Woodstock Rules

Woodstock was contributed to pagat.com by Ryan Plourde.

The game uses a standard 52-card deck with no wild cards. It has been tested mainly with two to four players. Five or six can play, but with more players the deck is more likely to run out before five shared cards have been placed.

The object is to win the pot with the best five-card high hand, using any combination of a player's three private cards and the shared cards, or by being the last player not to fold. Hands rank according to the standard poker hand rankings.

Each player places an ante.

The dealer deals three cards face down to each player. These are the player's personal hand. They shall never be exchanged, discarded or shared.

The rest of the deck is placed face down in the centre of the table as the draw pile.

The player to the dealer's left takes the first turn, and turns pass clockwise, skipping players who have folded, for as many circuits as needed.

On their turn, a player draws the top card of the deck, looks at it, and chooses one of two actions:

3.2(a) Discard it face down onto the discard pile. The card is out of play, and only the player who drew it knows what it was. The turn passes to the next player.

3.2(b) Place it face up in the centre as a shared card, available to every player. The player who placed it shall then immediately make a bet, which opens a betting round. Players in turn fold, call or raise until all remaining stakes are equal. The turn then passes to the next player who has not folded.

Restrictions on shared cards. The shared cards shall never include:

3.3(a) any four cards that could all form part of the same straight (for example 2-3-4-5, 2-3-5-6 or A-K-J-10);

3.3(b) four cards of the same suit;

3.3(c) more than one pair;

3.3(d) three cards of the same rank.

A player who draws a card that would break rule 3.3 if placed shall discard it.

If a player places a card that breaks rule 3.3 and another player correctly points this out, the player who placed it shall fold, and the card is moved to the discard pile.

Play ends when any of the following happens:

3.6(a) five shared cards are on the table, after the betting round opened by the fifth card;

3.6(b) the deck runs out, in which case there is one final betting round before the showdown;

3.6(c) all players but one have folded, in which case the remaining player takes the pot without showing their cards.

Because of rule 3.3, a straight or any better hand can only be made using at least two cards from a player's personal hand.

If two or more players remain when play ends, each makes the best five-card hand from their three personal cards and the shared cards, in any combination. Usually this is eight cards: three personal and five shared. If the deck ran out, there may be only three or four shared cards.

The highest hand wins the pot. Tied hands split the pot equally.