Substitution Rules

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck without jokers, by up to ten players. Each player holds five cards throughout, and there are no wild cards.

The game is played high-low: the best high hand and the best low hand share the pot. High hands rank according to the standard poker hand rankings. The low ranking, and whether a low hand must qualify, shall be agreed before play; ace-to-five low is the usual choice in home games.

Substitution differs from Buy Your Card in one respect: replacement cards are dealt from the deck free of charge rather than bought from a priced row.

Each player antes. The dealer then deals each player five cards: two face down and three face up. Players may look at their face-down cards.

No cards are dealt to the centre of the table. The undealt cards form the stock from which replacements are dealt.

In a substitution round, each active player in turn, clockwise, either stands pat or discards one card and is dealt a replacement from the deck.

A discarded face-down card is replaced by a card dealt face down. A discarded face-up card is replaced by a card dealt face up.

No more than one card may be exchanged by a player in any one substitution round.

Each betting round is started by the player whose face-up cards make the best hand at that moment.

After the third betting round, each remaining player declares high, low or both. The method (simultaneously with chips held in the fist, or in turn) shall be agreed before play.

The best high hand among those who declared high takes half the pot, and the best low hand among those who declared low takes the other half. If no one declares one way, the other side wins the whole pot.

Under the usual convention, a player who declares both must win, or tie, both ways; otherwise they win nothing.