Balls Poker Rules

Balls Poker is another 5 Card Stud variant. In this game all 2's are wild. Before the game commences, the dealer also chooses any other card in the deck to be wild.

All players are dealt 5 Cards (face down). There is a "Ghost" hand dealt also. This is an imaginary player and consists of 5 cards also (we will get to this).

Once all 5 cards have been dealt, all players in the game hold their cards in the middle (off the table). There is differing variations of balls, where the dealer counts to 3, 4 or 5 (not really important). All players who want to fold their hand, drop their cards and sit out. Keep your cards elevated and this indicates that you want to stay in.

If there are multiple players who remain in:

The player with the best poker hand (see poker hand rankings) takes the pot and the losers replace the pot. When the pot is won and the game begins again, the dealer picks a new wild card (2's remain wild). No new antes and bet here. However, to win the pot, the player that is left holding cards in the middle must compare his/her hand to that of the Ghost. If the hand beats the Ghost, the hand is won and the game begins again. If the ghost hand wins (against all hands left in), all players who were left in the game must match the pot (not collectively replace the pot!).

The game repeats and the pot grows until a player beats all the players and the Ghost to win the pot.