Ruby Run Rules

Ruby Run was contributed by H. G. Weissenberger, as published on pagat.com. It is playable by two or more and best for six to eight players, using a standard 52-card deck with no wild cards.

The object is to hold the best five-card hand from a player's three hole cards and the four live community cards, ranked as set out in article 4.

Standard poker practice applies to antes, blinds, limits and the like, except where these rules say otherwise.

The name comes from the rule that a red run beats a black one: the red suits are called ruby and the black suits coal, evoking poker in an old mining town.

Antes and/or blinds are placed as agreed.

Each player is dealt three hole cards face down, and there is a betting round.

The board has three over cards in one line and three under cards in a line below them, plus a final card called the Slam. The area where they are dealt is called the pit.

In the standard game, over and under cards are all dealt face up.

The Slam decides which board cards are live:

3.2(a) if the Slam is a numbered card (2 to 10), the three over cards and the Slam are live and the under cards are dead;

3.2(b) if the Slam is a jack, queen, king or ace, the three over cards are dead and the three under cards and the Slam are live.

Once the Slam is dealt, the dead cards are swept to the muck. The Slam is always live.

The source lists the showdown directly after the Slam. Groups that want a betting round after the Slam shall agree it before the deal.

The showdown in this game is also called the Shootout.

A run is three or more cards of consecutive rank and the same colour. Hearts and diamonds are red; clubs and spades are black. A run is part of the player's five-card hand.

Any hand containing a run beats any hand without one. Runs rank as follows:

4.2(a) a run all of one suit (a suited run) beats any run of mixed suits; between suited runs, the longer run wins;

4.2(b) among runs of one colour but mixed suits, the longer run wins;

4.2(c) if runs are still equal on these tests, a red run beats a black run.

If runs are still tied, the tied players compare their best standard five-card poker hands, with aces high only. If those are equal, the pot is split.

If no remaining player holds a run, the best standard five-card hand wins, ranked by the usual hand rankings with aces high only. Equal hands split the pot.

The ordinary straight flush has no separate place: it is simply a suited run.

The source does not say whether an ace may sit below a two in a run. The dealer shall announce this before the deal.

In the alternative rule, the under cards are dealt face down. Players bet mainly on the over cards and learn the under cards only if a face card or ace comes as the Slam.

If the over cards remain live, the under cards are swept to the muck face down without being shown.