Learn New Stud Poker Variations
High/Low Jim
In High/Low Jim players are dealt seven face-down cards. Each player selects what five cards he wants to use in his final five card hand. These five cards together with one of the two remaining cards are placed at the table in the following manner: four cards that will be used in the final hand are placed in one pile. If the player decides to go high, he places the fifth card he is going to use to the right of the pile and another card that will not be used to the left of the pile. If the player goes low, he places the card to use to the left of the pile and the spare card to the right of the pile.
The cards from the pile are then flipped one by one and a betting round follows each flip. When all for cards from the pile are flipped, players flip one of their side cards, automatically declaring whether they go High or Low (the left card means Low and the right card means High). Winners of the High and the Low hands split the pot.
The cards layout in High/Low Jim can be preset the way, a player will be able to decide whether he goes Low or High during the game. For example, if a player has 2-3-5-8-8-9-10, he can place 2-3-5-8 in the pile, 9 to the left and 8 to the right of the deck. When all players will flip their piles, the player will see four of five cards of every player, so he can decide whether 2-3-5-8-9 Low hand or 2-3-5-8-8 High hand has better chances to win its half of the pot.
Spots
Spots is dealt like seven card stud: two down, four up, one down. The lowest hole card in the hand of each player is wild.
The pot in Spots is split. The player with the highest poker hand wins half of the pot, and the winner of the other half is determined by the highest number of cards that have the same number of suit spots in the middle column of the card layout. For example, an Eight has three rows of suit symbols, the left row has 3 spots, the central row has 2 spots and the right row has 3 spots, so an Eight can form a pair with another Eight or with any other card that has 2 spots in the center row (a Ten or a Two). Cards that do not have a center row are counted as 0 and can be paired with other 0 cards.
Here are the numbers of spots corresponding to each card: Ace-1; Two-2;
Three-3; Four-0;
Five-1; Six-0; Seven-1; Eight-2; Nine-1; Ten-2; Face Cards-0.
Spots can also be played in Guts format: after the sixth card is dealt, players declare In or Out, and only those who declare In continue playing. The pot is split as usual, but players who went In but did not win neither half of the pot, match the pot.