Rules of San Francisco Poker

San Francisco Poker is a variation (if only slight) of 7 Card Stud. There are two variations that can be played. These variations are called San-Francisco High and Low.

In the High variation, at showdown, the player with the highest Heart splits the pot with the highest hand (the player that would normally have won the whole pot). For instance if you hold the Ace of Hearts but have made no playable hand, it's an idea to stay in the hand as you will split the pot, at worst. If you hold the highest hand as well, you'll take down the whole pot.

The low game, if you haven't guessed by now, is that the high hand splits the pot with the lowest heart in play at showdown. Again if you were to have the 2 Hearts the worst you can do is split the pot. Hold the best hand and the 2 Hearts and you take down the lot.

Other than these differences, the rules of Seven Stud apply. The only negative aspect about this game is that you often get people waiting only to play the Ace of hearts or the 2 depending on which variation you are playing, so it can be a little difficult to induce action. As the player is guaranteed to split the pot in this situation - you tend to see heavy aggression to commit you to more of your stack knowing that a chop is the worst case result. For this reason the game is often played with larger than usual blinds and antes.

Whilst you won't find this particular game played online, you can play 7 Card Stud, 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.