Spit in the Ocean Rules

The object of the game is to win the pot, either by holding the best five-card hand at showdown or by making a bet that no other player calls.

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck without jokers.

Each player's hand consists of their four private cards plus the single face-up card on the table, often called the spit card.

Wild cards. The spit card is wild, and so is every other card of the same rank. Because up to four wild cards may be in play, five of a kind is possible. Unless the dealer announces otherwise, five of a kind ranks above a straight flush. See hand rankings.

Spit in the Ocean is thought to be the earliest shared-card poker game. It appears in the 1926 edition of the United States Playing Card Company's Official Rules of Card Games, as an offshoot of Wild Widow, a five-card draw game in which a face-up card only showed which rank was wild.

Before the deal, each player puts in the ante agreed for the game.

The dealer deals four cards face down to each player, one at a time and clockwise, then deals one card face up to the centre of the table.

There is then a first round of betting.

After the first betting round, each active player in turn, starting at the dealer's left, may discard any number of their four cards face down and receive the same number of replacements from the dealer. A player may also keep all four cards (stand pat).

The spit card cannot be discarded. It remains part of every player's hand.

Some groups limit the draw to two cards. The dealer shall announce any limit before the deal. In practice the limit makes little difference, as discarding three or four cards is rarely sensible.

After the draw there is a second round of betting.

If all but one player folds at any point, the remaining player wins the pot without showing their cards.

After the second betting round, the players still in the hand show their cards. Each hand is the player's four cards plus the spit card, and the highest hand wins the pot.

A wild card may stand for any card its holder chooses. If two hands are identical, the pot is split equally.