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Guts Poker Rules

Guts Poker is a common variation poker game. In these games, the minimum that a player can sit at a table is 100 times the ante, so if the ante is $0.20 then you must have $20 to sit at the table.

After the cards are dealt each player indicates whether they are "in" or "out" of the hand. For those players "out" they take no further part in the game and must wait until play has finished and there is a winner - the winner is the player who has the best poker hand. All other players who called "in" and did not have the best hand at the table must match the amount of money in the pot. Now, there is an equal or greater amount of money in the pot, even after the round has ended.

The cards are then collected, shuffled and re-dealt and the game begins again. Again players call "in" or "out" and the cards are turned again. As the game progresses players get less and less until only one calls "in". Now we have a winner and this person takes down the pot.

Mathematically, if three people call "in", the amount of money in the pot will double...one person will win the money, while the other two match the pot. Guts games are characterized by this calling of "in" or "out" as well as the growing size of the pot, and the game being played and played until only one person calls "in" and wins. Note that, for this reason, Guts games are typically more expensive to play.

The Use Of Caps

Gets games often utilize the use of betting caps - that is to say that there is a limit to how much a player who called 'in' can win and similarly there is a limit as to how much a player who called 'out' will have to pay into the pot. In essence a cap just limits the pot size. For example lets assume that a $10 cap is called in any one Guts game. The result of this cap would be that an 'in' player who wins the pot would only ever win $10 as a maximum, even if the pot size was over $10. So lets for the sake of argument assume that the pot stands ar $30 and 3 players call 'in'. The player with the winning hand would win $10 leaving $20 left in the pot. Now usually a Guts game is declared the winner at this pot but when using a cap this would not be the case.

Now there would be $20 left in the pot which would mean that there would need to be 3 consecutive winners to win the entire pot. The advantage of playing with caps is that you cannot lose your mortgage on a hand (particularly no limit games) and you would always know that you could only lose so much on a hand. The disadvantage of playing with a game cap is that the game takes significantly longer to play. In addition you tend to get a greater number of players calling 'in' as they know they can only lose a certain amount of money.

The Kitty

The Kitty is used as a blind had that is dealt face down next to the dealer and is designed to give the players protection from the dealer picking up pots. This hand is not shown until the hand is over. All players who call 'in' must have a winning hand against all the rest of the players who called 'in' but they bust also beat the Kitty hand. If they don't then all players who called 'in' must match the pot (along with those that called 'out'.

The use of the Kitty is used to protect against all players before the dealer calling 'out' which would result in the dealer calling 'in' and winning the pot - in essence it removes the dealer advantage. So a player only wins when they beat all other 'in' players and the Kitty.

Coin Declare

Coin declare is used to help negate positional advantage. In a normal game the first person to act would be left of the dealer and as in a normal game the later to act in the hand that you are the more advantage you would have (getting to see players act before you). The idea of coin declare is to have everyone declare whether they are 'in' or 'out' at the same time. By playing the hand this way there is no advantage gained by anyone.

What you tend to find is that players later to act will invariably play weaker hands if everyone starts declaring they are 'out'. The use of Coin Declare negates this positional advantage.

Guts Variations

There are a few variations to this game that can be played:

1) Everyone Ante

This variation, which can be used in any game of Guts can be played so that with each new round of the game, every player re-antes into the pot. Under normal rules, the pot will only increase in size when at least three players go in (the first collects the pot, the second matches the pot, and the third doubles the size of the pot). In Everyone Ante, the pot increases at least by the size of every players' antes with each round.

2) It's All Guts

This game is used primarily in Draw games but in reality can be used in just about any poker game. In this variation players would declare whether they are 'in' or 'out' of the hand. Those that are out would remain so until a new hand is dealt. This that remain 'in' would have a draw before the showdown where the one with the best hand would take down the pot, the rest match it.