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“Baseball,” a poker game that involves more luck than most poker games, can create large pots, help novice players to learn the game better, and give the old pros a variation from the normal “stud” poker games. Here’s how to play:
1.) Since each player is dealt nine cards, you can only have five players. If you have more players, you can deal less cards to each player, but never deal less than seven.
2.) Everyone needs to ante to start the game. Deal each player nine cards, all face down. Nobody is allowed to turn over a card until it’s his turn. If he does, he must match whatever the current pot is.
3.) The person to the dealers left begins the game by turning over a card. Since he’s the first to turn a card over, he obviously has the high card. Therefore, he sets the bet, and everyone must match that bet to stay in the game.
4.) The next player turns over a card and must beat the previous player’s hand. He will continue to turn over a card until he beats it. When he does, he will bet, and everyone must match that bet to stay in the game. This will continue around the table for the entire game. If someone turns over all his cards and still hasn’t beat the person before him, he is out of the game.
5.) Here is what makes the game interesting. Threes and nines are wild throughout the game. However, they cost money to make wild. For example, let’s say someone starts the game by turning over a ten. The next person turns over a seven, then a nine. He pays the pot to make that nine wild (the price is determined by the players before the game), and he now has a pair of sevens. If he doesn’t pay at that time, he cannot change his mind later in the game.
6.) One other twist is that if you turn over a four, you can get an extra card...for a price, of course. Again, that price is determined before the game starts. So if you turn over a four and pay the price, the dealer will give you another card. You cannot look at that card, but you can place it anywhere in your hand that you would like.
So with eight wild cards out there, the game can change quite a bit throughout. But the pots can also get large since those wild cards cost money. It’s a game beginners will enjoy since the hands are dealt face-down and all they have to do is turn them over...but also a game serious players will enjoy with the wild cards throwing a variation into the normal “stud” game.
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