River Card

How to play

2 to 6 players, with the classic deck of 52 cards: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades, the 2 to the ace. Each player starts with 200 play chips: no money is ever involved.

A hand

• Left of the dealer, the small blind puts in 2 chips and the next player, the big blind, 4. Everyone gets two cards of their own.
• Four betting rounds: after the deal, after three shared cards are turned up, after a fourth, after a fifth. On your turn fold, check (when nothing is owed), call, or bet and raise by a fixed step: 4 chips in the first two rounds, 8 in the last two, four bets and raises at most a round.
• The last player left in takes the pot. Otherwise the players still in show their cards: the best five of their two and the five shared ones win.
• Short of chips, you can call with all you have, and win only what the others matched.

The hands, from the best

Straight flush, four of a kind, full house (three of a kind and a pair), flush (five of a suit), straight (five in a row, the ace high or low), three of a kind, two pairs, a pair, high card.

Winning

A player out of chips is out. The game ends when one player holds every chip, or after the last hand (30 by default): the most chips win.