Billabong

Billabong

Billabong is a mixed version of Manila. Each player is dealt two down cards and one upward. Low upward starts the betting with a Bring-in if you are playing with one, otherwise high card starts the betting. Next, two community cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the best exposed partial poker hand counting the community cards, as in Oxford stud. Then a third community card is dealt, followed by a third betting round. Finally a fourth community card is dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown. Each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the three in his hand plus the four on the board in any combination.

Shanghai is the same game with an extra hole card, but no more than two hole cards play. That is, the game begins with each player being dealt three down cards and one upward; each player must discard one of his hole cards at some point during the game as determined ahead of time. The most common variation is to discard immediately as in Pineapple; the second most common is to discard just before showdown as in Tahoe.

Kuhn poker

Kuhn poker is a simplified form of poker developed by Dr. Harold W. Kuhn. It is a zero sum two player game. The deck includes only three playing cards, for example a King, Queen, and Jack. One card is dealt to each player, then the first player must bet or pass, then the second player may bet or pass. If any player chooses to bet the opposing player must bet as well "call" in order to stay in the round. After both players pass or bet the player with the highest card wins the pot. Kuhn demonstrated that there are many game theoretic optimal strategies for the first player in this game, but only one for the second player, and that, when played optimally, the first player should expect to lose at a rate of −1/18 per hand.

In more conventional poker terms:

Each player antes 1
Each player is dealt one of the three cards, and the third is put aside unseen
Player One can check or raise 1
If Player One checks then Player Two can check or raise 1
If Player Two checks there is a showdown for the pot of 2
If Player Two raises then Player One can fold or call
If Player One folds then Player Two takes the pot of 3
If Player One calls there is a showdown for the pot of 4
If Player One raises then Player Two can fold or call
If Player Two folds then Player One takes the pot of 3
If Player Two calls there is a showdown for the pot of 4

Pan

Pan is short for Panguingue

Playing Pan

Panguingue is a rummy-type game played with eight standard 52-card decks with the 8's, 9's, and 10's removed, for a total of 320 cards. No jokers are used. Cards in each suit rank king (high), queen, jack, seven, six, etc. with aces being low. The cards are dealt counterclockwise

Players strive to meld eleven cards in valid sets of three or more cards. There are two kinds of melds: a rope which must be string of cards of matching suits, squares consisting of the ranks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Jack or Queen. Squares must be either all cards of different suits or all the same suit. Squares consisting of Kings or Aces qualify regardless of suit. There are no betting rounds in the game.

Each player is dealt 10 cards to meld into sets and sequences with certain cards having special values. Each player, in turn, draws either a card from the top of the remaining deck or from the top of an adjacent discard pile. This sequence of play continues until one player goes out with a total meld of eleven cards, including the card(s) just drawn. Melds (or spread) must be at least three cards, and it may be as many as eleven. The melds are classified as ropes and squares. The rope is any three cards in sequence of the same suit. A square is a set of three cards in the same rank and of different suits or of the same suit. All 3s, 5s and 7s are valle cards (cards of value). Cards of other rank are non-valle. Any three aces or any three kings form a set, regardless of the suit.