Liege Lord Rules

Liege Lord is a variant of seven-card stud from Justin du Coeur's collection of poker variants, as published on pagat.com.

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck and no wild cards. Hands rank according to the standard poker hand rankings.

Each player ends with seven cards and plays the best five. Because every player receives seven cards, no more than seven can take part with a single deck.

The object is to hold the best high hand at the showdown, or to be the player who shares the pot with the winner (rule 4.2). Because of this, a player has a reason to help the player on their left by passing good cards.

Each player antes an amount agreed before play. The betting limits are set by the house or announced by the dealer.

The dealer deals three cards face down to each player, one at a time, clockwise from the dealer's left.

No card is dealt face up in this game. Every face-up card is one that a player has chosen to reveal (rule 3.2).

Passing. In each round, after the deal, every player passes one of their three face-down cards to the nearest player on their left who has not folded.

Revealing. In rounds 1 to 4, after the pass, each player chooses one of their three face-down cards and turns it face up. The chosen card may be the card just received or one the player already held. All players reveal their chosen cards at the same time.

A round of betting follows each reveal. In round 1 the player with the highest card showing opens the betting; in later rounds the player with the best poker hand showing opens.

In round 5 the seventh card is dealt face down and each player passes one face-down card to the left, but no card is revealed. Each surviving player then has four cards face up and three face down, and the fifth and final betting round follows.

No table talk. By convention, players shall not discuss what hands they are trying to make. The only signals allowed are the cards a player passes and the cards they choose to reveal.

If two or more players remain after the final betting round, the best five-card high hand among the seven cards held by each player wins.

The winner shares the pot equally with the nearest player to the winner's right who has not folded. That player is the one who has been passing cards to the winner.

If every player but one folds, the remaining player wins the whole pot. In practice this does not happen once only two players remain, because each is then certain of half the pot by calling.

Some descriptions of the game say that the winner shares with the nearest surviving player on the winner's left rather than the right. Since cards are passed to the left, sharing with the player on the right rewards the player who supplied the winner's cards. The dealer shall announce which rule applies before the deal.