The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (22 page)

Mexican Stud is similar to the stud poker games, with a “roll your own” variation in which you decide what cards to show your opponents. This makes for a much more exciting and strategic game, because you never know if your opponents are showing their weak cards or their best cards. The first step is to choose a dealer at random. Players ante, and the dealer deals clockwise two hole cards, one at a time, face down to each player. Deal will continue to rotate in a clockwise direction after each hand is played.

After the deal is complete, players turn up a card of their choice, and the player to the left of the dealer starts a round of betting—he checks, bets, or folds his hand. The next players follow and can fold, call, or raise that bet.

After the round of betting is complete, the dealer deals one card face down to each player. As before, you view your hole cards and determine which one of these two cards to turn up. Another round of betting occurs, and this process continues until each player has four cards face up and one card face down.

If at any time during the betting rounds there is only one person remaining (that is, every other player folds), that player wins and takes the pot. If two or more players remain, those players must reveal their hands. The player with the best hand wins and takes the pot.

This easy and enjoyable variation on poker is played without wild cards. It is played with two to seven players and a standard deck of fifty-two cards. The objective, like all poker games, is to win money by betting strategically. There’s no bluffing in Mexican Sweat because the players get to see your cards. Players should agree on a minimum bet, which is also the amount of the ante.

Each player antes, then the dealer deals seven cards face down to each player. Players may not look at their cards. If any player does look, she must match the pot as a penalty. The first player to the left of the dealer starts by turning over his top card. This first card shown automatically becomes the highest card. A round of betting occurs, in which each player pays the minimum into the pot. Since the first player turns up a card, and everyone must immediately add the minimum bet to the pot, you can choose to ante twice the minimum bet and forgo this round of betting to speed up play.

Once the betting is complete, the next player turns up his top card. If this card is higher than the previous player’s, play stops and a second round of betting takes place, where each player can bet, check, raise, or fold. If this card is lower in value, the player turns another card beside the first, and so on until the hand beats the previous player’s card. If, during the roll, the player turns up a pair or better, the minimum bet doubles for all players.

For example, if the previous high card was a ten and you turn over a jack, you stop and a round of betting occurs. If you turn up a nine, you continue turning over cards until you turn over one card that is higher than a ten, or you turn over another nine. You would then stop, and a round of betting would occur.

If the next player turns up all of his cards and cannot beat the previous player’s hand, his turn is over, and the player to his left starts turning over his cards. No betting takes place in between turns. Either way, play continues to the next player clockwise and he has to beat the previous high hand showing on the table. For example, once a pair is shown, it has to be beaten by a higher pair, or a higher poker hand of two pair, three of a kind, and so on.

Play continues around the table to the dealer and back to the player on the dealer’s left, with each player rolling his cards up to beat the hand that came before him. Play continues until all players but one have folded their cards or turned up all of their cards. The game ends when all the players have rolled up their cards or when there is only one player left in the game holding the highest five-card poker hand. The final player standing is the winner.

The variation of Midnight Baseball, or Murder, is a combination of Baseball and Mexican Sweat. The deal and play is the same as Mexican Sweat, but the wild cards and structure in Baseball are added to make the game a bit more interesting.

Omaha resembles Texas Hold ’Em in that it uses five communal cards, but players get four “hole” cards that only they see. In Omaha, players must use two and only two of the cards in their hand plus three of the communal cards to make their hand. You’ll need at least two players and a standard deck of fifty-two cards to play Omaha.

A random dealer is selected, and the two players to the left of the dealer post the big and small blinds. The dealer then deals four hole cards clockwise, face down, one at a time to each player. Deal will continue to rotate in a clockwise direction after each hand is played. If you’re playing at a casino, deal will not rotate, but there will be a marker to indicate whose turn it is to post the blinds.

The game begins with all players picking up their cards and assessing their hands. The player to the left of the two who posted the blinds opens the betting round by calling the bet, raising, or folding his hand. Play continues clockwise around the table until everyone has called the bets or folded.

After the round is over, the dealer burns the top card by placing it at the bottom of the deck or in the middle of the deck and then flips the next three cards up on the table. This is called the flop. These cards can be used by any of the players to make a five-card poker hand with two of the four cards they hold. You don’t pick these cards up because they are communal to everyone.

Another round of betting starts with the player to the dealer’s left. If that player has folded his hand, the betting starts with the first person who is still in the game. In this round and in future rounds of betting, a player can check, bet, raise, or fold his hand. After all bets have been played and called, the dealer burns another card and flips over the next card (known as the turn) onto the table.

Another round of betting begins with the first player still in the game to the dealer’s left. When it is over, the dealer burns another card and flips over the next (and last) card (called the river) onto the table. You must now use two of the cards in your hand and any three of the cards on the table to form your best five-card hand. One final round of betting occurs.

If at any time during the betting rounds, there is only one person remaining (that is, every other player folds), that player wins and takes the pot. If there are two or more players remaining, you have reached the showdown and must reveal your hands. The player with the best hand wins and takes the pot. If any two hands tie, the players split the pot.

The traditional Asian game of Pai Gow is played with tiles that resemble dominos. An American version was introduced using standard playing cards and the ranking of hands was fashioned after poker hands, creating Pai Gow Poker. Like Caribbean Poker, Pai Gow Poker is a one-on-one game, played against the dealer instead of against other players. The object is to use seven cards to create two poker hands that will beat the dealer’s hands.

Pai Gow Poker begins with each player placing a bet on the table. The dealer then shuffles the cards and deals out seven stacks with seven cards each, no matter how many players there are. The dealer rolls three dice and counts the total around the table counterclockwise, starting with himself, to determine who gets the first hand. The remaining players get their hands in a counterclockwise rotation.

The ranking of the cards in Pai Gow Poker is the same as poker—ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, and two. The suits are all equal in value. There is an exception in the ranking of hands in Pai Gow Poker, as follows:

• The highest straight is A K Q J 10
  
• The second-highest straight is A 2 3 4 5
  
• The third-highest straight is K Q J 10 9
  

Pai Gow Poker is played with a joker as a wild card, but this card can only be used as an ace or to complete a royal flush, straight flush, flush, or straight.

You start the game by picking up your cards and building two hands, one with five cards and one with two cards. You then lay down your cards face up, the two-card hand on top and the five-card hand on the bottom.

The dealer turns over his hands and compares them to each player’s hands in turn. If the dealer loses to both of your hands, you win an amount equal to your initial bet minus a 5-percent commission. If the dealer’s hands outrank both of your hands, you lose your bet. If the dealer wins a hand and you win a hand, it is a push and nobody wins or loses. If your hand ties (or copies) the dealer, the dealer wins.

Pyramid Poker is a poker variation that also uses communal cards to help players build their hands. The cards are dealt in the shape of a pyramid, thus naming the game. You’ll need at least two players and a standard deck of fifty-two cards. The first step is to choose a random dealer. Each player antes, and the dealer deals clockwise four cards face down to each player. He then deals six cards, face down, in the shape of a pyramid (one on the top row, two in the middle row, three on the bottom row). Deal will continue to rotate in a clockwise direction after each hand is played.

The game begins with a round of betting starting to the dealer’s left. Each player can check (if no bets have been placed) or bet, call, raise, or fold in turn. The dealer then turns over the middle row and the middle card in the bottom row of the pyramid. A second round of betting takes place, after which the dealer turns over the top card. A third round of betting occurs. The dealer turns over the last two cards, and a final round of betting takes place.

You can use the four cards in your hand and any three cards that form an outside row of the pyramid to form your best five-card poker hand. Another variation of Pyramid Poker lets you use the four cards in your hand plus one card from each of three rows to form the best five-card poker hand. The player with the highest hand wins and takes the pot.