Trees Rules

Trees is played with a standard 52-card deck with no jokers and no wild cards. The best five-card high hand at the showdown wins the pot. Hands are ranked by the standard poker hand rankings.

The game was described in The Game Report. The method of trading in Article 3 was suggested by John McLeod on pagat.com, because the original description did not say exactly how trades are carried out.

Each player antes. The dealer deals five cards face down to each player, one at a time.

Players look at their cards and there is a betting round, as in five-card draw.

After the first betting round, active players may trade cards freely with one another. There is no draw from the deck.

In every trade, each player shall give the same number of cards as they receive, so every player always holds five cards.

Two players who wish to trade first agree how many cards to exchange. Each then chooses that number of cards from their hand and places them face down on the table at the same time. The cards are then exchanged without being shown to anyone else.

Trading continues, between any pairs of active players, until no more trades can be agreed.

When trading ends, there is a final betting round, followed by a showdown in which the highest hand wins the pot.

If all but one player folds in either betting round, the remaining player wins the pot without showing.

Nothing in the rules limits how many trades a player may make or how many cards may change hands in one trade, provided the numbers are equal. A group may agree limits before play.

Because every card comes from another player's hand, a trade that helps you may also help your trading partner. Watching who trades with whom, and how many cards change hands, gives clues about the other hands.