Online Poker » Dealers Choice Games » Follow the Queen

In poker, it's never easy to get great hands. The odds of getting a Royal Flush, the best hand in poker, is 1 in 649,740. To remedy the problem of monotonous poker hands, many variations of poker games introduce wild cards. A card that is wild functions as any card that the holding player wishes it to be. Having wild cards thrown into the mix of a poker game drastically increases the probability that you'll get a hand worth talking about. One such game is a variant of 7 Card Stud known as Follow the Queen.

How to Play Follow the Queen

For the most part, Follow the Queen is played identically to 7 Card Stud. A type of Stud Poker, 7 Card Stud doesn't allow players to exchange poor cards in their hands for new cards from the deck. However, 7 Card Stud does allow players 7 cards to choose from when creating a 5-card hand.

In 7 Card Stud, players begin by placing antes or blinds. The specifics of the buy-in process are individually determined by the conditions of the game environment. For example, if you're playing at home, the players can just agree on the buy-in type. Once in, players initially receive two hole cards face down cards from the dealer and one face up card known as the door. The dealing of the door initiates a first betting round. The first player to bet is the player that has the lowest door card.

Once the first betting round is complete, four face up cards are dealt to each player known as fourth street, fifth street, sixth street and seventh street respectively. Betting rounds occur in between each card dealt and after the final card. Betting rounds proceed similarly to the first betting round except for the fact that the first player to bet is always the player that has the highest face up cards. Following the last betting round is a showdown in which players reveal their cards. The player with the best hand takes the pot.

Wild Cards in Follow the Queen

Follow the Queen differs from 7 Card Stud only in that it introduces wild cards. To begin with, all Queens are wild. All players may use Queens dealt to them as though they were any card of their choosing. Additionally, if a queen is dealt face up, the next card that is dealt is considered wild. Subsequent wild cards are available for all players to use, and all cards of the same rank as the card dealt are considered wild. For example, if a 5 of diamonds is dealt face up after a Queen, all fives are considered wild in addition to Queens.

If, after a Queen is dealt face up and an additional card becomes wild, another Queen is dealt face up, the next card that is dealt replaces the card that was dealt after the first Queen as being wild. This means that only two ranks of cards may be wild at one time. Moreover, if a face up Queen is followed by another Queen, only Queens remain wild.