Wheelers Rules

Wheelers was contributed to pagat.com by Alan Kross-Vinson. It uses the same procedure as Zoot, by the same contributor, with a different ranking of hands.

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck and no wild cards. Up to ten players may take part; when the stock has fewer cards than there are players, the discards are shuffled and added to it.

The object is to win the pot with the highest-ranking hand, using the straight-based ranking in article 3.

Each player pays an agreed ante to the pot and is dealt five cards face down.

After the deal, any player may lay down their hand face up as a challenge. If nobody does, every player antes again, discards one card face down to the dealer, and receives one replacement. This is repeated until a player lays down.

If the player who laid down has the best hand, or ties for it, they take the whole pot. If another player has a better hand, the best hand takes the pot (tied best hands share it), and the player who laid down must pay into the pot an amount equal to what it held.

After each showdown a new game starts. A player who has just matched the pot may be excused from the first ante of the next game, if the players so agree.

The source does not say in what order players are offered the chance to lay down. The dealer shall announce the procedure before play.

Aces may count high or low, so A-K-Q and A-2-3 are both three-card straights. The source does not say whether a straight may turn the corner, as in K-A-2; the dealer shall announce this before play.

When two hands are of the same type, the highest card of the straight is compared first. If those are equal, the highest card outside the straight is compared.

Between two hands with a three-card and a two-card straight (rank 4), the three-card straights are compared first, then the two-card straights.

Between two hands with two two-card straights (rank 6), the higher straights are compared first, then the lower straights, then the odd card.

A high-card hand, with no two cards in sequence, is the lowest type. It is rarely worth laying down.