Game Categories Index
A sampler of games by type, to help you pick one for the night.
A sampler of games by type to help you pick one. Every game’s type is printed under its name in Section 7, and selected games with fixed wild ranks appear in the table that follows.
| Classic Games | Five Card Draw · Five Card Stud · Seven Card Stud · Hold’em · Razz |
| Guts Games | Guts · Balls · Cuban Guts Poker · Drop Guts · Reverse Blast Guts · No Peek Guts |
| Wild Card Games | Baseball · Night Baseball · Dr. Pepper · Woolworth · Heinz 57 · Rembrandt · Wild Fire · Absolute Wildfire |
| No Peek Games | Blind Pig · Seven Card No Peek · Night Baseball · No Peek Guts · Limba · Mexican Sweat |
| Knock Games | 31 · Knock · Whisky Poker |
| Pile Games | 3 Toad Pete · 7-27 · Pile Driver · Screw Your Neighbor · Double Barrel Screw |
| Betting Games | Between the Sheets · In/Out Sheets · Red Wolf · Bingo · Value Poker · Roller-Coaster |
| Community Card Games | Hold’em · Death Wheel · Spit in the Ocean · Lame Brain · Forty-Four · Stormy Weather · Proctor & Gamble |
| Pass / Trade Games | Anaconda · Pass the Garbage · Ruin Your Neighbor · Trees · Trade a Heart · Have a Heart |
| Unique / Complex Games | Jacks and Jokers · Oppression · Zombie · Limba · Auction · Dirty Schultz · The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly |
Wild Card Games at a Glance
The count is the total number of wild cards in a 52-card deck.
| Cards | Game and wild ranks | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Baseball 3s and 9s | 8 | |
| Night Baseball 3s and 9s · no peek | 8 | |
| Dr. Pepper 2s, 4s and 10s | 12 | |
| Woolworth 5s and 10s — the five-and-dime | 8 | |
| Heinz 57 5s and 7s | 8 | |
| Nine to Five 9s and 5s · $0.40 per wild | 8 | |
| Sixty-Nine 6s and 9s | 8 | |
| Football 4s and 6s | 8 | |
| Seventy-Seven 7s | 4 | |
| Eighty-Eight 8s | 4 |
Wild Card Games at a Glance — Continued
The count is the total number of wild cards in a 52-card deck.
| Cards | Game and wild ranks | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Ninety-Nine 9s | 4 | |
| Three Thirty-Three 3s | 4 | |
| Three Forty-Five 5s | 4 | |
| Wild Kings Kings | 4 | |
| Rembrandt All picture cards | 12 | |
| Queens, Fours and One-Eyed Jacks Queens, 4s, J♠ and J♥ only | 10 | |
| Red Ball Black 4s only · red 4s kill the hand | 2 | |
| Wild Fire Every heart | 13 | |
| Absolute Wildfire Every red card | 26 |
Many of these games charge for a wild card dealt face up — check the entry.
Guts, Kitties and Piles
How the declaration games settle up.
1. Ante and deal
Everyone antes. Cards go to each player — and, in most variants, to an extra hand called the KITTY.
2. Declare
On the count, each player reveals a coin in their fist: held = IN, empty = OUT. No looking at anyone else first.
3. Settle
Best hand among those who stayed in takes the pot — but must also beat the kitty. Everyone who stayed in and lost MATCHES the pot.
4. Repeat
The matched money becomes the new pot and the hand is dealt again. It ends when exactly one player declares in and beats the kitty.
Pile Games
In 3 Toad Pete, 7-27, Pile Driver, Screw Your Neighbor and Double Barrel Screw you do not chase a pot — you defend a stack of markers.
Lose a hand, put one pile in the pot. Lose them all and you are out. The last player with piles left takes everything.
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