Rules of Monkey Love Poker

Monkey Love is a variation of standard 5 Card Draw. In fact, the initial deal is the same as in 5 Draw. Each player is dealt 5 cards face down followed by a round of betting. The main difference to this game game is that players declare how many card they want to draw at the same time, not one by one. Additionally, any cards that a player discards are passed to the player on his/her left (going clockwise). This is different from 5 card draw in that discarded cards are put to the bottom of the deck (replacement cards are taken from the deck). Players should have no more than 5 cards at any one time.

Game Play

The game would start with all players posting an ante. Players are then dealt 5 cards face down - one at a time. There is now a betting round where players decide whether to stay in the hand or not. Following this first round of betting, there's a draw in which players declare how many cards they want to get rid of. These unwanted cards are passed to the player on the left. There's one final betting round followed by showdown. The best 5 card hand wins the pot.

Rules considerations

There are a few things to keep in mind in terms of the rules of Monkey Love poker. Unlike in 5 Card Draw, all players must declare how many cards they want to discard at the same time. This removes any positional advantage (see the benefits of having position in a game) that would be gained.

It's also important to work out an optimal strategy based on the players you're up against. Do you want to throw away a high number of cards and appear weak? Rather than exchange 5 cards and hope for the best - you could consider throwing one away and giving the impression of strength? Following this up with aggressive betting can be very effective. Does your opponent (on your right) like to play for big hands all the time? If so, it's very likely he's going to throw away rag cards. Do you want to keep hold of your rag cards and get rid of the cards you're sure he will likely keep? All these are important considerations when playing this variant.

Whilst you won't find this particular game played online, you can play Draw Poker, a few of it's variations as well as over 20 other games! See which games are available and how rooms stack up against each game.