Dakota Rules

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck with no jokers, by two to seven players. Each player receives seven cards and makes the best five-card high hand and the best five-card low hand from them.

The pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand. Low hands rank ace-to-five: aces are low, and straights and flushes do not count against a low hand. See ace-to-five lowball.

Wild cards. At the showdown, each player's lowest face-down card is wild for that player's high hand, together with any other card of the same rank in that player's hand.

1.3(a) Wild cards apply to the high hand only. For the low hand, every card counts at its natural rank.

1.3(b) Wild cards belong to each player individually. A card that is wild in one hand has no effect on anyone else's hand.

1.3(c) Because the wild card is decided by the face-down cards held at the end, a lower card arriving face down changes which card is wild.

1.3(d) The sources do not say whether an ace counts as low when finding the lowest face-down card. The dealer shall announce this before the deal.

Where wild cards make it possible, five of a kind usually ranks above a straight flush. See hand rankings.

Each player pays an agreed ante before the deal.

The dealer deals three cards face down to each player. On a signal, all players simultaneously turn one of their three cards face up. The first betting round follows.

Each of the next three cards is dealt face down. After each, every active player turns up one of their face-down cards at the same time, and a betting round follows. After the fourth betting round, each player has four cards up and two down.

Before the seventh card is dealt, each active player may buy the option by paying a fixed amount into the pot. The price is the maximum bet allowed in the game.

A player who buys the option receives their seventh card face up. It is not a face-down card, so it cannot become or replace their wild card.

A player who does not buy the option receives their seventh card face down. If it is lower than their other face-down cards, it becomes their wild card instead.

The fifth and final betting round follows the seventh card.

After the final betting round, each remaining player declares high, low or both. The dealer shall announce before the deal whether declarations are made simultaneously (usually with chips hidden in the hand) or in turn.

Players who declared high compete for the high half of the pot, and players who declared low for the low half. If nobody declares one way, the players on the other side share the whole pot.

By the usual home-game convention, a player who declares both ways must win, or tie, both halves. A player who fails on either side wins nothing.

By the usual convention, an odd chip that cannot be split goes to the high half.