Rules of Black Mariah Poker

Black Mariah is a fun game and a variation of 7 Card Stud. In fact there's not a great deal of difference except it's another that has far greater pot building characteristics than a lot of other games. It's this reason that has made it such a popular inclusion in many home games across the world. For those that are familiar with the game 'High Chicago' - it's the same game (just another name for it).

So, to the game. We won't go through the game play as it's the same game as 7 Stud. We have a separate guide on how to play 7 Card Stud.

What makes this a great game is that producing a winning 5 card hand isn't enough to win the hand. Players need to have the highest spade also, to win the hand. There's quite a few games that have a similar game play. A variant of 5 Card Stud (as well as a few others) uses a Ghost Hand and players need to make the best hand AND beat the ghost hand to win the pot. This is very similar in that players need the highest spade (of the players still in the hand), in order to win the hand. The 'juice factor' comes as where no one players has best spade and high hand, the pot rolls over to the next hand and it starts again.

There isn't a limit on how many times the pot can roll over - as many times as is needed for someone to win the pot. Unfortunately there aren't any prizes for second place, so holding a losing proposition with the best spade doesn't get you anything!

Unusually, this game isn't available to play online. We do have listings of the games that are currently available online.