Brag

Number of decks: 1
Number of cards in the deck: 52
Number of players: from 2 and above
Card seniority:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, V, D, K, T.
Purpose of the game: collect the best card combinations.
Rules of the game. This game is the predecessor of the poker game. The deck is carefully shuffled and removed. The dealer makes a bet. Then each player is dealt 3 cards and is also offered to make a bet, but not less than what the dealer placed, or to leave the game. Further, according to an agreed scheme between the players, each player can increase his bet. The player can announce his combination and if no one challenges it, then he takes all the money without showing his cards. However, you can ask the player to show the cards and he must do so. If any of the players has a stronger combination, then this player can take all the money. Some cards can replace others in combinations; such cards are called bragers. Bragers include: ace of diamonds, jack of clubs, nine of diamonds.

Combination seniority

Three natural aces. In this case, the Ace of Diamonds is considered a natural.
Three aces, one of which is a brager. For example, a jack of clubs and a nine of diamonds with any ace.
Three natural kings.
Three kings, for example, one king is a natural, and the rest are brager cards.

And so on up to three twos. Then after three identical cards there are paired cards from aces to twos. Here a pair of natural cards already has more weight than a pair with a brager. If the players receive equal cards, then the advantage is on the side who bet first.

Three-part Brag

In this game, 3 different bets are made on each horse of the game, in addition, the third card is revealed, and the first bet is received by the one who has the highest card. The second bet belongs to the one who has better cards, as in a regular brag. The third bet goes to the one whose card total approaches 31. Points are counted as follows: ace - 11 points; each face card - 10 points; the remaining cards have no points. If the player scores exactly 31 points, then in this case the player either takes the entire bet or, by agreement with the players, divides it. A player who has less than 31 points can take one card from the deck; if he has a bust, then all his cards are burned. Before a player draws cards, all cards in their hand must be face up.

Three-card poker differs significantly from other types of poker in its rules. This game essentially combines two games. In addition, in three-card poker, a player can immediately make two bets, which means he can win twice as much!

The first option is called PairPlus

In this version of the game of three-card poker, each player receives three cards in his hand. The cards the dealer has are completely irrelevant in this game. The game is played only with the cards that the player received. The casino advantage in this type of game is not that big. It can range from 2.3% to only 7.3%, which is actually low. Specific percentages can be found in the table below:

Second option - Ante and Play

Here, the game of three-card poker begins with a bet on the ante field. After making a bet, the player receives cards. The player can continue the game if he raises the bet, or interrupt it if the cards do not suit him. When a player raises a bet, the cards in his hand are compared with the cards the dealer has. The dealer must have at least a queen to qualify.

Various options are paid according to a specific system:

In addition to betting on the ante, you can also bet on the bonus. Bonus payments are made provided that the player has collected the required combination. There is also a dependence on the casino advantage. The combinations and casino advantage can be as shown in the table below:

Three card rule

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• Poker Rules > 3 Card

3 card

Three Card Poker– a game reminiscent of Canadian Stud (Caribbean poker). It was invented by Derek Webb, owner of the Prime table games casino chain, in 1994. Since the game is played “against the dealer” or, as they also say, “against the casino”, it is rarely found in poker rooms, but is present in most casinos. To be precise, these are two whole games combined into one title. Let's look at the rules of each of them.

And so, you find yourself at the table to play three card poker. The first thing you need to do is place a bet, called an “ante,” after which you will receive three cards in your hand. Now you have two options:

1. You can fold your cards. You will lose your original ante bet.

2. You can make a second bet, called a bet, of the same size as the ante.

If you choose the second option and decide to continue playing, it is the dealer's turn. To continue the game, he needs to have a better combination than Queen High. If this condition is not met, it means that the dealer has “no game” and the player automatically wins. A couple of examples:

Dealer combination: – High card is queen. The dealer has a game. Dealer's combination: – Jack is the highest card. The dealer has no game. Dealer combination: – Pair. The dealer has a game.

In the second example, the player will receive back his second bet (bet) and his first bet (ante) in double amount. Below are all the possible scenarios if you decide to continue playing against the dealer.

1. The dealer has “no game”
You get your second bet back and win your two original ante bets. You don't have to reveal your cards, you win regardless of your hand.
2. The dealer “has a game”
If your combination loses to the dealer's combination, you lose both bets.

If your hand beats the dealer's, you win both your bets by double the amount.
The most difficult part is over, all that remains is to figure out whose combination is higher, who won and who lost.

Combinations

There are a total of six combinations in three-card poker:

Casino games

Three Card Poker - 3 Card Poker

Three Card Poker Rules

Three-card poker combines two games at the same time, and the player can place two types of bets separately or simultaneously. The result of both games depends on the collected poker hand, consisting of three cards dealt to the player. So this game is somewhat of an exception to the poker rules, where the hand consists of five cards.

Ante Play. The start of the game is considered to be the player's bet on the ante. After this, the player and dealer each receive three cards, face up and face down, respectively. After looking at the cards, the player decides whether he continues the game, while raising the bet by the amount of the ante (Raise or Play), or folds the cards, losing the ante bet (Fold).



If the player decides to continue the game, the dealer reveals his cards and compares them with the player's cards. It is worth taking into account the fact that if the dealer does not have at least a queen or higher in his hands, then he does not qualify and automatically loses. Payment is made according to the following scheme:

• The dealer did not qualify - the ante payment is made 1:1, the bet is returned;
• The dealer qualified, but the player won - the bet and ante are paid 1:1;
• The dealer has qualified and the player loses – the bet and ante are lost;
• The dealer has qualified, and there is a draw - the bet and ante are returned to the player.

Among other things, an additional bonus is added to the ante bet for a combination from a straight, which does not depend on the dealer’s cards.

Pair Plus. In this type of bet, the player receives three cards, from which he must make a poker combination of a pair or higher, while the dealer’s cards do not matter. The winning amount depends entirely on the combination collected by the player and ranges from 1 to 1 for a pair to 40 to 1 for a straight flush.

3 Card Poker can be found in all leading casinos from global manufacturers and rare domestic ones. You can practice the flash version of three-card poker from Jackpot City casino, Microgaming software.

Three Card Poker Strategy

The strategy of this game, more precisely, Ante Play, where the player makes a decision, is the simplest of all poker games - you need to raise the bet with a combination of queen, seven, four or higher. In this case, this type of game will give a 2.01% house edge.

A bet on Pair Plus does not require any additional decisions from the player, which means there is no optimal strategy. The expected rate for this rate is 2.32%.

Varieties of Three Card Poker

In casinos running Microgaming software there is a game called High Speed ​​Poker, which is a type of three-card. The game is based on an Ante Play bet, with the same rules as above, only the additional payout for a straight flush is slightly higher - seven instead of the usual five, which reduces the house edge by approximately 0.2%.

But instead of the Pair Plus bet, there is a bonus bet, which can only be placed in addition to the ante bet. The bonus bet is paid for three cards of the same color (2 to 1), the same suit (6 to 1) or three of a kind (27 to 1). By my calculations, this bet has a house edge of 2.12%, which is slightly worse than the main bet.

There is a game in the casino with Playtech software 3 Card Brag. In general, brag is the predecessor of three-card poker, an ancient English game played between players. But this version is just a minimally modified three-card poker. By and large, all modifications boil down to the fact that the largest three is 3-3-3, and the largest straight/straight flush is A-2-3. As a result, these changes have no effect on either the strategy or the expected value.

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Rules of "Svara"

From 2 to 6 players can take part in the card game “svara”.

A deck of 36 cards is used, in which each card has its own value:

The exception is the ace of diamonds and the cross six (the so-called Check), which play the role of a joker and have a face value of 11 points.

Scoring

The number of points depends on the number of cards drawn that have the same suit, or on the following combinations:

Game process

At the beginning of the bet, minimum bets are made by all players.

The game begins with shuffling and dealing the cards. Each player receives three cards.

The first turn is given to the player to the left of the player who dealt the cards.

The player who goes first can choose to “dark” or “not dark.”

If he chooses “dark”, then the players following him can also “dark” before the player who chooses “not dark”.



If the player who went first immediately chose “not to darken,” then the others will also have their cards revealed and they will no longer be able to “darken.”

When everyone has seen their cards, they also take turns making moves.

When it's your turn, you can choose:

• Pass (in this case you do not make a move and do not add to the pot)
• Support (add to the bank the same amount that the previous player added)
• Raise (Increase the move bet)

In the last two cases, you set the desired bet and make a move. Meanwhile, you cannot make a bet less than the bet of the player who went in front of you, and you also cannot make a bet more than the maximum.

When the circle is completed, starting with the player who went first, any of the players, if he did not pass, can “open up”.



Opening, he puts into the bank an amount equal to the current bet and announces: “I open for so much.”

If one player is revealed, then the cards of the others who did not pass are also revealed.

The bank (bribe) is taken by the player with the most points.



If, upon opening, it turns out that two players have an equal number of points (for example, two players have 27 points each, and the rest have less), then “Svara” is announced.

In this case, the bank remains untouched, and the cards are dealt again.

Those who have an equal number of points participate in the “squad” by default, and the rest can optionally “boil in” (then they must report half the bank) or refuse to participate in the “squad”.



Three generation rule

Vasily Zharkov about the fact that you cannot remember what you cannot remember

"1945. We remember! We're proud!" - a huge poster in St. George’s colors greeted me above the entrance to one of the Moscow universities. It doesn’t matter which one - now they hang on every corner. Every May 9th there are more and more of them, and the content is more pathetic. But the more colorful the St. George ribbons are around, the more my heart sank: “I don’t believe it!” No, guys, you don’t remember anything anymore.

This is probably how the social framework of memory changes. What is it, how does it work and why?

“Almost everything that I understood about the war of 1870, about the Commune, about the Second Empire, about the Republic, I learned from the words of an elderly nanny, full of superstitions and prejudices, who without a doubt accepted the picture of these events and regimes that was drawn by the popular imagination . Through her, vague rumors reached me, like circles spreading among peasants, workers, and ordinary people. When my parents heard this, they shrugged their shoulders,” recalled Maurice Halbwachs, a French sociologist, a student of Emile Durkheim, the author of the concept of the social framework of memory and, in fact, the first concept of what is commonly called collective memory, distinguished from history written in a single textbook .

“In my memory, along with my first impressions, these first historical frameworks of my childhood still appear,” he wrote.

Why rituals in honor of the Victory are crowding out the memory of the war

Maurice Halbwachs was born in 1877; the romantic 19th century remained in the stories of his older relatives. He was 63 years old when Hitler came to France; the Nazis brutally dealt with his wife’s parents for being Jewish. Professor Halbwachs himself died in Buchenwald on March 16, 1945. If he had lived longer, he would probably have told a lot about that terrible war. But, alas, the time of his life was not enough - not only until our days, but also until the victory over Nazism.

Collective memory differs from history in that memory is unique to the living. When the living leave, history begins.

Historians appear and paint their own picture of the past - our memory, as a rule, is of little interest to them.

Halbwachs was perhaps the first to describe the feeling that I myself often experienced in history lessons in class: in fact, everything was not like that, I remember my father told me that when my grandfather led the evacuation of the Kharkov Tractor Plant, an NKVD soldier was walking behind him with an unbuttoned holster . Where is this written about in your textbooks, in your manuals and lesson plans? You won't find this in the archives because they are still closed. But historians, of course, don’t care about what my grandfather passed on to me through my father.

I confess that I have never liked historical books and films about the war. Probably because war is not history for me. This is the life of my grandparents, the life they told me in early childhood, long before official history lessons began at school. And these stories set the framework for my memory.

Our social memory, according to Halbwachs, is essentially what was told to us in childhood by those whom we trusted most in life. The social framework of memory thus exists on a continuum of three generations, as long as some oral family knowledge can be transmitted. Then some kind of written history appears, imposed by the state, school, Komsomol, the company in which we work, by anyone, but not by those who are really near and dear to us.

However, it is impossible to deceive yourself, especially when it comes to memory. You cannot remember what you cannot remember. It is, of course, possible to agree with the ritual by making a concession to the state, but it is unlikely to believe it.

Head of Memorial educational programs Irina Shcherbakova on what modern schoolchildren know about the war

This directly concerns our collective memory today.

Let's admit the obvious: only a few remain alive from the generation that fought. Those very few who met the war at the conscription age of 18 and who were lucky enough to live to see its end must be at least 92 years old, close to 90 already and those who were drafted in 1945 and met victory on the way to front. How many of them are left among us, given the average life expectancy in Russia?

The generation of veterans' grandchildren - those who can remember their grandfathers' stories about the war - has often already entered their fifth decade. Children of the war, the “sixties”, born in the 1930s, like most children of the post-war baby boom, moved into the so-called tertiary age, in other words, retirement age. Now they are the generation of grandparents.

Today's girls and boys, rushing to the second couple, can at least hang themselves with St. George's ribbons - in most cases this is no longer their memory. No, of course, they can quite convincingly pretend that they are actually experiencing that war and that victory. In fact, for them it is little closer than the War of 1812.

We no longer remember, but we still pretend to be proud - this is how one could characterize the state of mind of today’s “young patriots”, their true perception of the long-past Second World War.

The framework of collective memory in Russia, and not only in it, in Europe too, throughout the world as we know it, is inexorably shifting. Personally, this doesn’t make me very comfortable, but the passage of time cannot be stopped. Besides, the memory of eyewitnesses is always terribly interesting. Although, of course, not necessarily true. Professional historians often complain about this, neglecting the memory of ordinary people, but don’t historians themselves ever lie?

What are grandparents telling their grandchildren about in 2015? Of course, about my youth. About, for example, how they moved to live in a big city, how they became students, how first the first television appeared in their house, then the first, still a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and then - already under Yeltsin - video, first on cassettes.

They will be happy to tell you how the dacha on six acres, where they spend the summer with their grandchildren, was once a completely bare plot of land, acquired in the early 1960s.

Why is it so difficult to recognize genocide as genocide and repression as repression?

By the way, today's grandparents were the first to dance rock and roll. Those who rebelled against the customs of old men in Paris in 1968, like the pioneers of the sexual revolution on both sides of the Iron Curtain, are now in a position to teach their grandchildren how to behave on a first date with a “lady.” The word is no longer youth slang.

It’s no wonder why the Thaw series was such a big success with audiences - any topic related to the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s is now popular in its own right.

Even classical operas are staged in the glamorous design of that era. Because our collective memory is focused on this time. For older people, this is youth and the beginning of maturity; for those who are now 40–50, it is the time of childhood and adolescence. Of course, I want to experience all this again and again, at least in my memories, retelling old stories to my children and grandchildren.

The fashion for the sixties, for Lennon and Agamben, for the youth spirit of '68 - this is what is actually written in the subcortex of today's high school students and students.

Isn't that where the short, skinny trousers on most of them come from? And the more official and false the speeches of politicians around anniversaries are, the more dear and dear the collective memory itself will be. The memory of a world of happiness and great hopes, of the sunshine that living generations received after and instead of the great war.

• Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation No. 161 of April 24, 2003 Articles on the topic Registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on June 2, 2003 No. 4616 MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ORDER of April 24, 2003 No. […]
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Name: Three card brag Aliases: Brag, Three-card brag, 3-card brag Players: 3 to 8

Rules: Everyone antes, and players are each dealt 3 cards face down. There is a single round of betting, with action starting to the left of the dealer. Each player has the option of betting or folding. If there was a previous bet, the player must contribute at least that much more to the pot. (Unlike usual poker betting, your previous money contributed to the pot is ignored.) This betting continues until there are only two players left, at which point either player may double the previous bet to "see" his opponent. At this point, the two hands are revealed, and the player with the better hand takes the entire pot. If there is a tie, the player who is seeing loses.

The hand rankings, from best to worst, are: three of a kind ("prial"), straight flush ("running flush"), straight ("run"), flush, pair, high card. The best prial is 3-3-3, followed by the usual order of A-A-A, K-K-K, etc. The best running flush or run is 3-2-A, followed by the usual order of A-K-Q, K-Q-J, etc. The flushes, pairs, and high cards have normal ranking (aces high).

Players also have the option of playing blind (betting without looking at their cards). A blind player"s costs are all half as much as an open (non-blind) player"s. However, an open player may not see a blind player. If all other players fold to a blind player, the pot remains, everyone re-antes, and the blind player gets to keep his hand for the next round (in addition to the new one he is dealt). At any time, a player with two blind hands may look at one of them and decide whether to keep it or throw it away. If he keeps it, he throws away the other hand and is considered open. If he throws it away, he keeps the other hand and is still blind. If everyone folds to a blind player with two hands, he must throw away one without looking.

Another unusual custom of Brag is that the deck is rarely shuffled. Unless a hand is seen and won by a prial, the cards from the hand are just placed on the bottom of the deck, and the next hand is dealt without shuffling.

What Will Win: A pair will beat 3/4 of hands. But watch out for unexpected runs and flushes! Prials are extremely rare (although a running flush is rarer even though it is ranked lower).

External links

• Detailed Rules for Brag (http://www.pagat.com/vying/brag.html)

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Introduction

Brag is a popular British gambling game. It is sometimes said to be similar to poker, but in fact it is much older and the method of betting is different. The basic game of was one of the games described by Hoyle, and therefore dates from the late eighteenth century or earlier. It is almost identical to the popular Indian game Teen Patti ("three cards").

On this page, Three Card Brag and its Four-card and Five-card variations will be described. There are other games known as 6-card, 7-card, 9-card and 13-card Brag; but they have a very different mechanism and will be covered on a separate page.

This page has been put together from a variety of sources, and I am grateful to those who have contributed, including: Jon Garibaldi, Thomas Olsson, Dave Phillips, Jamie Prestidge, Chris Roberts, Phill Rogers, Brian Rollo, Justin Thurkettle, Mike Tobias .

Three Card Brag

Players, cards and preparation

A standard 52 card pack without jokers is used. The cards in each suit rank in the usual order from high to low: A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2. The number of players can vary, but it is probably best for about 4 to 8 people.

Three Card Brag is a gambling game. Before starting it is essential that the players agree on the stake and have a common understanding of the rules. It is necessary to agree:

• the initial stake or ante- which is the amount (if any) that everyone must put into the pot before each deal;
• the minimum and maximum initial bet - the amount that the first player bets in order to stay in the hand;
• the limit (if any) on the amount by which the bet can be increased by each subsequent player;
• any variations to the basic rules, such as use of wild cards.

Ranking of hands

The order of the possible three-card Brag hands, from highest to lowest, is as follows.

There is no order of suits, so it is possible for two hands to be equal in rank - for example 7-7-Q is equal to 7-7-Q. In a contest between two equal hands the calling player (the player who paid to see the other hand) loses ().

Poker players should take care to note that the "run" and "flush" in Brag rank in the opposite order to Poker.

Ante and deal

Before each deal, each player must place the agreed initial stake (ante) in the pot. Deal and play are clockwise, and the turn to deal passes to the left after each hand.

If it is the first deal of the session, the dealer shuffles. For subsequent deals, the cards are only shuffled if the previous hand was "seen" and won by a prial. Apart from that, the cards not normally shuffled between hands. The cards from the previous hand are just added to the bottom of the pack and the dealer deals the new hands from the top, without shuffling.

The dealer deals out the cards one at a time, face down to the players, until everyone has three cards. Players may look at their own cards, or may choose not to, if they wish to play "blind" - . Cards must at never be shown to any player other than the person to whom they were dealt, unless the betting ends with a "see". In that case the cards of the two players involved (but none of the others) are exposed for everyone to see.

Note: the practice of not shuffling makes it possible in some circumstances to know what cards are in play when the same cards come around again. Here is a page on card counting which illustrates a way to cheat when there are 3 or 6 players by arranging the cards when gathering up the previous hands before dealing.

The betting

When the cards have been dealt, the betting begins with the player to the left of the dealer. This person can "fold" (throw in their cards and take no further part in the hand) or can bet any amount from the agreed minimum to the agreed maximum. If all the players except one fold, the last remaining player takes all the money in the pot, and the next hand is dealt.

If any player bets, every player after that must either fold or bet at least as much as the previous player who bet. A player may bet more than the previous player, but there may be an agreed limit to the amount by which the bet can be increased. The betting continues around the table as many times as necessary.

When there are only two players left in the game, all the others having folded, a third option becomes available. Either player can see the other. Seeing costs twice as much as the previous player"s bet. When you pay to see another player, they expose their three cards first. If your cards are better than your opponent"s, you expose your hand to prove this and win the pot . If your cards are equal to your opponent's or worse, your opponent wins the pot - you do not have to show your cards in this case. Note that if the hands are equal, the player who paid to see loses.

Poker players should notice that there is no concept of equalizing the bets. At each turn, to stay in you have to put into the pot at least as much new money as the previous player put in. Here are some examples from a four player game:

1. Player A bets 2 chips, B folds, C bets 2 chips and D bets 2 chips. In order to stay in, A would have to bet another 2 chips.
2. Player A bets 2 chips, B folds, C bets 4 chips and D folds. Player A can now see player C by paying 8 chips (twice C"s bet) or pay at least 4 chips to stay in, or fold, allowing C to win the pot. If A pays 4 to stay in, C now has the same options: put 8 in the pot to see A, to bet at least 4 and allow A another turn to bet, or to fold and allow A to win.

Betting continues until either

• all players but one have dropped out(folded) (in which case the remaining player obviously wins, but does not show their cards), or
• two players are left and one player pays double to see the other.

As each player folds, that player"s cards are added to the bottom of the pack ready for the next deal. At the end of the betting the cards of the last player left in, or the cards of the two players involved in the see , are added to the pack in the same way.

Please note the following basic rules of etiquette:

1. Do not show your cards - to anybody
2. Don't say anything about your hand
3. Never (ever) fold out of turn

Breaking any of the above three rules will get you thrown out of any Brag game.

Here is an example of betting between five players:

1. Andy bets 1 (one) first round, Bill and Chris match 1, Eddie raises to 2. Andy (A) now must bet 2 to stay in, regardless of the fact that he has already put 1 (one) in. Similar for B and C.
2. The betting can remain at 2 (e.g. rounds 1-4) indefinitely. If everyone is staying in, eventually someone (e.g. E) must force the pace.
3. In rounds 5 and 6 A, C and E are all in. No-one can see, and all must remain. In situations like this, it is simply a matter of nerve. Someone must fold for the betting to end - and eventually C does.
4. When there are only two remaining (A and E, rounds 8-10), then either can decide to pay double to "see". When A bets 20 to "see" on round 10, he must say "See you" (or equivalent). It is perfectly acceptable to double the betting without "seeing", in which case the game continues as normal.

A common (but not necessary) house limit on raising is to agree that no-one can raise the pot by more than its current contents. So, for a five player game, the maximum initial stake would be 5 times the ante.

Running out of money

Brag is rarely played with what Poker players know as table stakes(where players keep the money they are playing with on the table for everyone to see and cannot introduce extra money into the game except between hands and with the agreement of all the players). Brag players often keep their money in their pockets until needed. It is usual to insist that each player wishing to take part in a game should placed at least a certain minimum amount of money on the table - say £10. After that, players are free to introduce more money to the game at any time.

Some play that if you do not have enough money left to bet, but want to stay in, you place all your remaining money in the pot, and put your cards face down on top of it. This is called covering the pot. If there are two or more other players, they continue betting as before, but putting the money into a new pot. After this new pot is settled, the winner"s hand is exposed, and the hand of the player who ran out of money is compared with it. The old pot is won by the higher hand, or by the winner of the new pot in case of a tie.

The method of covering the pot can also be used when there are only two players left in the game. If one of the players runs out of money, the betting ends when one player puts the last of his money in the pot - the other player does not have to put in any more money but exposes his cards, and wins the pot unless the player who ran out of money can show a better hand.

Although the covering pot might seem to work unfairly in favor of the player who runs out of money, thus getting to see the opponent's hand cheaply, it does avoid some undesirable situations.

However, according to the information I have received from Brag players, it is quite usual to play the harsher rule that a player who does not have enough money to bet the full amount required must either fold or borrow money from another player or a bystander to make up the bet. For this purpose, the player is allowed to show his cards to a player who has already dropped out, who might be prepared to back him financially. Sometimes there is an agreement that whoever in the game has the most money will lend some to the player who is short to allow that player to continue to bet.

Some people play that when only two players are in the game, and one of them runs out of money, the player who still has money has the choice of either

• lending some money to the other player to allow betting to continue, or
• showing his cards, in which case he wins the pot unless the other player can show a better hand.

It is clear that betting with borrowing could potentially lead to some difficult situations, in which a player must either fold a good hand or borrow money he may not be in a position to repay. When is allowed, there is even more scope for this kind of problem, since a blind player can carry on betting indefinitely against an open player, and the open player cannot see the blind player.

Sometimes, in a situation where three (or more) players are betting against each other and none of them is prepared to fold, if they all feel that the pot is getting too big, they may agree to a showdown in which all cards are exposed and the highest hand wins.

When just two players remain, one or both of whom are playing blind, the possibilities for one player to "see" the other - i.e. pay for the hands to be exposed and compared - are as follows.

1. You are playing open and your opponent is blind. The rule is that "you cannot see a blind man". Therefore your only options are to continue betting or to fold.
2. Both players are blind. By putting in twice the blind stake (i.e. the amount that would be paid by an open player) you can cause the hands to be compared. Usually the players turn their cards face up one at a time, alternately, beginning with the opponent of the player who paid for the show. In case of equality, as usual, the player who paid for the show loses.
3. You are playing blind but your opponent is playing open. Your opponent cannot see you (by the above rule), but you can see your opponent if you wish by putting in twice the blind stake (i.e. the same amount that your open opponent just bet). As usual in a showdown, the opponent's cards are exposed first and then you show your cards if they are better.

A betting example:

1. B must pay double the blind stake to "see" C"s hand. C is not allowed to see B in round 6 or 7, even though only two players are left.
2. Note how after 4 rounds B has only spent 4 chips compared to C who has spent 10. This type of inequity often happens when playing with blind hands, and is part of the whole essence of the procedure.
3. Looking at a "blind" hand out of turn is another Brag "faux-pas" which will get other Brag players (very) annoyed. The reason is that (for example) during round 4, when C raises to 4, if B now looks at his cards it has immediately changed the basis of A"s decision as to whether to stay in or fold on his turn. He would then have only one "blind" opponent (as D stays "blind"), instead of potentially two "blind" opponents (D and possibly B).

Retaining a blind hand

If you end up with a blind hand when all other players have dropped out, you may retain the blind hand on the table. The next hand is then dealt, so that you now have two sets of cards in front of you. You may either:

1. look at the new hand
2. look at the old hand
3. look at neither

If you look at one of the hands, you must immediately decide whether to keep it or fold it. If you keep it, you must fold the other (without looking at it). You are then non-blind and play the looked-at hand normally. If you decide to fold the hand you looked at, then you have just one blind hand to play by the usual rules; you can look at it now or later if you wish.

If you look at neither hand, you can play both hands "blind" until (at some point) you choose to look at one of them, in which case you follow the same procedure above.

In the unlikely event that you win the pot again, without having looked at either "blind" hand, you may choose to retain either (but only one), sight unseen, before the next deal. You cannot have three "blind" hands at once.

Note that at no stage when playing two hands "blind" can you look at both and choose the better one - you must look at just one and choose to keep it or fold it, before looking at the other.

The odds

Jon Garibaldi has provided the following analysis.

As there are so few total different hands, it is not difficult to calculate the prior probabilities.

There are a total of 22,100 different card combinations (52 * 51 * 50 / 3!). The number of ways to make each hand, and approx odds, are as follows:

Obviously, these odds are affected by previous cards, if the deck isn't shuffled.

Advice on play

John Garibaldi has contributed the following advice.

1. Study the odds carefully and remember them.
2. Play by the odds.
3. Don"t stick rigidly to playing by the odds!! You will lose very quickly, and never win a big pot if you never bluff.
4. Playing "blind" well very difficult and takes years of practice. If you play it too often, and non-expertly you will lose.
5. Don"t bet too big, especially if you are used to Poker betting. As the Brag betting can continue indefinitely, on the same amount (and indeed must, until there are only two players) the pot can get very large even when each single bet seems low.

Four Card Brag

This is the same game as Three Card Brag, except that four cards are dealt to each player. Players who look at their hands discard one card before the betting begins to form the best three card hand they can make. In case of a tie between two hands, the discarded card is used to decide which is better. If the discarded cards were also equal in rank then the player who was seen wins the tie.

If betting blind is allowed, a blind player will keep all four cards face down on the table. If you have been playing blind and decide to look at your cards, you discard one after looking at them.

Five Card Brag

This is similar to Four Card Brag, but five cards are dealt to each player, and everyone discards two cards to make their best three card brag hand.

Wild Cards

Brag is sometimes played with wild cards, also known as floaters. The cards that are considered wild (if any) vary from group to group, so if you wish to play with wild cards it is important to agree the details before playing. Some possibilities are:

A wild card can be used to represent any card in the pack, but if two hands are otherwise equal, a hand without wild cards will beat a hand containing one or more wild cards, and a hand with fewer wild cards will beat a hand with more of them. For example, if W

Some play that after the deal, the remainder of the pack is placed face up on the table, so that just one card (which was the bottom card during the deal) can be seen. Folded hands are then placed face up on top of the pack, again with just one card showing.

Phill Rogers reports a version where when the deal has passed a full circle (i.e. one more deal than the number of players) then the next dealer gets to choose the game. A change in variation (what cards are wild; whether blind betting is allowed; whether three four or five cards are dealt) can be dictated by the dealer; changing to a different card game, such as from Brag to Indian Poker, would have to be agreed by majority of players.

Many books, especially in the late nineteenth and throughout the twentieth century, describe an entirely fictitious form of Brag with poker-like betting and three wild cards or "braggers"( A, J and 9 ). There is no evidence that Brag has ever been played that way, and it seems that this version derives from a misreading of some of the early printed descriptions. This is discussed further in Jeffrey Burton in The Playing-Card Vol XXIV No 3 (Nov-Dec 1995) and 4 (Jan-Feb 1996).

Other sites, software and online games

Draw Brag with Poker Betting

To reduce the possibility of collusion in an online game, GameAccount has introduced a variation which they call "3 Card Brag Poker", which has poker-like betting and a draw. Before the deal the two players to the left of the dealer place compulsory bets, called the small and big "blinds". After the deal there is a poker-like betting round with fixed bets and raises equal to twice the big blind and a limit of three raises if there are more than two players in the pot. Then each player can discard from zero to three cards and is dealt replacement cards, after which there is a second betting round in which the bets and raises are twice as big, but again limited to three raises so long as there are more than two active players. Players do not have to look at the cards they are dealt, and so long as the play without seeing their cards they may call for half price.