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Guts Poker Rules

Guts poker is a Hold'em variant although the rules of Guts are out there on their own, as the game is very different to Hold'em.The game can either be played with two or three hole cards cards dealt. The concept and rules of Guts is very simple although it is very easy to win and lose substantial amounts of money, by way of the game structure. Here is how Guts is played.

As with most poker games, each round starts with an ante. All players will be dealt hole cards face down. All players will then indicate whether they are 'In' or 'Out' at the same time. The players who stay 'In' then have a showdown and the winner, who has the best 5 card hand, wins the pot and the losers match the pot, ready for the next deal. So if there is $20 in the pot, the winner would win $20. If there were three other players who stayed in the hand, and were losers, they would each put $20 in the pot, meaning that there would be $60 to start the next deal.The cards are then collected, shuffled and re-dealt and the game begins again.

The game only ends when there is one player who has the 'Guts' to stay in, who would take down the whole pot (with nothing carrying over to the next hand).

The Use Of Caps

Guts 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 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 point, 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 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 get a winner, at which point the game would end. 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 (much like low limit players and limit games).

The Kitty

The Kitty is used as a blind hand 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 must 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. Obviously, playing a capped game with the Kitty is not advisable if there is any hope of the game finishing.

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 Gut variation is used primarily in Draw games but in reality can be used in just about any game. 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.

Get in the Action

To date there is no online room that offers an online version of this game but it is a fun game and would be a great addition or alternative at any home game.

Alternatively - Check our Poker Games section for listings of games played online.