13 Card Poker

This variant of Poker uses the standard 52-deck card (without the Jokers) and is played with four (4) players.

How the Game Starts

The game starts with the players each receiving 13 cards from the dealer. The player divides his 13 cards into three hands, called the “back”, “middle” and “front.” The “back” and “middle” hands consists of five (5) cards each while the “front” consists of three (3). The rankings of the cards are based on the basic Poker hand rankings. The formation of the cards should be this way:

The “back” hand should be the strongest of the hands and the “front” hand the weakest.

Card Hands

Card hands are based on the Poker hand rankings. The suit rankings are the following:

Highest value	Spades ♠
	Hearts ♥
	Clubs (or Clovers) ♣
Lowest value	Diamonds ♦

Scoring

The system of scoring in this game is called “unit” or points. Each “unit” is equivalent to a certain amount of money determined by the table limits. For example, you may choose to join a table with lower limits or higher limits. The players compare their hands row by row, starting from the “front” hand to the “back” hand.

In the standard system of payment, a player gets one (1) unit from each player whose hand he beats and loses one (1) unit to each player whose hand beats his. If the hands are tied, neither player wins or loses anything.

Royalties/Bonuses

Instead of the standard one (1) unit payout, players holding special hands are given extra “units”.

Special 13 Cards

If a player holds any of the three (3) special hands listed below, he can immediately declare his win of the game as long as the hands of other players are not yet shown. His winnings are also listed below, depending on the type of special cards he holds

Special Hands

Now these hands are different from the special 13 cards listed above. While those cards are declared even before the game begins, these special hands are only revealed as the game goes on. There are also corresponding units won for each special hand.

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