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Chameleon is Midnight Baseball with wild cards that can change. Players are dealt seven cards face down without looking and turn them up one at a time, with threes and nines wild at the start. A player who turns up a seven may pay a fee to replace one of the wild ranks with the rank of a card turned from a second deck.
Chameleon was invented by Paul DeLuca and Fritz Stei, as published on pagat.com. It is for three to seven players.
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, plus a second deck used only to choose new wild ranks.
At the start of each hand, all threes and nines are wild. Five of a kind is possible and ranks above a straight flush. See hand rankings.
The best five-card hand at the end wins the pot.
After the ante, each player is dealt seven cards face down. Players shall not look at their cards.
Play then follows Midnight Baseball. In summary:
2.2(a) The player to the dealer's left turns up one card, and a betting round follows.
2.2(b) Each following active player turns up cards one at a time until their face-up cards beat the best hand showing, then begins a betting round.
2.2(c) A player who turns up all seven cards without beating the best hand showing is out.
2.2(d) Midnight Baseball's other rules, such as an extra card for a four, apply as the dealer announces.
When a player turns up a seven, that player may pay a fixed fee to the pot to change one of the original wild ranks. The dealer shall announce the fee before the deal.
A player who pays the fee chooses which original wild rank, threes or nines, to replace.
The dealer then turns up the top card of the second deck and places it face up beside the deck. Every card of that rank becomes wild, together with the original wild rank that was kept. The rank that was replaced is no longer wild.
If another seven is turned up, the same option is offered to the player who turns it. The source does not say which of the current wild ranks may then be replaced. The dealer shall announce this before the deal.
A player who turns up a seven may decline to pay. The wild ranks then stay as they are.
Hands are valued using the wild ranks in force at the end of play. A card that was wild earlier may be natural at the showdown, and the reverse.
Play continues until all active players' cards are face up or only one player remains. The best five-card hand wins the pot.
A seven changes the wild ranks
Threes and nines are wild. Player A is showing 9♠9♥K♣, which counts as three kings. Player C is showing J♠J♥5♦, a pair of jacks.
Player B turns up the 7♣, pays the fee and chooses to replace the nines. The dealer turns the J♦ from the second deck. Threes and jacks are now wild.
A's nines are now natural, so A has only a pair of nines. C's two jacks are now wild, so C's cards count as three fives.
Threes and nines at the start. A player who turns up a seven can pay to replace one of those ranks with the rank of a card turned from a second deck.
No. Like Midnight Baseball, it is a no-peek game: cards stay face down and unseen until they are turned up.
No. Changing a wild rank is optional. You pay the fee only if you want to make the change.
Where any doubt remains in the application of this document, Rob is right.
Hand rankings, high to low: royal flush · straight flush · four of a kind · full house · flush · straight · three of a kind · two pair · one pair · high card. Suits never break ties.
Chameleon Rules · OPR-663 · officialpokerrules.com/chameleon/