This page offers instructions for a variety of poker games you can play at home. The majority of the games are spin offs to five card draw or seven card stud. The basic concept for most of the games below follow the same rules you use to play poker for real money. Use our quick links menu to find rules to a specific game.
Home Poker Games Menu
How to Play Baseball
How to Play Follow the Queen
How to Play Kings and Little Ones
How to Play Jacks or Better
How to Play Murder
How to Play Texas Hold’em Reach Around
How to Play Black Maria
Baseball / Blind Baseball
The card game Baseball and Blind Baseball is played using Seven Card stud rules. Each player will receive seven cards face down after they ante into the pot. The player to the immediate left of the dealer will begin each round, and each player will take a turn flipping over one of their cards. After the first round is done, the player with the highest hand begins the betting round. If the highest card during the first round is a Q, the player holding the Q will bet. Once all of the cards are face up, the player with the “best five card” poker hand wins the pot.
What is the difference between Blind Baseball and Baseball?
The only major difference between the two games is that players can look at their cards in the game Baseball, while Blind Baseball requires the players to play blind, e.g no peeking.
Poker players often refer to various websites to network, discuss their strategies and find the best places to play the game. Recently poker players have looked at this guide to find the sites where they can play legally. As a player it is often very important to play at a regulated and trusted to site to ensure you play under the fairest conditions.
Kings and Little Ones
Kings and Little Ones is played as five card draw. The only difference between the standard draw game and this one is that all Kings are wild, as is the lowest face down card in each player’s hand. For example, assume Player A’s lowest card is a 3 and Player B’s is a 6, both the 3 and 6 are wild. Alternative ways to play this game include forcing the King to be dealt face down to constitute a wild as well as a kill card, which eliminates all players from the game. This is normally the man with the axe (King of diamonds) or one-eyed Jack (Jack of heats and Jack of Spades). The player with the best five-card poker hand wins the pot. Be careful with this game. Since there are multiple wild cards, it is common for players to win with five of a kind.
Follow the Queen
The card game Follow the Queen is played as Seven Card Stud and all Queens are wild throughout the game. However, once a Queen is dealt face up to a player, the next card dealt also becomes wild and will continue to change until all Queens have been dealt, or the game comes to an end. For example, if Player A receives Q and Player B receives a 6, all 6’s and Q’s are wild. If during the next round Player B receives a Q, and Player C receives a 10, the 10 becomes the wild card in addition to the Queen. Each round of betting will begin with the player who has the highest hand showing face up. Once all cards are turned face up, the player with the best five card poker hand, wins the pot.
Finally, a common rule to this game is “No Queen, No Game”, meaning, if a Queen does not get dealt to a player face up, nobody wins the pot. The dealer will collect the cards and begin a new hand with each player having to ante into the pot again. Another variation of this game is Follow the Cowboy, which is essentially the same thing, except instead of Queens you play with Jacks.
Jacks or Better
Follow the Cowboy is an easy home poker game. The game is played as five card stud with each player receiving five cards face down. Once the deal is complete, the players will look at their hands and decide if they can play. The rules in this game state that unless you have a pair of jacks or better, you won’t be able to open. If nobody at the table has a pair of Jacks or better, everyone has to muck their cards and start again. Once the first round is done, the game will move onto Queens and again the same rule applies. If nobody has a pair of Queens or better, they can’t open, which means the hand is dead. The game continues in the same pattern using Kings and Aces and finally back to Jacks. If a player can open, they will announce it to the table, at which point they will also check or bet. The player with the best five-card poker hand wins the game. *There are no wild cards used in this game*
Murder
Murder is a fun card game. To play, you simply have to know how to play seven card stud, which is two cards dealt down, four cards dealt face up and one card down. The betting rounds are the exact same as a standard stud game with one exception. Any player that is dealt a pair face up, the player has to match the pot or fold their hand.
Other than that, the rules of the game are the same as any other variation of stud poker. Once the betting has finished, the players will flip over their hands and the best five card hand wins the pot.
Texas Hold’em Reach Around
This game is played as Hold’em poker. Each player receives two cards face down. Once the deal is complete, a round of betting will take place. The dealer will then deal one card face up. A second round of betting will take place, starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer. The dealer will deal another card face up into the community cards. A third round of betting will take place. The dealer will deal one more card face down to each player. The dealer will deal two more rounds face up into the community cards, followed by a round of betting after each deal.
To win, the player with the best five card poker hand using any of the cards in their hand or on the table wins the pot. This game is played with a wild card, which is the lowest hole card. Players have the option of purchasing a hole card, if another hole card will cancel out their current wild card. If this happens, the player will pay a fixed fee into the pot, and the card will be dealt face up instead of face down.
Another site we suggest you try is John McLeod’s Pagat.com poker page, which provides a list of the many variations of poker you can play, even online.