Game rules · Other formats
Duplicate poker is a tournament format rather than a new game. Two or more tables play the same hands from identically ordered decks, so each seat receives the same cards at every table. Players are scored against those in the same seat at the other tables, which removes much of the luck of the deal.
Also known as Match Poker
Duplicate poker was devised by Bruce Altshuler and Danny Kleinman, who described it in Card Player magazine in August 1993. The idea is borrowed from duplicate bridge.
The underlying game is played to its normal rules, usually Texas Hold'em or Omaha. Only the dealing and the scoring differ.
Because every player in a given seat receives the same cards, the result measures how well each player used those cards, not whether the cards were good.
There shall be two or more tables, each with the same number of seats. Every seat shall be occupied for every hand; a missing player would change which cards the others receive and distort the comparison.
For each hand, every table is dealt from a deck arranged in the same order. Seat 1 at each table receives the same hole cards, seat 2 the same, and so on, and the community cards are the same at every table.
Tables should be kept apart, so that no player learns how a hand played out elsewhere before playing it. In team events, players have been seated in separate isolation booths.
The format suits flop games, where the order of the deck does not depend on players' decisions. It does not suit stud or draw games, because folding or drawing in one game changes which cards later players receive.
Each player's result is the number of chips won or lost. A player's score is the difference between their result and the results of the players who held the same seat at the other tables.
The winner is the player with the best total difference, not necessarily the player who won the most chips. A player who loses chips can still win by losing less than their counterparts.
Comparing two tables
On one hand, seat 3 at both tables is dealt A♥A♠.
At table A, the player in seat 3 wins a pot of 500. At table B, the player in seat 3 plays the same cards more aggressively and wins 1,200.
For this hand, the table B player scores 700 better than the table A player, even though both won.
Individual events rank each player against the players in the same seat. In team events, such as the Nations Cup and Match Poker, the results of a team's players are combined.
Duplicate poker has also been offered online, for example by DuplicatePoker.com, which closed in October 2008, and SkillBet.com, launched in July 2012.
A format in which identical cards are dealt at two or more tables, and each player is scored against the players who held the same seat and cards at the other tables.
Not fairly. In stud and draw games, a player's fold or draw changes which cards the next players receive, so the tables would quickly stop receiving the same cards. Hold'em and Omaha work because the board does not depend on players' actions.
Bruce Altshuler and Danny Kleinman, who published the idea in Card Player magazine in 1993.
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.
Duplicate Poker Rules · OPR-404 · officialpokerrules.com/duplicate-poker/