House Rules

The game

This is dealer’s choice poker

Whoever has the button picks the game for their hand.

The dealer is responsible for the game

They call it, they deal it, and the table plays it their way for one hand. It goes back to the house game afterwards.

Three raises to a round

A check is a bet of zero, so opening after a check is the first of the three. The count is on screen while you bet.

The host sets the maximum bet

It caps what a bet or raise adds, not the running total.

At every table

No check and raise

Check, and you have given up the raise for that round.

Suits have no rank

Two identical hands in different suits tie, and split the pot.

An ace plays high or low in a straight

A-2-3-4-5 and 10-J-Q-K-A are both straights. Inside a flush an ace is a 1.

The odd chip goes high

When a split pot will not halve evenly, the high hand takes the extra chip. Anything that still will not divide carries to the next hand rather than being handed to somebody.

The joker is not wild

It is an ace, or it fills a straight or a flush — unless the dealer calls it wild. There is one joker, and only when the host puts it in the deck.

5 Card Draw

Draw three

Or four, if you keep an ace — and that ace is turned face up to prove it. It stays up whether you win the hand or fold it.

If you split openers, you show them

When a game needs a hand to open and you throw part of the hand that opened, the cards you threw are shown at the showdown.

3/33

The ace and the joker are 1

The joker is an ace here too, and worth the same.

Face cards are a half

Jack, queen and king are 0.5 each.

Everything else is its face value

2 through 10 are worth what they say.

Lowball

Straights and flushes do not count

The best hand is 5-4-3-2-A.

The ace is low

Always. It cannot play high.

The joker is a blank card

It takes the lowest rank you are not already holding, so it can never pair you.

The hands, best first

1. 5 of a kind4 of a kind + a wild card
2. Straight flush5 in sequence, same suit
3. Four of a kind4 of the same value
4. Full house3 of a kind + a pair
5. Flush5 in the same suit
6. Straightsequence of 5
7. Three of a kind3 of the same value
8. Two pairpair + pair
9. One pair2 of the same value
10. High cardnone of the above

There is one five of a kind you can make with nothing wild. The joker is an ace, so four aces and the joker is five aces — the best hand in the house.

In a lowball game this ladder runs backwards, and straights and flushes are not on it at all. The worst hand here is the best hand there.