How to Play Bingo Poker

Sometimes when you are hosting a home poker night, you need a game that is a change of pace. That is usually a variation of poker that doesn't require a lot of strategy. Bingo Poker is just the home poker variation that meets those needs. The game is not very hard to learn, and requires very little strategy. Bingo Poker is fun to play at the beginning of the night, or in the middle when you are eating during your home poker night.

Things You'll Need

• Playing cards
• Poker table, poker tabletop or standard table
• Chairs
• Opponents
• Poker chips

Instructions

1. Gather your friends for a home poker night. Bingo Poker is a game that can be played with a relatively large amount of players. There can be up to 15 players in a game, but the idea size is anywhere from six to nine players. Considering that Bingo Poker is a split pot game, the closer the nine you have, the more betting action there will be.

2. Deal three face-down cards to each player, and five face-down cards in the middle of the table. Each player may look at their own cards once everyone has received their cards and the five face-down cards have been dealt to the middle of the table.

3. The dealer flips over the first face-down card on the table so that everyone can see it. Any player that has a matching card in their hand must discard that card from their hand, and they do not receive a replacement card. The goal of the game is to have the highest or lowest total at the table in your hand after all five cards are revealed.

4. Conduct a betting round. The player sitting to the left of the dealer begins the wagering.

5. The dealer now flips over the second through the fifth face-down card in the middle of the table, one at a time. Just like in Step 3, anyone having a card matching the face-up card must discard it. After each card is flipped face up and the discards are made, there is a betting round. This means there will be five betting rounds in all, each began by the player sitting to the left of the dealer.

6. Put your fist in the middle of the table and declare if you are going for the high or low hand. If you are going for high hand, put one chip in your fist. If you are going for low hand, don't put a chip in your fist. You can also try for both if you have an Ace in your hand. In that case, put two chips in your hand. Everyone opens their fist after everyone has put their closed fist above the table. This now reveals who is competing for the half of the pot for low and high hand.

7. Determine the winner for low and high hand. The winner is the person with the lowest and highest point value in their hand at the table. The two through 10 cards are all worth their face values. Jacks are worth 11, Queens worth 12, and Kings worth 13. Aces can be worth either one point or 15 points, and you can change the value of the Ace for both high and low hands. Give half the pot to the player with the high hand and half the pot to the player with the low hand.

Tips & Warnings

• If a player loses all their cards during the play of the hand, they automatically win the half of the pot for the low hand. If multiple players run out of cards, the first player to run out is the one that gets the low hand half of the pot. Any other players running out of cards cannot win either half of the pot.

• Be careful after the third face-down card is revealed if you are trying to win the low hand. If there are others that are down to one card, you will not want to wager too high. There will be a good chance that the low half of the pot will be won by someone losing all their cards.