Auction Flop Poker Rules

Auction Flop Poker was devised by Charles Magri, as published on pagat.com. He credits a 2003 post by Jean Roche in the French newsgroup fr.rec.jeux.cartes, titled Poker aux enchères, as the inspiration.

The game uses a standard 52-card deck with no wild cards. Hands are ranked by the standard poker hand rankings.

All players start the session with an equal number of chips. The first dealer is chosen at random, and the deal passes to the left after each hand.

The object is to finish with one of the three best five-card hands. There are no betting rounds and no folding: chips go into the pot only as antes, discard fees and auction prices.

Before each hand every player pays a fixed ante into the pot, for example 3 chips. The dealer then deals five cards face down to each player. The undealt cards form the stock.

Each player looks at their cards and may discard any number of them, face down, onto a central discard pile. The player pays into the pot according to the number discarded:

Discards are not replaced from the stock. A player who discarded must complete their hand by buying cards in the auctions (article 3).

The top three cards of the stock are turned face up. This set is called the flop. Unlike the flop in Texas Hold'em, these are not shared cards: they go to one player only.

The player to the dealer's left is the first voice for the first flop. The first voice may pass or bid 1. Each player in turn, clockwise, may then pass or bid one more than the highest bid so far (or bid 1, if everyone before them passed).

3.2(a) A player who has passed may bid when the turn comes round to them again.

3.2(b) A player who already holds five cards shall always pass.

3.2(c) The flop is sold when a bid has been followed by passes from all the other players.

The winning bidder pays the price into the pot and takes the flop, keeping it apart from their hand until they have chosen. They shall keep at least one card of the flop and discard the rest face down to the discard pile, without revealing which cards they kept.

During the auctions a player may not discard any card already in their hand, and may never hold more than five cards. A player who already holds three cards, for example, must discard at least one card of any flop they buy.

A new flop is then turned up and auctioned. The role of first voice passes to the left, to the next player who holds fewer than five cards. Auctions continue until every player holds five cards. Players with five cards take no further part.

If every player passes on a flop, the first voice shall either take it for nothing (and keep at least one card from it) or pay 1 chip into the pot to refuse it.

4.1(a) If the first voice pays to refuse, the next player with fewer than five cards chooses between taking the flop free or paying 2 to refuse it. The next player would pay 3, and so on round the table, until someone takes the flop.

When only one player still has an incomplete hand, that player completes it free: they refuse to bid and take each flop for nothing. They may not refuse a flop, and shall keep at least one card from every flop until their hand is complete.

If the stock runs out before every hand is complete, the discard pile is shuffled to form a new stock.

When every player holds five cards, all hands are shown. The pot is divided as follows:

The source does not say how to divide the pot when hands tie, or how to handle chips that do not divide exactly. The group shall agree both before play begins.