PICK A PARTNER

OBJECTIVE OF PICK A PARTNER: The objective of Pick A Partner is to build and win hands of poker.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 or more even number of players

MATERIALS: A standard 52-card deck, poker chips or money, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Poker Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adult

OVERVIEW OF PICK A PARTNER

Pick A Partner is a poker card game for an even number of players of 4 or more. The goal is for you to pick a partner then together build a poker hand for the round.

Players should establish before the game begins what the maximum and minimum bid will be and what to set the ante at.

SETUP

The first dealer is chosen at random and passes to the left for each new deal.

Each player pays the ante to the pot and then the dealer deals each player a hand of 5 cards.

Card and Hand Rankings

The ranking of cards and hands is standard for poker. The ranking is Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 (low). Hand ranking can be found here.

GAMEPLAY

To start the round players will choose partners. To do this each player will choose a card from their hand to reveal to the table simultaneously. The player who reveals the highest-ranked card may choose their partner. The next unpartnered player with the highest-ranked card may now choose their partner. This is continued until all players have a partner.

Partners will now sit next to each other and share hands. The two revealed cards that the players own will be the first two cards of their 5-card hand. They together must choose 3 more cards from their combined 8 remaining cards to make their completed hand. Once the three cards are chosen, they are set face down in front of the players and the remaining 5 cards are discarded to the side face down. Once all players have their hands finalized, then the betting rounds can begin.

The first betting round begins after the hands are finalized. Starting with the player left of the dealer and proceeding clockwise, each player individually makes their bids. The standard play of draw poker is used for betting. If one player of a team folds the other player may continue to play with the hand.

There are three rounds of bidding. After the first and for the next two rounds after a round of bidding is concluded each team will reveal an additional card from their hand simultaneously. When the final card of each hand is revealed, the showdown begins.

SHOWDOWN

After all 5 cards of each team’s hands are revealed, the showdown takes place. The team with the highest-ranked hand wins the pot. If both players remained in the round, they split the pot evenly. If one of the team folded during the round then the remaining player takes the whole pot for themselves.

Amber Crook
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