Let the Bidding Begin!

Bid Poker is an extremely unique and dynamic variation of poker. See why it is an ever-changing game even for the professionals, by reading the poker rules here.

There’s nothing like learning the poker rules of a new poker variation for the very first time. Yet learning about Bid Poker is an experience quite unlike any other. The variation is unique in that, as the name suggests, players must bid on their cards as though they are being auctioned. In this sense, the cards are dealt one at a time, and as a result, the pot in Bid Poker can grow significantly large.

The following are the poker rules for Bid Poker:

• All player ante up.
• Each player is dealt 5 initial cards face down and has the right to view them before proceeding.
• The dealer then reveals one card face up in the center of the table. This is where Bid Poker gets interesting – the players must now bid for the card based on their need for it in order to build a winning hand. The player that is left of the dealer opens the bid, and in a clockwise direction, the remaining players must either bid some more on the card or pass.
• Bidding continues in Bid Poker until all players except for one have passed on the card. The bid is added to the pot.
• In order to keep the card count at 5, the player with the winning bid must, according to the poker rules, discard one of his/her cards.
• The dealer draws a second card face up, and the bidding process unique to Bid Poker begins once again, as described in steps 3 to 5.
• The poker play continues until every player has had a turn at opening up the bid. Once this has been done, there is a showdown that follows standard poker rules. The highest ranking hand is awarded the pot, which contains the total of all the bids made throughout the game.

There are several variations of Bid Poker that can be played, each one adding a little bit of spice to this already exciting game:
Bid Slam – Rather than simply discarding the 6th card, players are able to pass the card on to another player, who must discard a card of their own BEFORE accepting the slammed card. The penalty for peeking at the card before discarding is to match the pot.
Bid Double Slam – when a slammed player is able to immediately slam a third player.