User:David Hoover Hounam/sandbox

Knock Poker

A card game for up to 6 players.

There are many variants of this card game, the most common are no wilds or played with announced wilds or played with a specific wild card per player or low hand wins (no wilds) or UNO knock.

The object of the game is to make the best 5 card poker hand you can

The basic game:

5 cards are dealt to each player, one at a time, the remainder of the deck is placed face down and the top card is turned over to start the discard pile.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first and each player in turn clockwise then has a go, each player may take a card from the top of the deck or the top card from the discard pile and then place a card face up on the discard pile then the next player has a turn.

Once a player believes they have a good enough poker hand instead of picking a card they knock on the table to signal to all player that they only have one turn left. After each player has had their last go the knocker turns over their cards to show their hand and each other player does the same.

The winner is the person with the best hand. The next dealer is the person to the right of the winner as the winner of the previous hand goes first.

If more than one player has the same winning hand the winner is the knocker (if they have a winning hand) and if not the knocker then the player closest to the left of the dealer.

One important rule is that no player can knock until every player has had one go.

It is usual for the dealer to choose the game variant although it can be the winner of the hand who chooses, but this must be decided before the game commences so all players know what will happen. So you can have dealer’s choice or winner’s choice.

If the entire deck ends up in the discard and no player has knocked then the discard pile is shuffled (leaving the top discard to start the new discard pile) and placed face down for the game to continue.

The game with wilds:

Wilds increase the likelihood of getting better hands and this includes a five of a kind.

The hands for a game with wilds are as follows

A natural royal or straight flush (where the wild card is used as its face value) e.g.: JHearts is your wild and your final hand is, 8H, 9H, 10H, JH, QH.

Five of a kind (this can consist of a card and up to 4 wilds) e.g.: 10H is your wild and your hand is AC, AS, AD, AH, 10H (5 aces) or AC, AD, 10H, 10S, 10C (5 aces). Both hands use the 10s in the hands as Aces.

Royal Flush with wilds and a straight flush with wilds (where the wild does not create a natural) e.g.: Wild is 10H and your hand consists of 9H, 10H, JH, 10D, KH, 10S. although you are using the 10 Hearts as its face value you are using other wilds to complete the hand.

Four of a kind, Full house, Flush, Straight, Three of a kind, Two pairs, One pair, High card

In a game with wild it is not usual to knock with less than 4 of a kind.

Variations on using wilds:

Fixed wilds is where the dealer deals four card to the players and then places a fifth card in front of them either face up so all players know the wild of their opponents or face down so only the player knows their wild.

The chooser can choose to call the wild card, before looking at their cards, so all players have the same wild. The chooser may decide to call multiple cards as wild to make the game quicker.

Low Hand (worst hand) wins:

In this variation the best hand is 2, 3, 4, 5, 7. The aces are always high. No wilds are used in this variation.

UNO Knock:

A funny and frustrating version uses the idea of UNO to vary the play

The standard way to play this is to have the following special cards:

2 is a skip card, 3 is a reverse card, 4 & 5 are wild and 7 gives an extra turn.

Players can choose different wilds or no wilds and not use the 7 if they so wish but such decisions must be made prior to commencement of play.

Reference material:

https://www.denexa.com/blog/knock-poker/

http://www.real-casinos.com/article40.html

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knock%20poker

http://cardboardrules.weebly.com/knock-poker.html