Guts Card game is one of the most popular gambling card game for adults. The game is an amalgamation of skills and luck. Players get either 2 or 3 cards in hand and have to win the pot by having the best hand. If you are interested to know more about Guts Card game, then keep reading further.
Guts Card game Objective – To win the pot by having the best hand of cards.
Number of Players – 5-10 players
Number of Cards- A standard 52-deck of playing cards
Order of Cards – A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
Deal – Starting from the player to the left of the dealer, each player is dealt 2 (or 3) cards face-down.
Game Type – Casino/ Gambling
Game Audience – 18 and above
How to Play
You can play Guts card game with 2 to 3 cards. The rules for using 2 or 3 cards are just the same but with 3 cards, there are more combinations. For three cards guts game, the ranking of cards is in the order from high to low – straight flush, three of a kind, straight, flush, pair, high card.
For a Guts card game with 2 cards, the player with the highest pair or if there are no pairs, the player with the highest single card wins the game.
Once players have paid the ante, all of them receive 2 or 3 cards. After examining their cards, the players choose if they are ‘in’ or ‘out’. This begins from the left of the dealer. The players who decided ‘in’ will hold a chip in their fist and the players who are out will have an empty hand.
The dealer asks the players to open their hand and reveal the status in the game.
Showdown
Players that stay in can go to the Showdown phase of the game. The player with the highest hand wins the pot. In case of a tie in two card guts, the player having the highest ranked card or pair wins the pot.
The players who announce ‘in’ but lack the highest hand are all required to put an equal amount to the whole pot. This will become the pot for the next hand. Additional chips are set on reverse if the pot exceeds the decided value.
In case just one player says ‘in’, and the rest go for ‘out’, then the player will get the entire pot.
Guts Card game Variations
Here are a few Guts Card game variations that you can play to spice up the game of Guts –
Kitty/Ghost
If the players are not satisfied with the ability of players to win as all the others dropped, then they can add a ‘kitty’ or ‘ghost’ hand. This hand is not dealt to anyone and is exposed at the showdown phase of the game. Players have to beat the kitty or ghost hand so as to win the pot.
Single loser
In this variation, when more than one player stays in only the player having the worst hand has to match the pot. If there are 2 or more players who tie for the worst hand then both of them are required to match the pot. For each hand, players have to pay an ante. The players who matched the pot are the only ones who do not pay an ante.
Simultaneous Declaration
As the name says, in this variation of Guts Card game, players Simultaneously decide if they are in or out. They do so by holding their cards faced down over the table. The dealer then calls ‘1 2 3 Drop!’ And the players then drop their cards if they are out.
The chips are used to declare this as it can be disadvantageous in many ways like dropping the card late to see if other players stay out.
In case all the players go out, the pot is retained for the next hand. Players might have to put another ante in the pot.
One other variation here is the Wimp rule where the person having the highest hand who announced out will have to pay an ante for the rest of the players.
That was it all about the Guts Card game. For any doubts, feel free to ask us in the comment section below and we will get back to you soon.
