TEXAS WALTER POKER RULES
To play TEXAS WALTER POKER, a deck of French cards is used, excluding jokers, for a total of 52 cards. Basically, 13 cards are used for each suit, i.e., nine numbered cards (from 2 to 10), then the Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. The 2 has the lowest value and the Ace the highest. There are four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. When playing with a deck of cards, the number of players ranges from a minimum of two to a maximum of ten.
MAIN FEATURE OF TEXAS WALTER POKER
Each player is dealt two personal cards (pocket cards) which are kept face down and must both be used to make the best possible hand, combining the two personal cards with three of the five community cards that are revealed in the center of the table in three separate actions: three cards on the flop, one on the turn, and one on the river. At this point, each player still in the game chooses three of the community cards to combine with their two personal cards, both of which must be used to make the final, best hand.
ACHIEVABLE POINTS
- High card + second card: high card + kicker
- Pair
- Two pair
- Three of a kind
- Straight
- Flush
- Full: full house or boat
- Poker: Four of a kind
- Straight flush
- Royal flush
The points described are common to Texas Hold’em Poker, as is the way the game is played: the distribution of personal cards, the actions to reveal the community cards on the table, the composition of the table: the button (dealer), small and big blind, pre-flop, post-flop, turn, and river actions. Unlike Texas Hold’em Poker, in Texas Walter Poker, in order to achieve one of the points described, both personal cards must be used, choosing three of the community cards on the table.
To win a hand, you must have a better combination of cards than your opponents remaining in the game at the showdown, i.e., when the personal cards are revealed, or you must have made a bet that no other player is willing to call.
SPLIT OR DRAW
The characteristic feature of P.T. Walter is that there is no SPLIT on the table, only in the hand. With one exception. Let’s clarify: with the rule of having to use both personal cards, it follows that:
- Two identical cards, i.e., a pair, will never be able to achieve a flush, straight flush, or royal flush, so at the showdown between two players, if they have two identical pairs as their personal cards, there will be a SPLIT.
- If at the showdown two or more players (max. four) have the same connectors (two cards in sequence with a maximum of three cards between them), there is an immediate SPLIT.
- If, at the showdown, before the river, one of the players has connectors of the same suit, the community cards will be revealed until it is clear whether the player can complete their draw. If this possibility is denied by the number of cards of the same suit on the table and of the same suit as the player’s personal cards, a SPLIT will proceed.
- The same procedure described in point 3 will be followed if, at the showdown before the river, with equal value of personal cards, one or more players (max. four) have two cards of the same suit.
From the rules stated so far, it can be deduced that the two personal cards, if they are not connectors, cannot form a straight, and if they are not of the same suit, they cannot form a flush, straight flush, or royal flush.
EXCEPTION TO THE SPLIT RULE AT THE TABLE
SPLIT at the table occurs at the showdown if players show the same value on the scale, even if the connectors are different between players.
Example: there are four-fifths of a straight on the table: 5,6,7,8, player 1 has 8,9 and player 2 has 5,9, so a SPLIT occurs.
- At the table: scale 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
- Player 1: personal cards 5, 6
- Player 2: personal cards 8, 9
In this case, a SPLIT occurs.
CONSIDERAZIONI INTERESSANTI
Nel P.T. Walter non esiste lo SPLIT a tavola, salvo l’eccezione prima descritta, quindi allo showdown tra due o più giocatori con carte personali diverse, tra un giocatore e l’altro, ci sarà sempre un vincitore, anche se a tavola ci potrebbe essere un punto migliore da SPLIT classico come nel P.T. Hold’em.
Poker a tavola
Nel P.T. Hold’em se a tavola c’è Poker, cioè quattro carte uguali, vincerà la carta più alta di uno dei giocatori; mentre nel P.T. Walter vincerà la coppia che realizzerà il Full maggiore in combinazione con le carte presenti a tavola. Dopo la coppia entreranno in gioco i valori delle due carte personali, realizzando un punto, cioè Tris più il valore delle due carte personali.