Tapiola Hold'em Rules

Tapiola Hold'em (in Finnish, Tapiolalainen Hold'em) comes from Mikael Sauren's Koodikulma collection of card games, and is listed on pagat.com. It is played by two to nine players with a standard 52-card deck and no jokers.

The community cards are laid out in two parts:

1.2(a) the community centre, a single face-up card; and

1.2(b) two communal towers, each built up to three face-up cards during the hand.

A player's final hand is exactly five cards, made from:

1.3(a) all of their remaining hand cards, two or three;

1.3(b) one card from each tower; and

1.3(c) the centre card, only if the player kept two hand cards.

So a player who keeps three hand cards uses those three and one card from each tower. A player who keeps two hand cards uses those two, the centre card and one card from each tower.

The dealer deals one card face up in the middle of the table. This is the community centre.

Each player is dealt five hand cards face down.

A betting round follows. Players may fold by discarding their hand. The published rules call for a traditional poker betting round but do not set blinds, antes or a betting structure. The dealer shall announce these before the deal. See betting structures.

In each tower round, the dealer first deals one card face up to each tower. The dealer may burn the top card of the deck before doing so, if the table has agreed to burn cards.

Each player then discards one hand card face down, without showing it. In the third tower round, discarding is optional, so each player ends with either two or three hand cards.

A betting round follows each tower round.

With burning, the maximum is eight players rather than nine, because three extra cards are used.

After the final betting round, the remaining players show their hand cards. Each hand is made as set out in rule 1.3.

Hands are ranked by the system chosen before play. The default is the standard order: straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. See hand rankings.

The best hand wins the pot.

Playing for points or pots. Tapiola Hold'em can be played without chips. Options include:

5.1(a) the first player to win five pots wins the game;

5.1(b) two points for the best hand and one for the second best, playing to ten points (in a high-low game, two points for high and one for low); or

5.1(c) a points table per hand, such as the American scoring used for Poker Squares, ending after a set number of hands or a points target.

Straight-Up-or-Die. Hands score 1 point for a straight, 2 for a flush, 3 for a full house, 4 for four of a kind and 5 for a straight flush. If no one makes a straight or better, the worst hand scores 5 points and the second worst 2. The first to 15 points wins.

Lowball. For low games, each player is dealt six hand cards and must discard one in every tower round, ending with three. The hand is then six cards: the three hand cards, the centre card and one card from each tower. Ace-to-six ranking is recommended, and the maximum is seven players.