Basic Guts Poker: Rules and Description

In a basic guts poker game, all players ante a small amount of money and are dealt two cards face down. As any two-card poker hands, guts poker hands can either be a pair or two unmatched cards. The latter hand is called by the higher card. For example, a hand composed of a Jack and a King should be called King-high. Any pair beats any unmatched hand, while between two pairs wins the pair composed of cards of higher value and between two unmatched hands wind the hand with a higher high card.

As the cards are dealt, all players may call either In or Out. The players who call out forfeit their ante and do not participate in the current round, while those who call in, reveal their hands and compare them. The player with the highest hand wins and takes the pot. Other players who called In, but did not win, place an amount of money, equal to that won by the winner into the pot. So, if in the first round there was 1 dollar in the pot, 3 players called In, and one of them took this 1 dollar, other 2 must place 1 dollar each, which will make the pot 2 dollars now.

After this is done, the cards are re-dealt, and all players, regardless of what they called in the previous round, play again with a new pot. The game ends when only one player calls In. In such case, nobody can replace the pot and the game starts from the very beginning.

Gut poker has many variations. Actually, the principle of guts is calling In or Out and replace (and possibly multiply) the pot by losing players. All other things can change. Actually almost any draw poker game can become guts poker if it involves the game's main principle.

One of the most popular guts poker variations is Everybody Ante. The game is completely equal to the two-card guts poker described above, with the only difference that all players, except the winner of the previous round re-ante in the beginning of each new round. Such format guarantees that the pot will increase in every new round and avoids situations when only two players call In and the pot remains of the same size it was in the previous round.