How to Play Six Card Brag
Six Card Brag is a fairly straightforward card game where players try to best one another in the hands they’ve created. Each person is dealt a total of six cards for each round and is tasked with making two hands out of these cards. The person with the best two hands wins the pot or markers for that round.
Instructions
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1
Divvy up the poker chips so that each player has an equal amount at the start of the game. The exact number is entirely up to you, depending on how long you’d like to play Six Card Brag, but generally players start with a total of 20 chips each.
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2
Determine the order of play. To determine who will act as the first dealer, the deck is dealt out one card at a time until a Jack is turned up. The first person to end up with a Jack in from of him takes the deck for first deal.
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3
Deal out the cards. After the first dealer has been set, he will shuffle the deck of 52 cards and deal out one card at a time to each player until everyone has six.
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4
Look at your hand. If you end up with four of a kind in your hand--it can happen--immediately lay them down in front of you. After a four of kind is on the table, all other players have the opportunity to lay down a higher four of kind. The highest set wins. If no one at the table has a four of kind, play continues.
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5
Break up your hand. After the cards are dealt and no one at the table has a four of kind, you’ll need to break up your hand into two separate hands of three cards each, trying to make the best possible hand out of each.
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Choose your left and right hands. As soon as you’ve broken your hand in two separate hands, place the high on your left and the low to your right.
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Ante in. After you’ve broken up your hand, it’s time to ante in. You may put as little or as much as you’d like into the pot. All subsequent players must match your bet to keep playing.
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Play your hands. The player to the left of the dealer will begin by flipping over his left hand. All other players follow by flipping over their left hands. The highest left hand will now start by flipping over his right. All other players follow by flipping over their right hands.
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Win the pot. If you have the highest of the left hands and the highest of the right hands, you win the pot. If you only have the highest of the left hands but not the highest of the right hands, the pot remains at the center of the table and moves into the next round of play.
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10
Continue to play the game of Six Card Brag for a set number of rounds with the winner being the person with the most chips at the end of the game. Or play until all but one player has lost all of their chips.
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Tips & Warnings
Runs, flushes and pairs are the combinations of cards you’re looking to create in your three-card hands—three of a kind being the highest, then a running flush, followed by a run, a flush and a pair.