Munk.org Poker House Rules

Midnight Cobain Baseball

{Munk, 97} ($$$$$???):

Regular poker deck, 3's and 9's are wild, 4's get you another card. No discards. The Suicide King* (K©) kills your hand (forced fold).
All players are dealt 7 cards, face down, in the exact order that they were dealt (ie: no 'Blind Shuffling' of your hand.). The Topmost of the remaining undealt cards is then revealed. This is the Hand To Beat (not real hard, usually, a higher card or a wildcard will do it.) The player who was dealt to first begins turning his cards over, one at a time, until he can beat the 'Hand To Beat'. When he does so, he stops turning cards over and bets on what he sees of his hand, which is of course, what everyone else at the table can see as well. When this betting round is finished, the next player begins turning his cards over until he can beat the previous player's 'Hand To Beat', at which point he stops turning cards over, and bets on what he sees**. This cycle continues until one player is left with the winning hand.

Standard 'Five Cards With Wilds' scoring rules apply.

Related Game: Courtney Love Baseball.

* The Cobain, Old King Cobain, Kurt Cobain, American Hero...

** (Strategy note: it is GOOD to be the dealer in this game, since everyone else has to show a fairly good chunk of thier hand before you even have to turn over a single card, thus you get to make your bets while possessing the most amount of information about what everyone else has in thier hands. The unfortunate converse to this is that you probably won't have the slightest idea about what's in your own hand until the game is almost over. This can be nerve-wracking to timid players.)

Courtney Love Baseball

{??, 9?} ($$$$$???):

Regular poker deck, 3's and 9's are wild, 4's get you another card. No discards. The Suicide Queen* (Q©) kills your hand (forced fold).
All players are dealt 7 cards, face down, in the exact order that they were dealt (ie: no 'Blind Shuffling' of your hand.). The Topmost of the remaining undealt cards is then revealed. This is the Hand To Beat (not real hard, usually, a higher card or a wildcard will do it.) The player who was dealt to first begins turning his cards over, one at a time, until he can beat the 'Hand To Beat'. When he does so, he stops turning cards over and bets on what he sees of his hand, which is of course, what everyone else at the table can see as well. When this betting round is finished, the next player begins turning his cards over until he can beat the previous player's 'Hand To Beat', at which point he stops turning cards over, and bets on what he sees**. This cycle continues until one player is left with the winning hand.

Standard 'Five Cards With Wilds' scoring rules apply.

Related Game: Midnight Cobain Baseball.

* Yeah, yeah, I know, the Q© isn't really a 'Suicide Queen' because she's not sticking a knife in her head like the 'Suicide King' is. This game is just a lazy ripoff of Midnight Cobain, and it dosen't get played much except out pity for that dumb slut by certain misguided individuals....

** (Strategy note: it is GOOD to be the dealer in this game, since everyone else has to show a fairly good chunk of thier hand before you even have to turn over a single card, thus you get to make your bets while possessing the most amount of information about what everyone else has in thier hands. The unfortunate converse to this is that you probably won't have the slightest idea about what's in your own hand until the game is almost over. This can be nerve-wracking to timid players.)

Three Dog Night

{Alan, 98} ($$$$):

Regular poker deck, no wilds, 3 discards of one card each.
All players are dealt 1 card, which they hold. during turn 1 players bet on what they were dealt.
Turns 2-4 consist of a discard of a single card for each player (if desired) and a bet on the resultant hand.

Scoring: Highest hand wins. "The Shovel", or the Ace of Spades, is the highest scoring card in the deck. Next in value is the Ace of Hearts, then the Ace of Clubs, then the Ace of Diamonds, King of Spades, King of Hearts, and so on... The highest scoring hands are as follows:

Aª (The Shovel). Game-winner. Use the Shovel to bury your opponents and dig up the treasure.
A©, A§, A¨, Kª,K©,K§,K¨, Qª,Q©,Q§,Q¨, Jª,J©,J§,J¨, 10ª,10©,10§,10¨, 9ª,9©,9§,9¨, etc...

This is a pretty simple, cheap game to play, and the skill to win is about 50% luck and 50% bluff. If you can bluff everyone at the table into thinking you have The Shovel, they may fold and you'll never have to show your 3§. Beware, however, that someone else at the table may hold The Shovel and may call your bluff at considerable expense to you. With less than 6 people at the table, the odds are good that The Shovel may never be dealt.

*Related games: Rudy's Jewels.

Five-Card 21

{Group, 98} ($$$$):

Regular poker deck, no wilds, 3 discards of two cards each.
All players are dealt 5 cards, which they hold. during turn 1 players bet on what they were dealt.
Turns 2-4 consist of a discard of up to two cards for each player (if desired) and a bet on the resultant hand.

Scoring: Closest hand to 21 without busting wins. Staying below 22 is extremely difficult because you must play the 5 cards in your hand, no matter what. Card values are the same as they would be in BlackJack, Aces being worth either 1 or 11 points, and all face cards valued at 10 points. You may bluff if you have busted, but if someone calls you on it by staying in the game, you have to show and lose. Sole exception to this is if *everyone* that stayed in the game have busted, in which case, a stud, face-up 5-card hand is dealt among the surviving players to determine the winner.

Also, since suits are not considered in scoring 5-Card 21, if two players tie, the tie is broken by dealing a 5-card face-up stud game among the players who tied (there could be more than two) from the remaining cards in the deck, unless there isn't enough cards remaining, in which case all the cards are gathered and reshuffled. The player who dealt the 5-card 21 game should be the dealer for the tiebreaker, even if he or she is one of the tied players. The Dealer will be the one who decides who gets the first card.

*Related Games: Book'em Danno

Rudy's Jewels

{Munk, 99} ($$$$$$):

Regular poker deck, no wilds, 5 discards of one card each.
All players are dealt 2 cards*, which they hold. during turn 1 players bet on what they were dealt.
Turns 2-6 consist of a discard of a single card for each player (if desired) and a bet on the resultant hand.

Scoring: Highest hand wins. "Rudy's Jewels", or the One-Eyed Jacks, are the highest scoring cards in the deck. Both of Rudy's Jewels have the same value. The only way your hand can win a round without one of Rudy's Jewels in it is if it is the highest-scoring hand in a round where neither of Rudy's Jewels has been dealt from the deck. The highest scoring hands are as follows:

J© - Jª (Rudy's Jewels). Since you have them both, this is one of the two very best hands to have, the other being:

One of Rudy's Jewels (J© - Jª) and Aª. Having this hand excludes some one having both of Rudy's Jewels, since you obviously have one of them. Thus it is the second sure-fire winning hand, since the game is now forced into scoring by the second-highest card, with that card being ranked according to the rules of Three Dog Night. You could throw away the Aª to try for the second of Rudy's Jewels, but you'd be stupid to do so.

If neither of Rudy's Jewels have been dealt, then the hands are scored by the highest card in each player's hand, with the Aª being the highest card, as in Three Dog Night. The low card in each hand is ignored in this case.

Related Game: United States Stud

* The game was originally created with a deal of 3 cards, but this seemed to result in less tactical gameplay, since there was no risk in burning the lowest-scoring card in your hand with each discard. After much thought the rules were amended for trickier gameplay. ("Should I burn the K© for a chance at a higher card? decisions, decisions...")

United States Stud

{Munk, 99} ($$$$$):

Regular poker deck, no wilds, 4 discards of one card each.
All players are dealt 3 cards, which they hold. during turn 1 players bet on what they were dealt.
Turns 2-5 consist of a discard of a single card for each player (if desired) and a bet on the resultant hand.

This game was created on the spur of the moment when Alan bought 2 new decks of cards from Walgreens and brought them to poker. These 2 "Stud" brand poker decks were opened and found to contain not 2 but *4* wildcards each, even though the package is clearly marked "With Two Jokers". This fluke of fate could not be ignored and "United States Stud" was immediately created to be played with these decks, based loosely on my previous spur of the moment game, Rudy's Jewels.

Scoring: Highest hand wins. "The US Studs", or the 4 Wildcards, are the highest scoring cards in the deck. All of The US Studs have the same value. The only way your hand can win a round without one of The US Studs in it is if it is the highest-scoring hand in a round where none of The US Studs has been dealt from the deck. The highest scoring hands are as follows:

3 US Studs. Since you have three of the four, this is one of the two very best hands to have, the other being:

Two of The US Studs and Aª. Having this hand excludes some one having 3 US Studs, since you obviously have two of them. Thus it is the second sure-fire winning hand, since the game is now forced into scoring by the second-highest card, with that card being ranked according to the rules of Three Dog Night. You could throw away the Aª to try for a third US Stud, but you'd be stupid to do so.

If none of the US Studs have been dealt, then the hands are scored by the highest card in each player's hand, with the Aª being the highest card, as in Three Dog Night. The low cards in each hand are ignored in this case.

Related Game: Rudy's Jewels

Texas Toothpick Toast

{Jick, 04} ($$$$):

Texas Toothpick Toast is a "community card" game, meaning that some cards are dealt face-up in the middle of the table and shared by all the players. Each player has two down cards that are theirs alone, and combines them with the five community cards to make the best possible five-card hand.

Play begins by dealing two cards face down to each player; these are known as "hole cards" or "pocket cards". This is followed by a round of betting. There are no "blind bets". Play proceeds with betting counter-clockwise from the dealer, with each player free to fold, call the bet, or raise. Usually the blinds are "live", meaning that they may raise themselves when the action gets back around to them.

Now one card is "burned" and three cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table; this is called the "flop". A round of betting ensues, with action starting immediately to the dealers right. Another card is "burned" and a card is dealt face up (the "turn"), followed by another round of betting, again beginning to the dealer's right. Then another card is "burned" and the final card (the "river") is dealt followed by the final round of betting.

The game is usually played for high only, and each player makes the best five-card combination to compete for the pot. Players usually use both their hole cards to make their best hand, but this is not required. A player may even choose to "play the board" and use no hole cards at all. Identical five-card hands split the pot; the sixth and seventh cards are not used to break ties.

Related Game: Texas Hold'em.

Book'em Danno

{Dan, 98} ($$$$):

Regular poker deck, no wilds, 3 discards of two cards each.
All players are dealt 5 cards, which they hold. during turn 1 players bet on what they were dealt.
Turns 2-4 consist of a discard of up to two cards for each player (if desired) and a bet on the resultant hand.

Scoring: The highest scoring hand is a hand that contains the Ace and Jack of Spades (Aª, Jª), regardless of what else is in the players hand. If this hand does not show up in the game, then scoring is as in Five-Card 21: Closest hand to 21 without busting wins. Staying below 22 is extremely difficult because you must play the 5 cards in your hand, no matter what. Card values are the same as they would be in BlackJack, Aces being worth either 1 or 11 points, and all face cards valued at 10 points. You may bluff if you have busted, but if someone calls you on it by staying in the game, you have to show and lose. Sole exception to this is if *everyone* that stayed in the game have busted, in which case, a stud, face-up 5-card hand is dealt among the surviving players to determine the winner.

Also, since suits are not considered in scoring 5-Card 21, if two players tie, the tie is broken by dealing a 5-card face-up stud game among the players who tied (there could be more than two) from the remaining cards in the deck, unless there isn't enough cards remaining, in which case all the cards are gathered and reshuffled. The player who dealt the game should be the dealer for the tiebreaker, even if he or she is one of the tied players. The Dealer will be the one who decides who gets the first card.

*Related Games: Five-Card 21

Standard 5-Card Poker Rules

Rank of poker hands (from highest to lowest)

  1. Five of a Kind • Only possible when there are one or more wild cards.
  2. Straight Flush • Five cards of the same suit in sequence. The highest straight flush possible is A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit, called a Royal Flush. The lowest straight flush is 5-4-3-2-A of the same suit.
  3. Four of a Kind • Four cards of the same rank.
  4. Full House • Three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank.
  5. Flush • Five cards of the same suit.
  6. Straight • Five cards in two or more suits, ranking consecutively. The Ace is high in the straight A-K-Q-J-10 and low in the straight 5-4-3-2-A.
  7. Three of a Kind • Three cards in the same rank.
  8. Two Pair • Two cards of one rank and two cards of another rank. (addendum: although in many 7-card games it is possible and in fact is quite common to have THREE pair, that hand would require 6 cards to make, and these rules only permit you to use 5 of your cards in scoring your hand. Thus, 3 pair only counts as 2 pair, with the highest pair being the ones counted.)
  9. One Pair • Two cards of the same rank.
  10. No Pair • This hand loses to anyone who has even one pair, but if two or more players have such hands, the player with the highest card wins (see Single Card Scoring).

Single Card Scoring

For purposes of ranking no pair hands and in scoring for games that use only one card, or where one card determines the winner of the game, the rankings are as follows:

A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

and between cards of the same rank, the suit rankings are as follows:

Spades(ª), Hearts(©), Clubs(§), Diamonds(¨).

Thus, a King of Spades (Kª) ranks higher than a King of Hearts (K©), but lower than an Ace of Diamonds (A¨).

Specialty Scoring

Some games (like Rudy's Jewels or Midnight Cobain Baseball) use special cards That have certain significance, either as a special scoring card or a forced fold card (or even, in the case of Book'em Danno, a forced win card). These special rules supercede the standard scoring rules only in the case of that card. If the special scoring card does not get dealt in the game, all poker hands are scored by standard rules.


Betting

A Note on Betting:

Saturday Night Poker is a White Trash Ritual, a swank re-enactment of the days of the Cocktail Jetset when everyone smoked Benson & Hedges 100's while playing poker to a wash of cool jazz on the HiFi. The setting is the back yard poker table by the light of the Tiki Torches...

Let's just say we're talkin' about the Eisenhower Era, and the price to play Saturday Night Poker is rooted in that fine time zone. It's a penny ante' and quarter maximum bid, so in a night you can expect a negative or positive cashflow of around $5-$10 maximum. It's a cheap night's entertainment and it keeps the kids off the streets.