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General Info & Special Rules

Our game is a LOW STAKES table. The money only makes it more interesting. You should be able to get by on $5.00 in change. Bring nickels, dimes & quarters (no pennies, please).

Ante
Typical antes are a nickel, sometimes a dime. If it's anything greater than that, it has to be agreed upon by the entire table. Possible exceptions are "Screw Your Neighbor", in which we usually play with three dimes (30 cents) and "Liar" in which we usually play with two quarters (50 cents). Other exceptions will have to be approved by the players.

Betting
Bets are limited to 25 cent intervals with the exception of a single 50 cent bet per player, per round. For example, a player can bet 50 cents (or raise 50 cents) one time in a game, but not again until the next game is dealt.

Raising
We have a three raise limit at the MNPC. After the third raise, the betting stops unless there is another betting round or rounds in that game.

Natural Royal Flush
We decided that a natural (i.e. NO Wildcards) beats Five of a kind. See Hand Rankings for more information on this.

High / Low Poker
Most play-at-home poker games are designed to be played as "high/low" games (i.e. the high hand and low hand split the pot). While we play a few games as high/low, we prefer to usually have one winner per hand. The dealer can opt to make just about any game high/low as long as it's not incredibly annoying to everyone else at the table.

Scrabble Letters Anytime you win a hand, you are permitted to draw one letter from the Scrabble bag. Once you can spell a word that is at least three letters long, you can turn the word into the bag and each player must pay you 25 cents. Letters cannot be transferred to other players. If you forget to draw your letter before the start of the next hand, you're screwed. However, we typically have a "First One's Free" agreement upon which we will allow you to forget about the first one.

Hand Rankings
High Hand

Natural Royal Flush*
Five of a Kind*
Royal Flush (10-J-Q-K-A of same suit)
Straight Flush (any sequence of five, same suit)
4 of a Kind
Full House (a pair and 3 of a Kind)
Flush (any five cards of the same suit)
Straight (sequence of five cards, any combination of suits)
3 of a Kind
Two Pair
Four Flush (dealer optional for 5 card stud only)
Four Card Straight (dealer optional for 5 card stud only)
Pair
High Card (el Stinko)


Hand Rankings
Lowball

Low Card (The worst hand possible is 6-4-3-2-A**)
Pair
Two Pair
Three of A Kind
Full House
Four of a Kind

Snacks

Anything is fair fodder for MNPC. Some of the more popular snacks of the past have included M&Ms, Pemmican Beef Jerky, Oreo Cookies, baby carrots (go figure) and other tasty consumables. If you're coming, feel free to bring along a snack.

* Typically, we play a lot of games with wildcards. This means that Five of a Kind is the best hand you can have. However, we decided that a NATURAL (i.e. NO wildcards) Royal Flush beats anything in our game.

** Some sources have indicated that 5-4-3-2-A is officially the worst hand you can have, even though, technically this is a low straight. In Lowball or High-Low, this hand is referred to as "The Bicycle."