House Rules

House Rules

• Implicit at the end of all games is the "Reveal", where the remaining players show their cards and figure out who won. The cards always speak for themselves: if you reveal a better hand than what you thought you had, you can win accidentally. If only one player is left, they are not required to show their hand.
• A low Ace counts for a straight. This implies that, in a low game, 5-4-3-2-A is a straight, not a low hand. You could count the Ace as high, resulting as an Ace-high hand -- that will usually, but not quite always, lose a low game. All this implies that the lowest possible hand (the "perfect low") is 6-4-3-2-A.
• We almost always play with an ante, rather than using blinds. Blinds must be done as a full round.
• When I say "bet" below, this implies a normal round of betting. If there is new, individualized visible information on the table, the high hand leads the bet (or low hand, in a low game). If there is no new information (such as the down card in Seven Card Stud), the last raiser (or last opener if none) leads. In games where there is no public information (such as Texas Holdem), the open usually passes one step to the left each round.
• When I say "roll your own", this means that, instead of getting a face-up card, you get dealt a face-down card, and choose one to flip up. Everyone usually flips simultaneously.
• In high-low split-pot games that require you to declare which way you are going, we do this by everyone taking chips into their hands, sticking out one hand, and revealing simultaneously what you are holding. Zero chips means you are going low; one chip means you are going high. In some games (typically ones where you are holding seven cards, and can therefore make two different hands), you may hold out two chips to indicate that you are going both high and low; if you do this, you must win both ways in order to win anything, otherwise you lose both ways.