Frequently Used Poker Stipulations
There is a huge variety of poker games that are based on several basic formats of the game and use alternative stipulations to make it look and feel differently. At this page we describe the most common poker stipulations that are used in many existing poker games and can serve to create completely custom games.
Wild Cards
A classic wild card is a joker. Almost any poker game can be played with a certain number of jokers that will be wild (can be used as any card from the deck at the player's choice). Sometimes, jokers have limited function. For example, jokers can be used to complete a straight or a flush, but in any other case they serve as aces.
Any other card from the deck can be defined as a wild card. The simplest form to define a wild card is just to name it before any cards are dealt. For example, if the dealer says that Kings are wild, players can use kings in their hands as any card they want. In such case 2-10-Q-K-A can be played as a pair of Aces. Another popular way to define wild cards is to say that the lowest or the highest card in the player's hand is wild. It can also be done with the lowest or the highest card of a certain suit. For example, the lowest spades card is wild. In this case a hand with 10 of Spades, Jack of Spades, Jack of Diamonds, King of Hearts and King of Clubs can be played as Full House with three Kings. There are much more ways to define wild cards, like, for example, a community card at a certain position is wild, a card dealt after a certain card is wild and so on.
High/Low Split
Most poker games can be played in High/Low Split format, which means that two players share the pot in the end of the game: the player with the highest hand at the table and the player with the lowest one.
High/Low Split games can involve a qualifier, a certain hand that will separate low hands from high hands. For example, Eight or Better qualifier means that an eight-high or lower hands are played as low hands, while all other are played as high ones. Another stipulation of the same kind is Lowball, which means that the game uses reverse hands ranking and lower hands beat higher ones.
Kitty
Kitty is an extra hand that belongs to the pot. Kitty is equal to the hands of all other players but is dealt face-down and is not seen by anyone until the showdown. At the showdown the kitty is flipped face-up and is played together with players'
hands. If the kitty beats everyone, the pot remains at its place and players re-ante to start a new game. In other words, in a game with a kitty, a player must beat all other players and the kitty in order to win the pot.