Pilatch Card Games

Original Pilatch

4-card hands. Small deck. Big odds.

Great for friendly games.

Players
2 to 9 players per deck
Deck Build
36 cards. Ranks 2-10, Jack, Queen, King in each of the three suits. No wild cards. Remove the Aces and 1s.
Valued Hand Size

4-card hands are valued.

Combine your hand with a set of community cards, but use only 4 of those cards.

Beginning a Hand
Each player begins with her bet card up. Shuffle the deck. Deal each player a hand of 3 cards. Have a round of betting. Then deal community cards.
Community Cards

Deal 1 face-down community card, 1 face-up, then have a round of betting. Do so 3 times.

If the dealer accidentally deals a card face-up first, or reveals what should have been a face-down card, make that the face-up community card instead, and deal the next one face-down. It's not a big deal because the deck is random.

Winning
After the last community cards are dealt and the final round of betting, the best 4-card hand wins. See winning.

Hands, Best to Worst:
Hand Name Description Chance*
Straight Flush A Straight, in only one suit 0.58%
Triples 3 of the same rank, and 1 other 3.36%
Straight 4 adjacent ranks 10.3%
Two Pairs A Pair and another Pair 13.3%
Rags 'n Riches Cannot form any other hand type 19.6%
Flush 4 of the same suit 24.1%
Pair 2 of the same rank, and 2 others 65.4%

* simulated raw stats