a 5 face up, you must pay 5 chips into the pot or fold; for a 10 face up you must pay 10 chips or fold. You decide at once, before the next card is dealt.

At some tables the price is the minimum bet for a 5 and twice that for a 10; at others a face-up 2 earns an extra card, as the 4 does in Baseball.

Wild-card calls

Any game can be spiced up with wild cards. The most common calls:

• Deuces wild: all four 2s are wild – usually in Five-Card Draw.
• One-eyed jacks: the J♠ and J♥ are wild. On most decks these two Jacks are drawn in profile, so they show only one eye.
• One-eyes: the K♦ is wild too – the third face card drawn in profile.
• Suicide King: the K♥ is wild. The King of Hearts seems to be stabbing himself with his sword.
• Low hole card: in stud, each player's lowest face-down card is wild for that player only, together with any other cards of that rank in the same player's hand.

Mexican Stud (Flip)

Five-Card Stud in which you choose which cards to show. Everyone gets two cards face down, looks at them and turns one of them face up. The best face-up card starts a betting round. Then everyone gets one more card face down and again turns up one of their two face-down cards; betting follows. Repeat until everyone has four cards face up and one face down. After the last betting round comes the showdown.

In the version of the US Playing Card Company's Official Rules, the face-down card is wild for its owner, together with any other card of the same rank in that player's hand – a game also called Shifting Sands. It is often played high-low.

Shotgun

Five-Card Draw with extra betting rounds. Everyone gets three cards face down, then there is a betting round. A fourth card face down follows, then betting, then a fifth card face down and betting again. Now everyone still in may draw – swap up to three cards once – and a last betting round and the showdown follow.

Double-Barreled Shotgun: after the draw, everyone lays out their five cards face down in a row and, at the dealer's signal, all turn up one card at the same time. After a betting round, the next card is turned up, and so on, until four cards are face up and one face down; then the final betting round and the showdown. Played high-low, this is sometimes called Skinny Minnie.

Cincinnati

Everyone gets five cards face down, and five more are dealt face down to the middle of the table. The dealer turns the middle cards up one at a time, with a betting round after each – five betting rounds in all, none before the first card is turned. At the showdown, make your best five-card hand from any of your own cards and the five shared cards.

With ten cards to choose from, hands are strong. Popular options: the last shared card and all cards of its rank are wild; the lowest shared card and its rank are wild; or each player's lowest hole card is wild for that player. Cincinnati is also played high-low with a declaration, and is also called Lame Brains.

Round the World

A smaller Cincinnati: everyone gets four cards face down, and four cards are dealt face down to the middle. They are turned up one at a time, with a betting round after each. At the showdown, make your best five-card hand from any of your own cards and the shared cards. The game is played for the high hand only.

Iron Cross

Everyone gets five cards face down. Five more are dealt face down to the middle in the shape of a cross: one card in the centre and one above, right, below and left of it. There is a betting round; then the dealer turns up the cards one at a time – top, right, bottom, left and the centre last – with a betting round after each.

At the showdown, make your best five-card hand from any of your own cards plus shared cards from one line only of the cross: the vertical line (top, centre, bottom) or the horizontal line (left, centre, right) – never from both lines.

Common options: the centre card and all cards of its rank are wild; four cards to each player instead of five; high-low with a declaration. With four cards and a wild centre, the game is also called Criss-Cross.

Tic Tac Toe

Everyone gets only two cards face down, and nine cards are dealt face down to the middle in a 3 × 3 square. The dealer turns them up one at a time, with a betting round after each – or, faster, in groups: the four corners, then the four edge cards, then the centre, betting after each group.

At the showdown, your hand is your two cards plus one line of three shared cards: any row, any column or one of the two diagonals. The centre card is in the most lines, so it is often made wild, together with all cards of its rank.

Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple

Texas Hold'em with three hole cards instead of two. The game runs as in Hold'em: blinds, a betting round, three shared cards (the flop), betting, a fourth card (the turn), betting, a fifth card (the river) and a last betting round. At the showdown you use your hole cards and the five shared cards as in Hold'em.

• Pineapple: everyone discards one of their three cards straight away, before the first betting round.
• Crazy Pineapple: you keep all three cards until after the betting round on the flop, and discard one before the turn is dealt.
• Tahoe (Lazy Pineapple): you keep all three cards, but use at most two of them.

Peg Leg

Seven-Card Stud with a dexterity twist from Scott McNeely's Ultimate Book of Card Games. All antes and bets go onto one single stack of chips instead of a loose pot – add yours carefully, and only when it is your turn. Whoever knocks the stack over is out of this hand; after that the hand is played on normally. If the stack is still standing at the showdown, the best hand takes the pot and every other player still in pays the winner an extra 1 chip.

Also on this site

These dealer's choice classics have their own pages:

• Baseball – Seven-Card Stud with 3s and 9s wild; a face-up 4 earns an extra card.
• No-Peek Baseball – also called Night Baseball: nobody looks at their cards; flip until you beat the best hand showing.
• Follow the Queen – the card after a face-up Queen becomes wild.
• Anaconda – also called Pass the Trash: seven cards, pass three, two and one to your neighbour.
• Spit in the Ocean – four cards each plus one shared wild card.
• Guts, Seven Twenty-Seven and Indian Poker – not poker in the strict sense, but popular dealer's choice games.

Tips for beginners

• Keep the rules short when it's your deal. A game nobody understands isn't fun – explain wild cards and pot splits before the cards come out.
• With many wild cards, hands get much stronger: in games like Heinz, four of a kind is often not enough.
• In split-pot games, a hand that can only win half the pot is worth less than it looks.
• Ask if anything is unclear – before the first bet.

Variants

Optional – agree at the start of the evening.

• Pot-limit or no-limit: instead of fixed limits, a bet or raise may be as large as the pot (pot-limit) or as large as you like, up to all your chips (no-limit).
• Dealer pays the ante: the dealer puts in the ante for everyone, so every pot starts with the same amount and the deal costs a little.
• Rising ante: every 30 minutes the ante and the betting limits double, so a long evening doesn't drag on.
• Re-buys: a player who is out of chips may take the starting stack again once, or until an agreed time.
• Wild-card cap: at most one wild-card game per round of deals, so plain poker still turns up.