Five card draw
Winner: High hand
Variation: Can have wild cards
Deal: Each player gets five cards face down and can throw off up to three cards.
Five Card Stud
Winner: High hand
Variation: Can have high hand split with low hand. Can have wild cards.
Deal: 1 card down, 3 up, last card down.
Seven Card Stud
Winner: High hand
Variation: Can have high hand split with low hand. Can have wild cards.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Kings and Little Ones
Think: Seven card stud
Winner: High hand
Variation: Can have high hand split with low hand.
Main point: All Kings are wild and also the lowest card in your entire hand, and all like them, are wild. Note that the low card can change with each card dealt.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Blind Baseball
Winner: High hand splits with low hand.
Cards: 3's and 9's are wild if paid for it before another card is flipped over. For a 4, you are dealt another card for your hand, free. Either up or down.
Deal: 7 cards all dealt face down. Do not look at the cards! The first player flips a card over and bets. Subsequent players, one at a time, flip over their cards until they can beat the high hand showing on the board. Then they stop and bet.
Bets: If you flip over all of your cards and can't beat what is on the board then the bet goes to the last person who started it.
Winning: 3's and 9's are wild only if paid for. If they aren't then don't consider them wild when determining the high hand.
Amounts: To make a 3 or 9 wild pay 5 cents.
Chameleon
Winner: High hand splits with low hand.
Cards: This is very a variant of Blind Baseball. The 3's and 9's are the same and there's a free card if a 4 comes up. But if a 7 is turned up the player has the option to change-out one of the initial wild cards (3s or 9s) for one of his choice. For example 5's may be chosen to replace all 3's so 5's and 9's would then be wild. If another 7 comes up the player can change either all 5's or all 9's to something else.
Deal: 7 cards all dealt face down. Do not look at the cards! The first player flips a card over and bets. Subsequent players, one at a time, flip over their cards until they can beat the high hand showing on the board. Then they stop and bet.
Bets: If you flip over all of your cards and can't beat what is on the board then the bet goes to the last person who started it.
Winning: 3's and 9's are wild only if paid for. If they aren't then don't consider them wild when determining the high hand.
Amounts: To make a 3 or 9 wild pay 5 cents. To change the wild card when a 7 is turned over pay 5 cents. Other players do not have to pay to have their face up cards become wild to use them as wild - only those turned up after the 7 is played.
3 Card Monty
Note: This can be an expensive game.
Hand: 3 cards - use the best 2 cards for the hand, but no flushes. Players choice.
Winner: High hand splits with low hand. It's possible to use different combinations for high and low hands since each is considered separately when determining the winner. Maybe winning both.
Winning hands: Suites don't matter in this game. For high hand a pair of Aces is the best. When no pairs are showing then Ace-King is best. Whoever has the highest card wins. For low hand 2-3 is best , or if Ace is low, then Ace-2. Out of the two cards compare the highest one with other players highest card to determine the winner. The one with the lowest of those cards is the winner.
Variation: The Ace can be low. This means if there are no pairs then a hand with Ace-King-2 wins both high (Ace-King) and low hands (Ace-2).
Bets: After each person gets their cards.
Cards: Max of 2 per round but if passed a card that counts towards the 2 cards.
Deal: First person on left gets a card and decides if he wants to keep it. If not, he passes it to the person on his left and gets another card. Bets. The next person, if passed a card either keeps it or passes it to the left. If he wasn't passed a card he'll get a total of two. He's dealt a card and decides to keep it or pass it. If he doesn't like it then he passes it on and gets another. Bets. When it's the dealers turn he decides to keep it or turn it over for another card.
Play your own hand: It's possible to pass a card that may help another player. That's okay if you are going opposite of them like they have a high hand but getting another card would give you another chance at low hand.
Black Bottom Low Hole
Think: Seven card stud.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 up or down: Normally the last card is dealt face down but the player can decide if it should be up or down.
Winner: High hand splits with the highest spade in the hole. Ace of spades is the highest card.
Wild: The lowest card in the hole and all like them in your hand are wild. Warning, the last card, if dealt face down, can change what the wild card is.
Follow the Queen
Think: Seven card stud.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Winner: High hand.
Variation: The queens are also wild regardless of what is dealt.
Main point: When one of the UP cards dealt is a queen then the next UP card, and all like them, are wild. If no queen is dealt up or the very last up card is a queen then nothing is wild.
Follow the Queen - Star Trek Next Generation (Commander Data suggested this on one episode)
Think: Follow the Queen.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Winner: High hand.
Main point: When one of the UP cards dealt is a queen then all duces (two's) and One-Eyed Jacks are wild. If no queen is dealt up then nothing is wild. Other queens dealt up have no effect.
Spades
Think: Seven card stud.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Winner: High hand.
Main point: All spades in your hand are wild. During the deal if someone get's two spades face up then they are out of the game.
Bloody Sevens
Pot: Everyone puts in an extra 50 cents.
Deal: Everyone gets three cards and an extra hand is dealt.
Wild: All sevens are wild.
Winner: High hand but using only two of the three cards. If there is no pair then Ace-King would be high. Flushes are not used.
Play: After all of the cards are dealt the players hold their cards just over the table. The dealer counts to three. Anyone wishing to fold drops their cards on three. Anyone wishing to stay holds onto their cards.
Losing: If there is a seven in the extra hand then those who stayed lost and must pay the pot 75 cents.
Winning (assuming there's no seven in the extra hand): The highest hand using only two of the cards wins. So the highest hands are pair of Aces, Ace-Seven (since sevens are wild), and Seven-Seven (since sevens are wild). The winning player gets the whole pot. Those who stayed and lost must pay the pot 75 cents.
End of game: When the pot is broken. This happens when only one person stays and wins so there is no more money in the pot. That is the end of the game and the player to the left of the one who started it now deals.
Criss Cross
Deal: Each player gets 4 cards with an extra hand dealt. The extra down hand has five cards (so start the deal with the down hand).
The down hand is shaped like a plus sign with the last card in the middle. Here's the order the extra hand cards are dealt and flipped over.
2
1 5 3
4
Winner: High low splits with low hand.
Wild card: The center card (number 5) is wild and all like them for the high hand. It's not used for the low hand.
Play: Bet after all cards are dealt then after each of the down cards are flipped over. Flip over the first card then go around with the center card being the last one flipped over.
Winning: Players pick cards out of their hand and choose cards out of the down hand for a total of five for the best hand. They can only pick cards from the horizontal row or vertical column. For their hand they can't have cards from both (except for the wild card) (so from the example either 1, 5, and 3, or 2, 5, and 4.) You do not have to use all of the cards from the row or column. Just up to five cards total from your hand and what is down.
High/Low: The high/low hands are two different hands. That means you can use different cards for each hand and you can use the vertical cards for one hand and the horizotal cards for the other.
Note: You don't have to declare if you will go high or low.
Four by Four
Deal: Everyone gets 4 cards and there's an extra hand dealt. The extra hand is spread out in front of the dealer. All cards are dealt face down.
Winner: High and low hands split the pot.
Low hand: The highest card that can be used for a low hand is an 8.
Play: After all cards are dealt then bet. A card from the extra hand is turned over the first player bets. A second card is flipped over and betting takes place. At this point players throw off or get rid of one card if they want. If a player throws off a card then the dealer gives them two cards. If the player doesn't throw off a card he gets only one card. The idea at this point is that all players will have 5 cards in their hand. The next player in line bets again. Since there is still two cards face down of the extra hand a card is turned over and betting takes place. Repeat for the last card.
Declaring: After all of the cards of the extra hand are flipped over and the final betting takes place, the players have to decide whether to go high, low, or both (piggy). Each player will hold a coin or coins in their closed palm to signify their choice. One coin for low, two for high, or three for piggy. Once everyone is decided then everyone opens up their palm to show their coins and also flips over their cards.
Winning: If someone went piggy they have to win both high and low to get all the winnings. Else the pot is split between high and low hands. If only one person declared high/low then they win half the money. If more than one person declares high/low then whoever wins gets half the pot. It's possible everyone will declare high or everyone declares low so only one person wins.
Omaha
Note: This is a hard game because you need to remember you must use exactly two cards from your hand.
Deal: Everyone gets 4 cards and there's an extra hand dealt but with 5 cards. The extra hand is spread out in front of the dealer. All cards are dealt face down.
Winner: High hand.
Play: Bet after all of the cards are dealt out. Dealer flips over two of the cards of the extra hand. Bet. Each card is then flipped over one at a time with betting going on.
Winning: The player with the highest poker hand wins. Each player must choose two cards from their hand and three from the extra hand.
Follow the Queen - High Chicago
Think: Follow the Queen.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Winner: High hand player splits with the player with the highest spade in the hole. Aces are high. Each player wins half the pot.
Main point: When one of the UP cards dealt is a queen then the next UP card, and all like them, are wild. If no queen is dealt up, or the very last up card is a queen, then nothing is wild.
Note: It's possible one player may win both the high hand and the high spade in the hold. It's also possible no player will have a spade in the hole so the high hand player wins all.
Baseball
Winner: High hand splits with low hand.
Cards: 3's and 9's are wild if dealt up and paid for it before another card is flipped over. 3's and 9's that are dealt down are also wild but free. For a 4, you are dealt another card for your hand, free. Either up or down.
Deal: Like seven card stub. 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Bets: After each up card and last down card. High hand bets.
Winning: 3's and 9's are wild only if paid for. If they aren't paid for then don't consider them wild when determining the high hand.
Amounts: To make a 3 or 9 wild pay 5 cents.
Lowball
Deal: Either 5 Card Draw or 7 Card Stud.
Cards: Nothing is wild. Ace is low when determining the winner.
Winner: Low hand.
Main point: The worst possible hand is desired. That is A, 2, 3, 4, 6. No wheel.
Dirty Schultz
Think: Follow the Queen.
Deal: 2 cards down, 4 up, 1 down.
Winner: High hand.
Main point: When a player is dealt a natural pair, the next UP card, and all like them, are wild. If no player has a natural pair showing then nothing is wild. If the last UP card creates a pair, then nothing is wild.
Note: When a player has a wild card face-up and is dealt a second wild card face-up, this creates a new pair so the next card UP is wild. Or it cancels the wild card if it is the last of the UP cards.
Note: When a player already has a natural pair and is dealt another card for three of a kind, this does not create a new pair so nothing changes.
Variantion: After a pair is dealt, the next card is immediately dealt face up to the center of the table. This center card doesn't belong to anyone, but all cards of the same rank as it are wild. Whenever a new pair appears, another card is dealt to the center of the table on top of the previous one and will become the new wild card. If the very last face-up card creates a pair, another card is dealt to the center and becomes the new wild card. That way there will always be a wild card if any player has a pair showing.