Poker/Anaconda

Overview

Anaconda is a variant of seven card stud and has an initial phase of card swapping that gives it its name because the cards in your hand may "snake" their way around the table. It is also known as Pass The Trash because of this initial passing of cards, but that name does not always do it justice because some strategies expect trash to be passed and, therefore, pass higher cards in hopes of making a good hand with low ranked cards. The most descriptive name for this game is 3-2-1 Left because it describes the passing rules in this initial phase.

How to Play

The dealer deals 7 cards down to each player, one at a time, starting with the player to his left. Each player, after looking at his hand, passes three cards to the player on his left. Each player then picks up the three cards from the player on his right. Each player now passes two cards to the player on his left and picks up the two cards from the player on his right. Finally, one card from each player is passed to the left and each player picks up the card from the player on his right. During each passing phase it is important that no player ever has more than seven cards in his hand and therefore must make sure that he passes his card before picking up the cards from his right. Each player now makes the best five card hand from his hand and discards two cards. Each player arranges his hand in whatever order he wishes and then places the hand face down on the table. The top card of each player's hand is "rolled" up and then there is a round of betting until four cards from each player's hand are showing. At this point each player declares whether his hand is a low hand, high hand, or both. This is done by placing a number of chips secretively in your hand and then all players reveal at the same time. A low hand is indicated by an empty hand, a high hand is declared by revealing one chip, and a high and low hand is declared by revealing two chips. Once it is clear what the nature of each hand is, the last card is flipped up.

Who Wins

In games where hands are declared high, low, or both it may be difficult to figure out who wins the pot. Generally, if any player declares "both", that player's hand must beat (not tie) every low hand and every high hand. If a hand declared as "both" does not beat all other hands in the showdown then he does not win anything! If a hand then declared "both" does not win the pot then the pot is split in half. The highest hand of all hands that were declared "high" wins one half of the pot, and the lowest hand of all the hands declared "low" wins the other half of the pot. If there is only one type of hand ("high" or "low") then the entire pot goes to the winner of the best hand of that type. Also, if there is a tie for high or low then each of the players receives half of the pot that was allocated for that type of hand.