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Spanish Poker Rules

This game is an unusual variation of Texas Hold'em because the game is played with just over half the deck (28 cards). The game unsurprisingly is played in parts of Spain and has never really migrated to other countries around the world. This is largely due to the fact that the game relies on luck and has less skill which is associated involved in other games.

The only cards which are used in this variation are 8 through to Ace (all suits). The ace acts as a high and low card as a 8. The variation is commonly referred to as "Synthetic" although the origins of this name are not clear (and i wouldn't like to hazard a guess).

The game structure of this variant is illustrated in the example below.

All players are dealt 2 Hole cards (pre flop) + Round of Betting

The Flop (3rd community Card) + Round of Betting

The Turn (4th community card) + Round of Betting

The River (5th community card) + Final Round of Betting

SHOWDOWN (Players show their cards)

The main difference between this card variation and Texas Hold'em is that the cards are dealt on the board one by one followed by a round of betting. The game is similar to Omaha (even though a holdem variation) in that you have to use both cards you hold with any three on the board.

The game uses an ante and adopts a slightly different hand ranking where a flush beats a full house. All other poker hand rankings are the same. The game is very often played as no limit and relies a large part on luck.

There is a variation is called Shooter. This variant is very interesting. It works is like this. The ace still represents either a high or low card but when a player is dealt an ace, this gives the player the ability to choose any other card within their hand to can play that card as a card with a variance of one either way. This means that if you get dealt an ace you can vary the value of one other card in your hand. If you have a 9, you can count this as a 10 or 8. The only limitation here is that if you choose your 8 to act as a 7 or 9, it will retain its suit and as the game is only played Ace to 8 (no 7), you would go 2 up i.e. 9 or 10. So if you have a 8 clubs, you can play this either as a 8 clubs, 9 clubs or 10 clubs. Confused? I hope not as the game is fairly straight forward.

Pretty wild game and as you can imagine there are many big hands in this variant. Adding this addition where you can change the value of your card means that flushes and straights become marginal hands and you must take care as four of a kinds and full houses are very common!

Do remember to take the necessary cards out of the pack (2-7). This game is not played online at present.