How to Play

Free Ride Poker is a game for 1-6 players played with 52 standard playing cards. The game only takes about 20 minutes to play. Computer players will be provided if you don't have at least 4 players. The game is played over many rounds. For each round, the cards are shuffled, and a hand of five cards are dealt to each player with the remaining cards placed as a face down deck in the middle of the table. Each player receives 50 points worth of chips to start. All betting in this game is automatic!

Playing a Round

The player with the lowest value card in front of her starts, then play progresses clockwise. If more than one player played cards with the lowest value, the suits of these cards determine the starting player: Spades is highest, followed by Hearts, then Diamonds, then Clubs.

On your turn, evaluate your chances of winning the round. You can only win the round if you play all the way, but if you do not win the round your losses increase with each card you play. You must then choose one of the following two options:

1. Play: Continue playing the round. Select one card from your hand and press the Play Card button to display it face up next to your cards that are already face up. If you have four face up cards in front of you, play your fifth and final card face down. After playing your card, a card will be drawn from the deck to refresh your hand to five cards.

2. Fold: Drop out of the round. By pressing the Fold button you will pay a number of your chips into the middle, dependent on the number of your face up cards: 1 chip for 1 card, 2 chips for 2 cards, 3 chips for 3 cards and 5 chips for 4 cards (assuming 1 point chips). Then your hand will be discarded face down on top of your face up cards. You take no further part in the round.

End of a Round

A Free Ride round can end in one of two ways. If all players have folded except one, the remaining player wins the round. If more than one player go all the way and play five cards, the round is decided by a showdown. In a showdown the players reveal their fifth (and final) card to determine who has the highest hand.

All players that went all the way but do not have the highest hand must fold and pay the price of 10 chips into the middle of the table (the pot). The player with the highest hand wins the round. The winner of the round receives all the chips from the middle.

If one of the players in the group leaves the game prematurely, in the middle of a round for example, her chips are split between all of the remaining players and the game is over. The payer with the most chips is the winner, the same as if the leaving player went out (ran out of chips).

Take a Free Ride

A player may play cards in front of her even if she has insufficient chips to pay when folding. This is called the free ride that gives the player one last chance to remain in the game- and where the name of this game comes from. If the player loses, she pays all her remaining chips into the middle and she is out of the game.

Winning

The game ends when one player is out. The player with the most chips wins the game. In the showdown, the highest hand is determined according to the best Poker combination as listed below from highest to lowest:

Ties are broken in the following way:

Straight Flush, Flush, Straight and High Card are decided by the highest card � if the highest card shows the same value, the second highest card decides, and so on. Four of a Kind, Full House, Three of a Kind, Two Pairs and One Pair are decided by the higher value of the main group � if the main groups are pairs of the same value, the value of the second pair decides, then the highest card, then the second highest card, and so on.

If the tie cannot be broken in this way, the involved players split the chips from the middle between them.