Baseball Poker Rules

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A 7-card stud variant with wild cards.

Wild Card Rules 3s and 9s are wild. If a 4 is dealt face-up, the player who received it received another face-down card.

Betting Structure

Players post an ante before each hand. The remaining betting consists of two rounds of small bets and three rounds of big bets. In a $2 / $4 game, the small bets are $2 and the big bets are $4. The ante is typically half the small bet or equal to the small bet in low-limit games.

Bets/raises are limited to four per round. For example, a player bets $2; he is raised another $2; he re-raises $2; another player re-raises $2. Now players can only call the 4th bet; no more raising is allowed on that betting round.

The Deal Players post an ante. Then each player is dealt two cards face-down and one card face-up. If a player gets dealt a 4, they receive an extra card, face-down.

Players begin a betting round, starting with the player with the lowest-ranked face-up card. If two or more players share the lowest card, the suit rank is taken into consideration. (♣ is lowest, followed by ♦, ♥, ♠).

The bet the player must make must be either half of the low bet for the game or equal to the low bet. Betting then follows the standard pattern.

2nd Deal Players are dealt another face-up card. They now each have two face-down cards and two face-up cards.

If a player gets dealt a 4, they receive an extra card, face-down.

Players begin a betting round, starting with the player with the highest-ranked face-up two-card hand. The bet the player must make must be either half of the low bet for the game or equal to the low bet. Betting then follows the standard pattern.

3rd Deal One more face-up card is dealt to each player. Now players have three face-up cards and two face-down cards.

If a player gets dealt a 4, they receive an extra card, face-down.

Players begin a betting round, starting with the player with the highest-ranked face-up three-card hand. The bet the player must make must be either half of the high bet for the game or equal to the high bet. Betting then follows the standard pattern.

4th Deal Players are dealt one more face-up card, so that each has two face-down cards and four face-up cards.

If a player gets dealt a 4, they receive an extra card, face-down.

Players begin a betting round, starting with the player with the highest-ranked face-up 4-card hand. The bet the player must make must be either half of the high bet for the game or equal to the high bet. Betting then follows the standard pattern.

5th Deal Players are dealt another face-down card. Each player now has at least 7 cards (players who received a 4 will have been dealt an extra face-down card). Players bet one last time, again starting with the player who shows the highest face-up hand. Again the high bet level is used.

The Showdown Players show their best 5-card hand. The best hand wins the pot.

Variations

Rainouts - If the queen of spades (Q♠) is dealt face-up, the hand is terminated and re-dealt. Only players who have not folded are eligible for the new deal. The pot remains, but the players must post another ante.

Paying for wild cards – Players can be made to pay (usually a single bet) to use 3s or 9s as wild cards, otherwise they keep their face value. Face-down wild cards can be subject to this payment as well.

Paying for an additional card when a four is dealt face-up – instead of automatically getting an extra face-down card when a 4 is dealt, players must pay for it (usually a single bet).