CoolhandThe games · Coolhand Poker
Whisky Poker
One hand more than there are players, face down in the middle. Take it whole, sight unseen, or wait: once somebody takes it, or the first time around is over, it lies face up for all.
18+ · Nothing to win but the hand.
- Players
- 2 to 5
- Family
- Home Games
- App
- Coolhand Poker · iOS and Android, soon
How it goes
Everyone puts in one token and takes five cards, and one spare hand, the widow, lies face down in the middle. Play goes around the table. On your turn you may hold and do nothing, or knock, or swap your whole hand for the widow without looking at it, in which case your old hand goes face up in its place for everyone to see. If nobody has taken it by the time whoever dealt has had a turn, the widow is turned face up. Once the widow is face up, a turn is a swap of one card or all five with it, or a knock. A knock gives everyone else one more turn, in which they may also keep the hand they have, and then the best hand takes the pool. While the widow is face down, taking it is a risk you can't see into. Once it's face up, everyone can see what's on offer.
A good hand
A hand worth keeping from the deal, two pair or better, knocks early, before the table has improved from the widow. A poor hand takes the widow unseen: you don't know what it holds, but you're giving up nothing. The awkward hands are the ones in between, too good to throw away and not good enough to knock on.
The usual mistake
Holding a bad hand while the widow is face down, then finding, once it's up, that everyone else took the good cards from it first. The unseen swap is only free while nobody has looked. Once the widow is face up, because somebody took it or the first time around is over, every card in it is there for the whole table to take, and your bad hand is still bad.
Played differently where you are?
Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Whisky Poker goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.
The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.