Dear
Mark,
I am having a minor dispute with a friend about ‘jack’s
or better’ five card draw.
Is there usually (obviously house rules vary from
place to place, but in general) a requirement to prove
you have a pair of jacks or better to open? When I
learned this game, there was no such requirement and
you could actually bluff the open. My friend now tells
me that this is not the case and penalties like matching
the pot are usually imposed if the opener does bluff.
What is your experience on this issue? John K.
When I was growing up,
John, if I misplayed a hand in pinochle, fraudulently
or not, the chastening was not only getting the heave-ho
from the game but castigated for piss-poor play and
an additional penalty of washing all the dishes. This
is how I learned that honesty prevails in card play.
But I’m writing about a friendly, or in my case,
a hostile game
environment at the
kitchen table where local rules apply.
In casino poker rooms, they don’t offer a jack’s
or better game for one simple reason. SHOW ME THE
MONEY! Casinos can’t pay the lighting bills
on the many dead hands that a Jack’s
or better game would create. You can’t
‘rake’ a pot that isn’t there. The
rake, the money that the card room charges, is usually
a percentage or flat fee taken from the pot after
each round of betting. Every time a dealer pitches
out a hand, your miserly casino owner wants a piece
of the action.
As for home rules, I’ve heard of everything
from matching the pot to forfeiting the hand, and
in a worst case senerio, the bucking up for all
the booze and burgers.
So in the future, John, let whoever is gracious
enough to let you spill beer and chip dip all over
their carpet make the rules of the house.
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