Do Ya Rules

Do Ya is played with a standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Each player ends with five cards: one face down and four face up.

Each player's hole card is wild for that player only. It may stand for any card the player chooses. Other cards of the same rank are not wild, either in that player's hand or in anyone else's.

Hands are ranked by the standard poker hand rankings. With a wild card, five of a kind is possible: four of a kind showing plus the wild hole card. Five of a kind is usually ranked above a straight flush; the dealer shall confirm this before the deal.

Each player antes. The dealer deals one card face down to each player: this is the wild hole card.

The four up-cards are then dealt in four rounds, using the offering procedure in Article 3.

The dealer turns a card face up and offers it to the first player to the dealer's left, traditionally asking "do ya?". The player may accept it or reject it.

If the player rejects the first card, the dealer offers a second card face up in the same way. If the player rejects that too, the dealer deals a third card face up, which the player must accept.

Rejected cards stay face up on the table. The next player to the left may take any one of them. If the player takes none of them, the dealer deals further cards from the deck one at a time, but again the player may reject at most two cards in total and must accept the third.

3.3(a) For example, if the previous player left two rejects on the table and this player does not want either, those two count as this player's two rejections, and the player must accept the next card from the deck.

3.3(b) Cards this player rejects remain on the table, and the rejects on the table are offered to the following player first.

When every player has received a card, any cards rejected by the last player (the dealer) are discarded face down, and there is a betting round.

The whole process is repeated three more times, starting afresh each time with the first player to the dealer's left, until everyone has four cards face up.

There is a betting round after each round of up-cards. Each is begun by the player with the best card or hand showing.

After the fourth betting round there is a showdown, and the highest hand, counting each player's hole card as wild, wins the pot.

High-low. Do Ya may be played high-low, though this is unusual. If so, the dealer shall announce before the deal how low hands are ranked and whether declarations are used. In ace-to-five low, a wild hole card is normally counted as whatever rank makes the best low, including an ace.

Because every player has a wild card, any player with a pair showing already holds at least three of a kind, and any four cards to a straight or flush showing make the straight or flush.

Rejected cards are offered to the next player first. Passing up a card that would help your left-hand neighbour gives it to them for free.