Betting

Step 1- The dealer distributes five cards to each player, facing down.

Step 2- Players have the choice to surrender to of their cards in order to draw two more from the deck, like a trade.

Step 3- Players declare if they will participate in the round or not by placing their folded fists above the table and opening their hands simultaneously. A fist with chips indicate that the player is staying.

Step 4- Players try to determine who has the best hand by asking questions like “Who can beat a pair?”, working their ways up. Honesty is essential here, because the player whom no one is able to defeat gets the “reward” of declaring the trump. He can declare a suit of his choice, no trump or even reverse trump.

Playing

Step 1- The player who wins the betting round chooses the trump suit. This can defeat all the remaining suits when the rounds for taking tricks are open. In Wolfie’s Lou Poker, there are five trick taking rounds.

Step 2- The same player starts the first round of trick taking by showing a card. Other players need to take a card from their hand with the same suit. If they don’t have the suit, they can place any card they have – but of course it means they lose the round. If a player comes up with a higher card of that same suit, then he wins the trick.

Step 3- The player who wins a first round will initiate the one that follows.

Step 4- Repeat the same actions until all the five cards of each player have been played. The trump declarer needs to win at least three tricks in order to win the pot. Any less and he will be penalized.

All the players are required to place their antes into the pot before the game begins and cards are dealt.

The dealer distributes three cards to each player. These cards are facing down.

The dealer distributes an extra hand on the side known as the “kitty hand”. One of the kitty cards is opened, and the suit of the opened card will be the wild card suit.

After checking out their cards, the players will decide whether they will join the game or fold out. Unlike other poker games that do it by turn, this variation requires players to reveal their decisions all at the same time, through the opening of fisted hands around the table. Hands with chips are players who stay empty hands are those who fold.

In the event that all players decide to fold, the kitty cards still stay while the players’ cards are collected by the dealer and another deal is made – with another kitty hand.

For the players who stay, the winner is determined by the hand with the highest cards, even beating the kitty hand. He wins the entire pot. Losing players are required to pay the winning player the amount of the pot, This gives the winner a large amount of money!

If the kitty hand beats all the other players, then everyone has to match the amount of money in the pot and it will be kept there until the next round.

The dealer commences another round and the game only ends when there’s only one player who chooses to play a round and is able to beat the kitty- he empties the pot.

Step 1- Form a group of ten players to participate in the game of Thirty Eight. While 10 is the maximum number allowed for players, an average of six to eight players is usually the standard for a fun, challenging game that is not too crowded.

Step 2- The dealer distributes three cards to each of the players around the table. These cards are facing down. Take note that the “three” and “eight” cards are wild cards, hence the name of the game.

Step 3- All players contribute their antes into the pot. The amount of the ante is established by the host of the game. The purpose of an ante is to bulk up the pot with an initial bet since this is the game’s beginning hand. Antes are usually kept low because losing players pay a lot of penalties.

Step 4- Players declare whether they will participate in the round or not. Uniquely, all players place closed fists over the table and they open the fists all at the same time. Those with chips in their fists are in the game and are dealt two more cards.

Step 5- The betting begins. Betting can be a little confusing to beginners but this is how it works: players announce whether they bet single, double or triple. “Double” and “triple” mean that all the losing players should pay double and triple the amount of the pot, respectively.

Step 6- Cards are shown and the player with the highest hand wins the pot, while those who lost shall pay their respective penalties depending on how the betting round turned out.