Miscellaneous Poker Variants Part 1

This Poker Variants section describes alternative poker games. If you want to learn one of the classic poker games, such as Texas Hold'em or Seven Card Stud, visit the pages dedicated to these games at our site. Many games described in this section are based on the classic poker games, so we suggest you to learn these games to understand the alternative ones better. This page is the first part of Poker Variants section, where we describe rules of Guts poker and Billabong poker games.

Guts

Term Guts can be used to define a number of poker games, such as Two Card Guts and Three Card Guts, but generally Guts is a stipulation that can be applied to many poker games.

Guts is a format that replaces standard betting rounds. In Guts poker, players place an ante before the game starts, and after the initial deal declare In or Out. Players who declare In stay in the game, while those who declare Out fold their cards. Another dealing or other playing action may or may not follow the declaration round.

At the showdown, players who stay in the game compare their hands. The winner takes the pot, while other players who stayed in the game but did not win, match the pot, meaning that every one of them places a sum equal to the previous pot to form a new pot.

Logically, if two player stay in the game, one wins the old pot and another one replaces it, so the new pot is equal to the old one. If there are more than two players who stay until the showdown, the pot is multiplied. If all players, but one declare Out, this player wins the pot, and the game is over. To start a new game, all players must re-ante, as they did at the beginning.

Billabong

Billabong is a mixture of community poker and stud poker. In fact, it can be considered a version of Texas Hold'em or Manila game.

Each player receives two hole cards and one up-card, after which the first betting round occurs, started by the player with the lowest up-card. After the first betting round, two community cards are dealt and the second betting round takes place. The second betting round, as well as all subsequent ones is started by a player with the best poker hand formed by the up-card of the player and the community cards that were dealt so far. Two additional community cards are dealt one by one with a betting round following each new card. At the showdown, players must form the best possible five card poker hand using any five cards from his hand and the community cards.