Submitted by Longwood Herbie on 2006-02-05
Each player must ante (usually $5). Deal each player 3 cards. At this point, players decide if they want to stay or fold. Players choose in a counter clockwise motion. The players flip their cards, and are delt one more card each. Then, four cards are dealt across the table. These four cards are NOT community cards. These cards represent an invisble dealer (Herbie).
Which ever player has the strongest hand, takes the pot and does not have to ante the next round, unless no one else stayed with their 3 original pairs. All of the losing players must put in $1 for each of the players who stayed to see the 4th card. If Herbie wins, each player who played to the 4th card must match the pot size. If this happens there are no additional antes.
The deck is shuffled and re-dealt. The next winner wis the entire pot.
If no one stays for the 4th card the deck is re-dealt without shuffling. Once there is a winner besides Herbie, the next player to left deals.
Hand ranks (4's are always wild)
4 card Straight flush
4 of a kind
3 of a kind
Pair
(2 pair, sraight, and flush are not hands that are played in Herbie)
(Be careful, pot sizes can jump from $5 to $50 in no time at all.)
Some variations include 4's,10's, and 2's being wild and discarding a card in exchange for a new one, but if you do this you must stay to see the 4th card.
The pay out rules for Herbie can be very cunfusing. Feel free to change the pay out rules to make them more suitable for your game.
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