Mountain Rules

Mountain was contributed to pagat.com by Charles Pierce. It uses a standard 52-card deck, and hands rank according to the standard poker hand rankings.

Each player holds five cards, and seven cards form the mountain, so a single deck can accommodate up to nine players.

The object is to survive every test against the mountain and then hold the best five-card hand at showdown.

The mountain is a row of seven cards dealt face down. The first card is the base camp and the seventh is the mountain top. The mountain cards never form part of a player's hand.

Every player antes an agreed amount before the deal.

The dealer deals five cards face down to each player, then deals seven cards face down in a row in the centre of the table to form the mountain.

After the first betting round, the base camp card is turned face up. Every player whose five cards cannot beat it must fold.

After each further betting round, the next mountain card is turned face up, and every player whose hand cannot beat the best poker hand the face-up mountain cards form must fold. This continues until the sixth card is showing.

Once the sixth card is face up, the test is against the best five-card poker hand that can be made from those six cards.

A hand must beat the mountain to survive. A hand that only ties it cannot beat it and must fold.

While fewer than five mountain cards are face up, the mountain's hand is incomplete, for example a single high card or a pair. The source does not say how to compare a five-card hand against an incomplete mountain hand when the leading ranks are equal. The dealer shall announce the method before the deal.

After the seventh betting round, the mountain top is turned face up. No one is forced to fold at this stage. Every card held by a player that has the same rank as the mountain top becomes wild.

Because wild cards may be in play, five of a kind is possible. As is usual in wild-card games, it ranks above a straight flush.

After the mountain top is revealed, there is a final betting round. If two or more players remain, the highest poker hand, counting the new wild cards, wins the pot.

Identical hands split the pot.

If every player is beaten by the mountain and forced to fold before the seventh card is turned, the pot is carried forward to the next deal, and every player adds a new ante.

The source does not say what happens when exactly one player remains after a mountain test. The dealer shall announce before the deal whether that player wins the pot at once or must continue to face the mountain.