House Rules

General Rules

Food and drink (other than water) shall be the responsibility of all players other than the host. I will provide actual food. Due to popular demand, dinner is now served. Players are still responsible, however, for bringing their own non-water drinks. I may have soda, beer, and/or wine for your consumption, but don't count on it. One player, usually the host, usually me, shall be the banker, and be the person responsible for maintaining the bank. Each player shall buy chips from the bank in $5.00 multiples. Players must pay cash, give a Bank Note, or go into THE BOOK any time they buy chips. This is especially true when players buy chips from each other. Players should try to buy chips from each other, before buying from the bank. Bank Notes A Bank Note is any suitable scrap of paper with a dollar amount and a unique identifier of the debtor written on it. Usually, the letters 'B' 'O' and an initial will do (e.g. "BOF" could stand for "Bank Of Foobar"). I reserve the identifier BOG, although you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who has ever held one. Bank Notes must be committed into THE BOOK at the end of the poker session or lose their value. THE BOOK contains all poker related debts and only poker related debts. It is kept by me. If I am not present, then the banker shall be responsible for maintaining another, suitable book and all howtormation from this surrogate shall be transferred to THE BOOK at the first available chance. At the end of every session, THE BOOK shall be evaluated in order to consolidate debt. Additionally, only regular players are allowed to carry BOOK debt. In the event that a non-regular player cannot pay, then the person who invited the non-regular shall be responsible for the debt and for the purchasing of the cement shoes for the debtor. Chips are worth: White = $0.05 (Nickel) Red = $0.10 (Dime) Blue = $0.25 (Quarter) Yellow* = $0.50 (Fifty) Black* = $1.00 (One Dollar) Green* = $5.00 (Five Dollars) * Used when other chips of lower value have been exhausted, or when the banker is too lazy to count out enough lower chips. There is a $0.20 penalty for jumping the bet, to be put instantly into the pot. This does not include folding before it is your turn, although this is discouraged, too. For match pot games, this penalty shall not be included in the calculation of the pot that players have to match. There will be one warning per session before the above rule is invoked -- that's once per session NOT once per player. Ties are never broken by looking at anything outside of the cards used to create the hand, or by anything as artificial as suit ordering, number of wild cards, etc. Goal-Posting: In general, ties are split evenly, however, some games/dealers may state that ties goal-post. This means that no player has the absolute best hand (they tied someone). If players goal-post, then NO player is entitled to the portion of the pot that those players would have won, and that portion of the pot remains for the next game. Goal-posters will be treated as losers, and are subject to all rules that any other loser is subject to (e.g. matching pot, burning, beatings...). The rules for goal-posting override any other rules that may seem to conflict. In "1-2-3-Drop" games, if a player hesitates before dropping the cards, then that player is considered in. Similarly, if a player who did not drop the cards "accidentally" stayed in, then that player is considered in, too. This, however, is not a hard-and-fast rule, the other players can unanimously decide to allow the player to be out. If a player "accidentally" drops, sorry, you dropped, hold them tighter next time. The banker is the first dealer, and dealing rotates to the left. The player sitting on the banker's right shall be the last dealer. No player may leave until after the last dealer has dealt the same number of hands as the first. At then end of the session, all chips that players have must be turned in for cash. If a player's chips do not add up to an even dollar amount, then the left over chips are put into the final pot. After all players have turned in their chips, one last hand (dealer's choice) is dealt for the left over chips in the final pot. Note, there is no betting and the pot should add up to an even dollar amount. Cards talk; i.e. players' cards determine their hands. This means players show their hands, and the best hand that can be made is the one that is used -- this may be better or worse than what the player thought. Please note that this is not the same "Cards Talk" as the Cards Talk in the High-Low Split rules. Five card hands are evaluated in the following order (from highest to lowest):
Five-of-a-kind (only possible if there are wild cards) Straight Flush Four-of-a-kind Full House Flush Straight Three-of-a-kind Two Pair Pair High Card
Three card hands are evaluated in the following order (from highest to lowest):
Three-of-a-kind Straight Flush (optional) Straight (optional) Flush (optional) Pair High Card
If the deck runs out of cards before the deal can be completed and there's no fair way to deal common cards, then the players still in must unanimously decide on the proper course of action, or the hand is considered a misdeal, players throw in their hands, and the game is re-dealt to the players that were still in at the time that the deck ran out. One way is to re-shuffle any discarded cards and folded hands, although this is generally not acceptable.

Low Hands

When evaluating low hands, straights and flushes count. Thus, a wheel, namely A-2-3-4-5, is not a perfect low unless the game requires an 8 or better for the low. In general, the perfect low is A-2-3-4-6 in at least two suits. A pair of Aces is lower than a pair of Deuces. A pair of Deuces is lower than a pair of Aces. This rule was changed after putting it to a vote the first time it came up. I still think that the other way makes more sense, but the majority of people I've asked think that a single Ace can go low or high, but multiple Aces should only be able to go high. You win. Some games only allow 8 or better low hands (also known as casino low). This means that in order for a hand to be eligible for the low it must be unpaired and contain no card higher than an eight. In this case, straights and flushes do not count against a low hand, and therefore, the perfect low hand becomes A-2-3-4-5 in any number of suits. The rules of the game or the dealer must specifically state when lows must be 8 or better; however, the dealer, as a courtesy, should always remind players at the beginning of the game.

High-Low Split

Cards Talk: Some high-low games allow players to simply show their hands in the end. The pot is then split between the players with the highest and the lowest hands that can be made. Declaring: Some high-low games ask players to declare which way they are going. This is done after what would normally be the final betting round in straight high or straight low. Some games have a final betting round after declaring, but most of mine don't. That's not to say they can't. I've come across rules for the same games I have listed here that state there is a betting round following declaring. Each player, still in, takes two chips below the table (any denomination will do). Then each player will bring one fist above the center of the table. The dealer will say "1-2-3-declare," and on the word "declare" all players will open their hands, palm up, to reveal the number of chips they are holding. The number of chips held denotes which half of the pot the player is trying to win, as follows: Zero chips to win the low half of the pot. One chip to win the high half of the pot. Two chips to win the entire pot. This is known as Going-Both-Ways or Pigging. See below. Going-Both-Ways (Pigging): Some people just aren't happy winning just one of two halves of a split pot. Such a greedy person can win the whole pot iff they have the best hand for each half. These people are known as piggers. This gets pretty complicated. Essentially, we punish piggers who tie or lose to someone else by denying the pigger any claim to the pot. If a pigger ties or loses to a non-pigger for one side of a hand, then the best non-pigger wins that half. The other half goes to the best player (other than the pigger) who sought the other half. The pigger wins nothing. If two piggers tie either side, neither wins anything. Note that if the two piggers tie either side and there is no one else in the showdown, the pot remains to the next round. If a pigger can make more than one hand at the time of showdown, the pigger can use one set for the high half and a different set for the low half. If the pigger has any Aces, then when evaluating for the high half they are considered one better than a king and for the low half they are considered one below a Deuce. If there is an uneven amount of money in the full pot making it impossible to equally split it in half, the extra amount goes to the player who won the high half. If there is an uneven amount of money in one half of the pot that must be split between two or more players, the extra amount is returned to the center of the table and will be included in the pot of the next game.

Wild Cards

Wild Cards, by definition, can take on the rank or suite of any card, even if that card is already in a player's hand. The only exception to this rule is for ranking Flushes: a wild card may not be used to duplicate a card already being used in the Flush.

Here are a couple of examples, if that isn't clear to you: If a player has: A, A, A, wild, wild, then that player's best hand is 5 Aces. If a player has 4 Hearts: A, J, 9, 7, and a wild, then that player's best hand is an A, K, J, 9, 7 Flush and not an A, A, J, 9, 7 Flush.

Wild cards, not dictated by the game being played, must be declared by the dealer prior to dealing. If "lowest" cards are wild: Players must use the lowest card eligible at the time of the showdown as their wild card, and cannot disregard their lowest cards in favor of others. If a player's lowest card happens to be wild for some other reason, then it still counts as that player's lowest card. Aces cannot be wild, even in games where A-5 straights are possible, unless all of the cards that are eligible to be wild are Aces. Again, if that wasn't clear, here's an example: the game is 7-Stud, 3s and lowest hole cards are wild; one player's hand is (4,4,3),K,4,7,9 and another player's hand is (A,A,A),2,3,6,J -- note that the cards in () are the players' hole cards. The first player must use the 3 as the lowest wild card, even though it's already wild, and has four 4s. The second player has all Aces down, so they are wild, and has five Jacks -- the 3 up is also wild. In low hands, unless otherwise stated by the game being played, wild cards do not have to "pair" up; they can take on any value.

Unless The Dealer/Game States Otherwise

The rules for all games that are defined in this document are the rules of the game. The rules for games not in this document must be stated by the dealer when the game is called. For games that require an ante, it is the lowest unit bet (a white chip), and is put in by each player before the first card is dealt. Baltimore Exception: only the first ante and re-antes are put in by each player; subsequent antes are paid by the winner(s) of the last pot. We're a friendly bunch in Baltimore, and hate to add insult to injury. Actually, there's usually a lot of insults, but verbal not fiscal. NOTE: The Baltimore Exception now applies in Bethesda. We're friendly there, too; besides I like this rule a lot. There is a maximum of 3 raises per betting round (this does not include the opener) unless only two players remain, in which case heads-up play ensues, i.e. there is no maximum number of raises since either player can simply call and end the raising. Minimum bet is set to $0.00 for games that do not say otherwise. Minimum raise is set to $0.05 for games that do not say otherwise. Maximum bet and maximum raise are both set to $0.50 for games that do not say otherwise. You cannot raise your own bet. You can raise after you have checked; also known as sandbagging or check-raising. Ties split the pot, unless the the rules of the game specifically state goal-posting. If the pot cannot be split evenly, then the left over money shall remain in the pot for the next game. Betting rounds start with the highest hand showing. In draw games, where no cards are exposed, the betting starts to the left of the last raiser/better. In the remaining situations where no cards are exposed, then the betting starts with the last raiser/better or, in cases where there is no last raiser/better, the player to the dealer's left.