Flop-A

Contributed by Brian Odell (odellbr@vincennes.navy.mil)

This game is for two or more players (good for around four), using a standard 52-card deck without jokers.

Deal each player three cards face down. After these are all dealt, place four cards, one by one, face down in front of the dealer. The remainder of the deck is placed face down next to the four cards. Players may now look at their cards and there is a round of poker-style betting.

After the first round of betting, the dealer flips one of the four face down cards face up. Each player who has a card (or cards) of the same rank as the flipped card must place it (or them) face up on top of the flipped card - this is called "flopping" in this game. Now there is another round of betting, begun by the first player in order to dealer's left who flopped a card (or by the player to dealer's left if none did).

The dealer flips the remaining three cards in the same way, each flip followed by a flop of any cards held that are of the same rank, followed by a round of betting. Finally, the dealer flips the top card of the deck, so that there are five cards face up. If at any stage the dealer flips a card of the same rank as one that has already been flipped, he puts it on top of the equal ranked card(s) and immediately flips a new card from the top of the undealt part of the deck to replace it. Example: 6 and Q have been flipped; the next card is the 6; dealer places the on top of the 6 and a new card is put in the place of the 6 from the top of the deck and flipped.

The object of the game is to get rid of all three cards from your hand. A player who has flopped all three cards takes the whole pot, and in addition each other player pays the winner 20% of the value of the pot. If two or more players flop their last card(s) on the flip of the same card, the remaining players each pay a fixed amount (say $5, assuming that the minimum bet is $0.50) into the pot and the winners share the pot equally.

If after five cards of different ranks have been flipped, no one has has flopped all their cards, then there is a final round of betting. If more than one player is still in the pot, the surviving players decide simultaneously whether to go for "high" or "low" or "swing" (both high and low), by holding one, two or three chips in their closed hands.

The value of each hand is the sum of the numerical value of the cards in it: ace=1 or 11; K,Q,J=10; other cards face value.

A player who swings wins the pot if his hand is both highest (counting ace=11) and lowest (counting ace=1); if he loses or ties for either high or low he is out of the pot. If the whole pot is not won by a swing player, half the pot gpoes to the highest hand and half to the lowest. If there is a tie for either high or low, the players involved in the tie split that half of the pot.