Basic Draw Poker – Lesson #2: Jacks to open

Jacks to open is a variant of draw poker where the game can be open (the betting) only by a player who has a pair of jacks or higher combination. If nobody opens the game, all the ante bets stay on the table and players add to it their new ante bets (re-ante), cards are shuffled and dealt again. If any of the players has a pair of jacks or better, he opens the game and the game goes on following the usual rules.
Note: anyone who opens the game must prove later that he had a pair of jacks or higher combination. In order to do that, when the game is finished, the player shows his cards to other players and to the dealer. If the player who opens the betting wants to break his pair (for example, if he has J, J, 10, 9, 8 and he wants to replace one of the Jacks), he has to put the discarded cards in the middle of the table next to the pot and inform the dealer that these cards are not to be moved to the muck. Doing so, the player shows his initial combination to his opponents, so such a breaking is usually not done. If a player accidentally has opened the game, not having the desired combination, noticing his mistake, he should say about it and then the player to his left is to act (if he has the required combination) and the game continues. In this case, all players (except the mistaken one) are returned all their bets. If no one of the players opened the game, the pot (all ante bets and the bets of the player who made the mistake) stays for the next game.

If a violation of the rules is found in the showdown, when all the cards are opened, the player with the highest combination of cards, who hasn’t violated the rules, wins the entire pot. Players, who folded, are not returned their bets.
If a violation of the rules is found after all players have revealed their cards, then all bets are returned to them, and the bets of the player who has made the mistake stay in the pot.

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