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Goal

Draft 10 cards and divide them into two five-card poker hands. Whoever holds the single weakest hand at the table loses.

Cards

Use 21 cards: the 10, J, Q, K, and A of each suit, and 1 Joker. What the Joker can do is set out under Hand rankings.

Setup

Deal 1 card face down as the reserve. Nobody looks at it. The other 20 cards are the stock.

Play

1. Split. Each round one player is the splitter. The splitter takes the top 4 cards of the stock, looks at them, and divides them into two pairs. One pair is offered face up and the other face down.
2. Choose. The other player takes either pair into their hand: the face-up pair or the face-down pair without seeing it first. The splitter takes the other pair.
3. Five rounds. The splitter changes every round. After 5 rounds the stock is used up and each player holds 10 cards. One player has split 3 rounds and the other 2.
4. The reserve. Each player in turn may swap one card from their hand for the reserve, or keep their hand. The player who split only 2 rounds goes first. The swap is blind. You give up a card you choose and take the reserve without seeing it first, and your card goes face down as the new reserve. So the second player swaps with whatever the first player left there.
5. Build. Both players divide their 10 cards in secret into two five-card poker hands, using every card, and then show them. Each player’s lower hand is their weaker hand and the other is their stronger hand.

Scoring

Compare the players’ hands in this order, and stop at the first difference:

1. the category of each weaker hand, such as a full house or a straight;
2. the category of each stronger hand;
3. the two weaker hands in full, card for card;
4. the two stronger hands in full.

The player who comes out lower loses. So if both weaker hands are full houses, a stronger hand of four of a kind beats a stronger full house, even when its owner has the lower weaker full house. If all four steps are equal, the game is drawn.

Hand rankings

With only the 10 to the Ace in the pack, some hands work out differently:

• The only straight is 10, J, Q, K, A.
• Five cards of one suit are always the 10 to the Ace, so every flush is a royal flush.
• Five cards with no pair are always a straight, so a hand is never just a high card.

These are the hands this pack can make, strongest first.

1. Royal Flush 10, J, Q, K, and A, all one suit
2. Four of a Kind 4 cards of one rank
3. Full House 3 cards of one rank and 2 of another
4. Straight 10, J, Q, K, and A, not all one suit
5. Three of a Kind 3 cards of one rank
6. Two Pair 2 cards of one rank and 2 of another
7. Pair 2 cards of one rank

The Joker is wild only for a straight or a royal flush. Anywhere else it counts below a 10, so it never makes a pair, three of a kind, four of a kind, or full house. Between two otherwise equal hands, the one without the Joker wins. Here it’s the missing Jack of a straight:

Variants

Face-up swap. Every swap at the reserve is made face up, so both players see the card given and the card taken. The first player still swaps without seeing the reserve. If they swap, the second player can see exactly which card is on offer.