How to Play Two Thirds Poker

One of the biggest challenge poker players have when hosting a home poker game is to come up with unique games that are easily taught. With Two Thirds Poker, the learning curve of this home poker variation is very low. Most people have played the components of Two Thirds Poker in the past as separate poker games.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• playing cards
• poker table, poker tabletop, or standard table
• chairs
• opponents
• poker chips

How To Play Two Thirds Poker

1. Explain the rules of Two Thirds Poker to everyone at the table the first time you call the game as dealer. The rules state that you must have two of the following: best poker hand, high chicago, low chicago. The best poker hand is among everyone that remains in the hand until hands are revealed. This is the same for high and low chicago. High chicago is the person with the highest spade at the table in their face down cards. Low chicago is the same thing, but instead of the highest spade face down, it is the lowest spade face down. If no player that remains in the hand until the hands are revealed has two of these three the hand is dealt again from the beginning. The pot remains from that hand, and everyone antes again. This continues until someone has two of the three items required to win. This is why the game is known as Two Thirds Poker.

2. Deal the first two cards to each player face up. Keep in mind these are two cards that will be used to determine who has high and low chicago. There will also be one final face down card dealt at the end of the hand. Conduct a betting round after these first two cards are dealt, with the player to the left of the dealer starting the betting.

3. Deal a face up card to each player for each of the next four cards, and then having a betting round after each card is dealt. The player with the best face up hand each round starts the betting. If a player folds during the betting their hands are not in consideration for best poker hand, low chicago, or high chicago.

4. Deal a card face down to each player for the seventh card. The same player that started the previous round of betting, begins this round of betting. Anyone remaining in the hand after this betting round then reveals their hand.

5. Compare the face up hands to determine who has the best poker hand. Then compare the cards that each player had face down to decide who had the low chicago and high chicago. If there is only one face down spade among all the players that remained in the hand that card is declared both high chicago and low chicago. In that case the player with the only spade has won two of the three categories and wins the pot. If there are different players with high and low chicago and neither of them have the best poker hand at the table, there is no winner. The pot would remain on the table and the hand would be dealt again from the beginning, just as before. This continues until there is a winner. Some people play that if a player folds during the betting and there is no winner in the hand, they are not dealt in for future hands and can not win the pot.

Tips & Warnings

• Some home games add follow the queen to Two Thirds Poker. Instead of playing for best hand via 7 card stud rules, the players play for best hand using Follow The Queen Poker Rules. The low and high chicago remain the same as the standard version of Two Thirds Poker.
• Beware of folding too early. The fewer players at the showdown the more likely it is someone can win two of the three categories and win the hand. If you fold and there is no winner, you might not be allowed to be dealt into the continuation of that hand depending on the house rules.