Dirty Doubles Stud Poker

Feature: Dirty Doubles Stud Poker 

In 1998, when a few of us got together is to play nickel, dime, quarter poker, I invented the dirty doubles poker game. Many card games use partners as part of the gameplay. 5 card stud poker intrigued me as an oppunitity to devise a partner type game for poker. 

Dirty Doubles is a stud poker game in which each player has the possibility to gamble with 6 up cards in a hand 1-6-1. The deal remains 1-3-1, but by random selection each player has a partner where both partners share the other partner’s up cards. Each betting player can use a combination from 5, 6, 7, or 8 cards to make a 5-card poker hand. The hand should be played with and even number of players, preferably 6, however, a variation can be played with an odd number of players.

The Game:

Each player has a partner. The stud up cards are shared between each partner in thus increasing the possible winning hand combinations. For example, in 1-3-1 five-card stud, the partners each have 2 down cards and share the 6 up cards to develop a winning hand. Betting intensity draws more commitment to remain in the hand.

 Table terms:

·   Mud is the name for the 6 up cards.

·   Dirt is the name for the partner’s 3 up cards.

·   Prospect is the name for the player’s 2 down cards.

·   Water is the money in the bet pot.

·   Slush is the alphabet suit rank, clubs (lowest), diamonds, hearts, spades.

Strategy:

Gameplay follows traditional betting and order of play. The betting deal is one card down, three up, one down (1-3-1). All players see all the up cards. Each partner’s betting tactics are as an individual player.

Order of play:

The first deal is non-betting and determines partners. On the first deal, the dealer in left to right order, deals each player an up card. 

·         When any two players have a pair, those players are the dirty partners.

·       This continues in rotation until each player has a partner.

·         When all players have a partner, the deal stops.

·         The dealer collects the cards, shuffles, and deals as any stud game.

·         Deal, play, betting protocol, and raises proceed as any 5 card stud game.

Because six cards are face-up, five up cards may be a rank order pat hand. However, each player still has two prospects down cards to improve the pat hand. The prospect cards may improve the rank order. If the rank order remains the same, prospect cards may use the suit rank to substitute for a rank card. The suite order is alphabet order, clubs (lowest), diamonds, hearts, spades (highest). If the pat hand stands the final call, the players split the pot.

However, the partners continue to play until the last call requests all players to show their hands. If the partners with a pat hand defend against other players, the winning partner is the one with the winning 5 card hand.  If the other players fold, the partners bet and play against each other. Both partner’s up cards contribute to a winning hand. Every game has one winner. The better must declare the play’s 5 cards from the two down cards two and six up. Cards do not self-declare.

Dirty play happens when one of the partners decides to fold, then the other partner my choose to play or fold the up cards. If a partner chooses to play the folded hand, the player partner must match all checks and bets to folded hand just as if the folded player hand was still in the game. Normally, raises are not allowed on the folded player’s cards. Before the first deal, the dealer may announce dirty raises allowed.

Number of players:

Odd: When an odd number of players wish to play dirty doubles, the seat to the right of the dealer is the odd player hand called the slop player. The dealer passes out the partner's hand just as if a person was sitting in the chair. When a player pairs with the odd hand, the partner may choose to play just like a folded hand where checks, bets, and raises would be played by a real players.

Only 2: When 2 players wish to play dirty doubles,

The challenge:

Dirty doubles increase game intensity by distributing winning hand, prospect combinations increases pot growth and raises player psychology attention. Since the first deal determines partner section and dirty double card play position order, traditional stud betting tactics dynamics change due to up card locations.

Dirty Doubles introduces the concept of prospect bidding. Normal poker odds are a frequency based on a deck of 52 cards with four suits of the same 13 values. In dirty doubles, the deck size for a poker hand increases by 3 times the number of players. A game of six players is a 70  poker deck where  3 times 6 plus 52  is in play 70 cards. While the dirt cards are from the same standard deck, the dirt’s suit and face values are essentially random arbitrary hand fulling opportunities*. 

Nasty dirty doubles:

Normal dirty doubles play is with the stud up cards. Nasty dirty doubles in 1-3-1 stud allows the betting partner to play the last down card from the other partner’s hand. The last down card stays down and unknown to the betting partner.  All payers may look at their 5^th card. Before the 5^th card bets, the betting partner may declare his down card as nasty and chose to risk play using the partner’s unknown 5^th  card. The other partner’s hand becomes the moral hand.  The betting partner uses hid 1-3 cards and the moral hand’s 3 up card and the down card. The moral hand down card stays unknown to the betting partner until the game’s last call.  When players declare their poker hand, the betting partner declares using the last four cards from the moral hand and the first four cards from the nasty hand. The moral hand down card may or may not be in the declared poker hand.

*Random as cards dealt in play rotation (horizontal), arbitrary as a dirt set (vertical) in the mud.

 [JF1]