How do you play Polish poker?

Answer 1

Here are the rules of a card game known as "Polish Poker"--or so it is known among those who have taught it to me. This is not the drinking game of the same name. Nor is it really a poker game. So I'm not even sure "Polish poker" is the correct name for it. If anyone knows the correct name, please /msg me with a reference. Object To score the lowest number of points by finishing each hand with as many pairs and low-scoring cards as possible. Players Two or more players (ideally four or more). Deck Two standard playing card decks including jokers (108 cards total). Point values Kings are worth zero points. Queens and jacks are worth ten points. Jokers are worth minus three points. All other cards are worth face value (aces 1 point). A pair is worth zero points regardless of the cards' values. Jokers are the exceptions--a pair of jokers always scores minus six points. (A pair is formed by two cards of the same rank in the same row: kings, queens, etc. Suits are irrelevant. A pair may be formed only with both cards in the same row.) DealCards are dealt clockwise, six to a player, face down. The remainder of the deck is placed in the middle of the table and becomes the draw pile. Its top card is turned face up next to it to begin the discard pile. Players arrange their cards on the table in three rows of two cards each. The cards in the top row are turned face up. The other cards are blind; they remain face down and may not be examined. Example: .---. .---. |8 | |K | |S | |C | | | | | `---' `---' .---. .---. |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| `---' `---' .---. .---. |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| |XXX| `---' `---' Play The round begins with the player to the dealer's left; play proceeds clockwise around the table with each turn. Each player begins her turn by drawing the top card from either the draw pile or the discard pile. If she takes a card from the draw pile, she may discard it immediately (thus ending her turn) or continue. To play the draw card, the player must use it to replace a card in her hand. She is free to replace the top two cards so long as they are the only cards face up. However, once any of the bottom four cards has been replaced, the top two cards are considered frozen and may not be replaced again for the rest of the round. The bottom four cards may always be replaced. In any case, the replacement card is laid face up, and the replaced card must be discarded face up on the discard pile. A player "goes out" when she replaces her last remaining face-down card with a face-up card. After a player has gone out, the other players take one last turn, and the round ends. Scoring At the end of the round, all players turn over their remaining face-down cards. Points are tallied for each player as described in "Point values" above. If no player has reached 150 points, the game proceeds to a new round, with the player to the dealer's left becoming the new dealer. End of game The game ends when a player reaches 150 points. The player with the lowest score is declared the winner