Guts Poker

Guts poker is a variation of the regular poker game whereby players need to decide at the end of every dealt round whether they are ‘in’ or ‘out’. Players that call ‘in’ continue to compete for the pot, while those that called ‘out’ have no further claim to the money. Those that remained ‘in’ will continue playing, and the player with the strongest hand collects the pot. All the losing ‘in’ players must put in an equal amount of money as the pot value towards the pot for the next round. The next pot will have an equal or larger value than the round preceding.

Prominent Features of Guts Poker:

Caps
Guts poker by nature is a very high-stake, expensive game. There are those, however, that want to enjoy playing guts poker but without risking too much. In this case, the dealer will put a cap on the game. A cap limits the size of the pot and thus the amount that a player can lose per hand. For example if a $10 cap has been announced by the dealer, then if the pot ever reaches over $10, the winner only withdraws $10 from the pot and the losers only have to put in $10 each.

Kitty
The kitty is a blind hand that is dealt face down and is only revealed at the end of the game. If the guts poker game is dealing five cards, then a five card kitty is also put aside next to the dealer. The aim of the kitty is that players have an extra challenge – those players that stay ‘in’ not only have to beat the other players, but also have to beat the kitty. If everyone who went ‘in’ did not manage to beat the kitty, then the kitty wins and all the players have to contribute to the pot. In this form of guts poker, the game ends when only one player is ‘in’ and manages to beat the kitty. While the kitty does not draw, the kitty does often end up beating the other players. The kitty essentially eliminates the dealer’s advantage, avoiding the situation that if all the players decide to stay out, the dealer would win by default. In this case the dealer would have to beat the kitty’s hand to win and collect the pot.

Simultaneous In and Out Declaration
The traditional way of declaring ‘in’ and ‘out’ in guts poker is by going in order, starting with the player on the dealer’s left and ending with the dealer. While this is the logical order of declaration, the disadvantage is that some players are able to base their call on what the previous player has decided, giving them the upper hand. One option for declaring ‘in’ and ‘out’ is doing so simultaneously. This is done by all players being given a coin and both hands are placed under the table. At a signal all the players bring one hand above the table: if the player wants to go ‘in’ he places the coin in this hand and drops it on the table when signaled; if he wants to stay ‘out’ he leaves the chip in the hand that is below the table. When signaled all the players open their hands and either drop the chip for those who are ‘in’ the game or reveal an empty hand for those that are ‘out’ of the game. The advantage of this method is that all the players will declare their intention at the same time, doing away with any unfair advantages.

Everybody Ante
This variation can be added to any type of guts game and requires that with each new round, every player must re-ante into the pot. With normal guts rules, the pot only grows if three players are in: the first player gathers the pot, the second player matches the pot and the third doubles the size of the pot. However, with the Everybody Ante rule, the pot grows according to the size of every player’s antes at every round.

The Chicken Rule
This rule goes into affect if in any given round, no one decides to go ‘in’. Instead of immediately re-dealing the cards, all players are required to show their hands and the player displaying the strongest hand is forced to ante for the whole table before the next deal. This rule forces players to play aggressively and discourages bashfulness.

Examples of Guts Poker Games:

Standard Guts
Every player is handed two cards and the winning hand is pairs, followed by the individual cards’ values. After viewing their two cards, the players declare whether they want to be ‘in’ or ‘out’. Only those choosing to stay in the hand continue on to compete for the pot. At the end of a round, the player with the winning hand gets the pot while all the losing players (only those that were ‘in’) put in an equal amount to the pot for the next hand. With each round, the pot increases and the game continues in this fashion until there is only one player left ‘in’ – and he wins the final pot. Generally standard guts has a few of the above-mentioned features added.

Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is similar to standard guts poker but it has three cards dealt instead of two. Another difference is the way that the hands are ranked. A number of variations exist with three cards such as a pair, a trip, 3-card straights and 3-card flushes. It is the dealer’s duty to clarify the order of the winning hands before the commencement of play.

Three-Five-Seven
Three-Five-Seven is a more complicated and longer version of guts poker which requires five legs to win, and this number is often chosen by the dealer. A player wins a leg if he is the only ‘in’ player on a round. Money is only collected at the last leg of the game.

In order to begin, player each put in a large ante and the dealer hands out three cards to each player (in the three-card round, Threes are wild cards). Players state whether they want to be ‘in’ or ‘out’. In this form of the game, if simultaneous declarations are not implemented, then a player who has called ‘out’ can change his call if the player to his left calls ‘in’, while players who originally called in cannot change their call. Those players who have chosen to be ‘in’ pass their cards around to each other until they have all been viewed by everyone.

Three-to-Five
A five card version of guts poker whereby all players begin with three cards and only those calling ‘in’ receive the other two cards. A round of betting ensues, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer. As with regular guts rules, the winner takes the pot and the losers put in equal money until there is only one ‘in’ player left. This lucky winner sweeps the pot and takes it all.

Conclusion

Guts poker is an exciting, alternative variation of the basic game of poker whereby players choose whether they are ‘in’ or ‘out’ after every round. This feature adds anticipation to each round, but also makes the game longer and more expensive as players need to up their bets each time they choose to remain in the game.