Z Rules

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck without jokers. High hands are ranked according to the standard poker hand rankings.

Four shared cards are dealt face down in a Z shape: two cards side by side on the top row, and two on the bottom row, shifted one place to the right so that the second top card sits directly above the first bottom card. Each position is numbered to show the order in which it is turned up:

Two cards are adjacent if they touch along the Z. There are three adjacent pairs: 1 and 3, 3 and 4, and 4 and 2.

Each player places an agreed ante before the deal. Each betting round begins with the first active player to the dealer's left.

Each player is dealt five cards face down. The dealer then lays out the four shared cards face down in the Z.

There is a betting round after the deal. The shared cards are then turned face up in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, with a betting round after each: five betting rounds in all.

If all but one player folds at any point, the remaining player wins the pot without showing their cards.

Each hand consists of exactly five cards: exactly three of the player's own cards and one adjacent pair of shared cards (1.3). A player may not use more or fewer than three of their own cards.

The game is played high-low without a declaration; the cards speak. Half the pot goes to the best high hand and half to the best low hand.

Low hands are ranked ace-to-five: aces are low, and straights and flushes are ignored, so the best low is 5-4-3-2-A. A low hand qualifies only if it has five different ranks and its highest card is an 8 or lower.

If no player has a qualifying low hand, the best high hand wins the whole pot.

A player's high and low hands are chosen independently. The same player may use one adjacent pair for high and a different pair for low, and may win both halves.

Identical hands split the relevant half of the pot.