The Rules

A game is a combination of four things:

• Structure: how cards are dealt. Flop games share community cards, stud games deal each player a mix of face-up and face-down cards, and draw games let you trade cards back to the deck.
• Hand ranking: what you are trying to make. High hands, ace-to-five low, deuce-to-seven low, or Badugi.
• Betting: fixed limit, pot limit, or no limit.
• Twists: split pots, qualifiers, forced discards, extra boards, bomb pots, draw limits, bring-in direction, and wild cards.

The name of a game is just those settings written out in order, so a name is always a set of instructions. Take Limit 5-Card Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Double Board Bomb Pot:

• Limit: bets and raises are fixed amounts.
• 5-Card: you get five hole cards instead of the usual four.
• Omaha: your hand must use exactly two hole cards and exactly three board cards.
• Hi-Lo: the pot splits between the best high hand and the best low hand.
• 8-or-Better: the low half is only paid if someone makes a low of eight-high or better.
• Double Board: two separate boards run, each worth half the pot.
• Bomb Pot: no blinds and no pre-flop betting. Everyone antes and the flops come straight out.

Same trick for Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, One Eyed Jacks Wild: fixed-limit betting, a draw game with three draws, deuce-to-seven low rankings, and two wild cards in the deck.

Four ranking systems exist. Any game can be built on any of them, which is why Badugi shows up in stud games and lowball shows up on a flop.

High

Standard poker rankings, highest hand wins: straight flush beats four of a kind, then full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. Aces play high, or low in a five-high straight.

A-5 lowball

The lowest hand wins. Aces are low, and straights and flushes do not count against you. The best possible hand is A-2-3-4-5, the “wheel.” This is the ranking used in Razz and in most hi-lo split games.

2-7 lowball

The worst poker hand wins: whatever would lose at standard high poker takes the pot here. Aces are always high, and straights and flushes count against you. The best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7 without a flush.

Badugi

The goal is the lowest four-card hand in which every card is a different rank and a different suit. Cards that repeat a rank or a suit stop counting, so any four-card badugi beats any three-card hand, which beats any two-card hand. Aces are low and the best hand is A-2-3-4 in four different suits.

Badugi paired with 2-7 low

One exception worth knowing. When a game scores Badugi alongside 2-7 low (the Badeucey family), Badugi flips to ace-high to match, so aces are bad and the best badugi becomes 2-3-4-5 in four different suits.

Split pots

A game can score two rankings at once and cut the pot in half, one half for each. High and A-5 low is the classic pairing, but the engine will also split high against 2-7 low, Badugi against A-5 low (Badacey), and Badugi against 2-7 low (Badeucey). Win both halves and you “scoop” the whole thing.

8-or-better qualifier

A common restriction on the low half: all five cards of the low hand must be ranked eight or lower, with aces counting low. If nobody qualifies, the best hand on the main ranking takes the entire pot. A hi-lo game without the qualifier is labeled “Regular,” and in those the best low always gets paid no matter how ugly it is.

Double boards

Flop games can run two boards at once. The pot is split evenly between them and each board’s share goes to the best hand made on that board. Taking both boards is also called scooping.

Everyone is dealt private hole cards, then shares community cards dealt in three stages: the flop (three cards), the turn (one), and the river (one). There is a betting round before the flop and after each stage. Hole card counts run from one to five.

Blinds

The player to the left of the dealer button posts the small blind, the next player posts the big blind, and the deal follows.

Making a hand (Hold’em style)

Your final five-card hand may use any combination of your hole cards and the community cards.

Making a hand (Omaha style)

Your final five-card hand must use exactly two of your hole cards and exactly three community cards. No more, no less, no matter how many hole cards you were dealt.

Forced discards

A game can force every player to throw a card away at up to four points in the hand: right after the deal, after the flop betting, after the turn betting, or after the river betting. Each discard point has to leave you enough cards to still make a hand, so more discards means more hole cards up front.

Double boards

Two full boards can run side by side, each dealt through flop, turn, and river, each taking half the pot.

Bomb pots

No blinds and no pre-flop betting round. Every player posts a fixed bomb-pot ante before the hand and the flop is dealt immediately, with a betting round after each stage from there. Pairs nicely with a double board.

No community cards and no blinds. Everyone antes, then builds their own hand across several streets with some cards face up for the table to read. Your best five-card hand comes out of your own cards alone.

Seven-card stud

Two cards face down and one face up to start (third street). Three more face-up cards follow one at a time (fourth, fifth, and sixth street), then a final card face down (seventh street), with a betting round after every card.

Five-card stud

One card face down and one face up to start (second street), then three more face-up cards one at a time (third, fourth, and fifth street), with a betting round after every card. Everything after your first card is public.

The bring-in

On the first betting round one player is forced to open the action with a small mandatory bet. In high games it is the lowest up card that brings it in. In low games it is the highest. A game can flip that on purpose, and when it does the name says so.

You are dealt a full hand face down, there are no community cards, and blinds work the same as in a flop game. Then you get one or more chances to trade cards back to the deck.

Drawing

In each drawing round you may discard any number of your cards and take replacements, or “stand pat” and keep what you have. Games run one draw (single draw), two (double draw), or three (triple draw).

Betting rounds

There is a betting round after the initial deal and another after each drawing round, so a triple-draw game has four of them.

Draw limits

A game can cap how many cards you may replace in a single drawing round. When it does, the name carries the cap, as in “(2 Card Max).”

Starting hand size

Five cards is standard. Badugi games deal four, since a badugi is only four cards long.

Fixed limit

All bets and raises are fixed amounts: the small bet on early streets and the big bet on later streets. Betting is normally capped at one bet plus three raises per round. A table can turn that cap off, and then the name picks up “(No Cap)” as a warning.

Pot limit

The maximum bet is the current size of the pot. Raises are calculated as if you had called first: your call goes into the pot, and you may then raise by up to that new pot size.

No limit

Bet or raise any amount up to your entire stack, at any time.

A wild card stands in for a card its holder does not have. The engine can make almost anything wild:

• Jokers, which add two extra cards to the deck
• Any full rank: deuces, threes, aces, and so on
• A whole suit (♣ clubs, ♦ diamonds, ♥ hearts, ♠ spades) or a whole color (black cards, red cards)
• The famous singles: the one-eyed jacks (J♥ and J♠), the Suicide King (K♥), and the Man With the Axe (K♦)
• Any combination of the above, up to and including every card in the deck. Yes, we let you do that. No, we do not recommend it.

A wild card can also behave three different ways, and the game name says which one is in play:

Unrestricted

The wild card can represent any card at all, including a duplicate of one already in your hand, so five of a kind is possible.

Natural

The wild card becomes whichever card makes your strongest hand, but it has to be a card that could really exist. It cannot duplicate an exact card, so five of a kind is off the table.

Bug

The classic limited wild: it counts as an ace, unless it can be used to complete a straight or a flush.

Games the engine deals by name. Every one of them is just the building blocks above in a particular combination, and the engine can generate thousands more that have never been given a name at all.

Flop games

Hold’em

Two hole cards, five community cards, any combination of the seven. Deals in no limit, pot limit, and fixed limit.

Pot-Limit Omaha

Four hole cards, use exactly two of them plus exactly three board cards. Fixed-limit Omaha is on the menu too.

5-Card Pot-Limit Omaha

Omaha with a fifth hole card. Still exactly two of yours at showdown, which is what makes people misread their hands.

Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better

Omaha split between the best high hand and the best A-5 low, with the low half needing eight-high or better to get paid. Deals in both fixed limit and pot limit.

Big O

Five-card Pot-Limit Omaha, hi-lo split with an 8-or-better qualifier. Huge hands, huge pots, and half of them get chopped.

Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple, Hazy Pineapple, Lazy Pineapple

Hold’em with three hole cards and one forced discard. When you discard is the whole difference: Pineapple before the flop, Crazy Pineapple after the flop, Hazy Pineapple after the turn, Lazy Pineapple after the river.

Pen Pineapple Apple Pen and friends

Stack more than one discard and the naming turns into a chant. Each discard point has a word: pre-flop is Pen, the flop is Pineapple, the turn is Apple, the river is Pen. Discard after the flop and the turn and you are playing Pineapple Apple. Discard at all four and you are playing Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. We did not make that up. Well, we did, but the games are real.

Double Board Bomb Pot

Everyone antes, no pre-flop betting, and two boards come out at once, each worth half the pot. Runs on Hold’em, Omaha, and Omaha Hi-Lo.

Stud games

7-Card Stud

The classic. Seven cards each, four of them face up, best five wins. Deals in fixed limit, pot limit, and no limit.

5-Card Stud

The lean older cousin. One card down and four up, so almost everything is public and there is very little to hide behind.

7-Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or-Better

Stud split between the best high hand and the best A-5 low, with the eight-high qualifier on the low half.

7-Card Stud Hi-Lo Regular

The same split with no qualifier at all, so the best low always takes half no matter what it is.

Razz

Seven-card stud played for A-5 low only. The best hand is the wheel, and the highest up card brings it in.

5-Card Razz

Razz on the five-card stud skeleton. Fewer cards, fewer places to improve, more bluffing at the board.

2-7 Razz

Stud lowball scored deuce-to-seven, so aces are high and your straights and flushes are working against you.

Studugi

Seven-card stud scored entirely as Badugi. Yes, it is as strange as it sounds. Yes, it is great.

Razzdugi

Stud with the pot split between the best Badugi hand and the best A-5 low, both pulled from your same seven cards.

2-7 Razzdugi

The same split against 2-7 low instead. Because that pairing flips Badugi to ace-high, aces are terrible in both halves at once.

Draw games

5-Card Draw

Five cards, high hands, and one, two, or three draws depending on the table. The first poker most people ever played.

2-7 Triple Draw

Five-card draw, three draws, fixed limit, deuce-to-seven rankings. A staple of high-stakes mixed games.

2-7 Single Draw

One draw only, usually no limit. Fast, brutal, and famous for enormous bluffs.

2-7 Double Draw

The middle setting, two draws, usually pot limit.

A-5 Draw

Draw lowball scored ace-to-five, so straights and flushes are harmless and A-2-3-4-5 is the nuts. Deals as single, double, or triple draw.

Badugi

The purest form of the four-card low: four cards, three draws, fixed limit, chasing all four different ranks and suits.

Badacey

Five-card triple draw with the pot split two ways from the same five cards. Half goes to the best four-card Badugi, half to the best A-5 low. Aces are good in both halves, which is why A-2-3-4 of four suits is such a monster here.

Badeucey

Also five-card triple draw with a Badugi half and a low half, but the low half is scored 2-7 instead. That flips the Badugi half to ace-high to match, so aces hurt you twice over and the best badugi is 2-3-4-5 in four suits.

Cash games

Buy in for chips within the table’s range, play as long as you like, leave when you want. Blinds stay put.

Sit-and-go tournaments

Everyone starts with the same stack, the game begins when the table fills, and blinds escalate on a real tournament ladder until one player has it all. No joining or rebuying once it is underway.

Single game

One variant, every hand, until you all get bored of it.

Fixed rotation

The table cycles through a list of games you set in advance. Build your own HORSE, or something far worse.

Dealer’s choice

The player on the button calls the next game. Tables can allow picking from a set list, dropping in a Random Game slot that has the engine invent a fresh variant on the spot, or letting the button build a fully custom game from scratch.

When the game changes

Rotating tables switch either once the button completes a full orbit (with a minimum hand count so a short-handed table does not flip games every other hand) or after an exact number of hands, whichever the host picked.