Butcher Boy Poker Rules


All cards are dealt face up. When any player gets a card which is of the same rank as a card antecedently dealt, it is transferred to the hand of the player who got the card of that rank previously. There is a betting interval, with the player to whom the card was transferred getting the first right to bet. When the betting interval is complete, the deal continues, the first card going to the player who would have obtained the last card.

Butcher Boy is generally played with high and low splitting the pot. There is no conclusion until any player has four of a kind, whereupon he gets half the pot. The other half goes to the low hand. Since not all players have precisely five cards, low hand is determined as follows: A player having more than five cards may choose any five to be his low hand. A player having fewer than five cards is deemed to have the lowest card in the pack to make up each gap; for instance, a three-card hand 8-5-4 is treated as 8-5-4-double 2 (not a pair of deuces) and beats a natural 8-5-4-3-2 for low.