"Phoenix Fling" Poker

"PHOENIX FLING", a variation of Texas Hold Em Stud Poker; similar to Cincinnati, Twin Beds, and other shared-card Poker games.

By David Bartholomew, August 11, 1996.

Our family came up with this variant of Poker and liked all the weird twists you get with all of the card choices. Plus the fact that a "flinger" from another player can often bring a dead hand back to life. Then throw in the fact that there are cities like Omaha and Cincinnati which have Poker games named after them, so why not name it after another. So for these and other reasons we named it "Phoenix Fling", and we hope you'll like it as much as we do.

THE RULES:

Standard deck of 52 cards is used. Jokers may also be used by mutual agreement. No other wild cards can be designated. In case of ruling questions, winning decisions will be based on Stud Poker rules in "Scarne on Cards", by John Scarne. (Scarne has been considered the world's foremost expert on gambling. We'll take his judgement on Poker any day. What he says goes. So there.)

Number of players: 2 to 12. (No more than 12 can play in any single round because: 12 players times 4 holecards each, plus the four face-up cards, equals 52 cards.)

THE DEAL:
Everybody antes. (No need for blind bets to stir up some action, the game tends to make every hand something exciting for a change.) Each player initially gets 4 hole cards. Then 4 more cards are dealt face down in the center of the table.

THE PLAY:
The opening round of betting is held. Then the 4 table cards are flipped up. These are the common cards for all of the players, also called "The Field." A second betting round takes place.

(This varies from regular Texas Hold 'Em which has 5 cards in the field and two holecards for each player by the time of the final betting round.)

Then, each player must pass one of his four hole cards, face down so none of the other players see it, to the player on his right (this card is called the "flinger"). He will pick up a new card given him by the player on his left. He MUST discard his flinger before picking up the new card; so at NO TIME can he have more than four hole cards. The player MUST discard one of his four hole cards even if it means giving away something he would much rather keep! (Yes, even if it means breaking up 4 of a kind in hole cards!)

The third and final betting round now takes place. Afterward, all players must again discard one of their hole cards, face down into a common discard pile.

THE SHOWDOWN:
When the showdown arrives and the flingers have been discarded, all players will have 3 holecards and the 4 common cards on the table, for a 7-card hand (this way a player can't alter his strategy at the last second during the showdown after he's seen what some of the other players have).

Each player declares his hand using the best 5 cards of those seven (just like in Seven-Card Stud, or Texas Hold Em, etc). If necessary or requested, he should point out his cards. It is impossible to have three pairs, or two 3-of-a-Kinds, etc. Only five cards are allowed to be used in the showdown. We generally do not recognize 5-of-a-kind in the game.

The standard winning rankings are as follows: Royal Flush. Straight Flush. 4 of a Kind. Full House. Flush. Straight. 3 of a Kind. 2 Pairs. 1 Pair. High Card.

The suits have no relative value. Two Royal Flushes will tie and split the pot. Same goes for straights, flushes, and other situations where two or more players hold the exact same sequence of cards but with different suits. Ace is high card, but can be used as high or low card in a straight.

The player is responsible for declaring what hand he's got. If he makes a mistake, too bad! Mistakes can range from: declaring one pair he holds in hole cards, and forgetting about a second open pair in the common cards; he might have had two pair, but he didn't say that, did he? Or, he might declare two pair and fail to notice that his cards gave him a straight or a flush which would have been a much better hand!

We think this is better than Texas Hold Em because no player can "claim the field" of five table cards. There are only four common cards in Phoenix Fling, so the winner is always ultimately determined by each player's hole cards.

Several criteria must be considered when selecting your discard flinger. It should be the one least useful to you, hopefully not useful to the person you give it to, and something you won't wish you'd kept after you receive your replacement flinger.

Don't necessarily give up on the first two betting rounds, because you'll never know what you'll receive as your flinger. But if you can only claim two pairs or less by the final betting round, you should really consider folding, because it's nearly certain that someone has cards that will beat you. You can expect to see lots of straights and flushes here, things you rarely see in a 5-card Draw Poker game.

WILD CARDS. We prefer only to use the two Jokers. They add plenty of intrigue to the game, especially when one of them turns up as a table card. In one game, both showed up as table cards, and it got real interesting! Two players tried to use them to help make full houses; but the other two players each had 4 of a kind.

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