Objective
Win the pot, either by holding the best five-card poker hand at the showdown or by betting so that everyone else folds first. Each player ends up with seven cards and plays the best five of them.
What makes Bull different from regular seven-card stud is the order of information. Your three hidden cards come first, and you decide at the start which one the table will see first, second and last. That one decision shapes how the whole hand looks to everyone else.
Setup
Agree on the ante and the betting limits before the first deal. Fixed limits suit a home game best: a small bet for the early rounds and double that for the last two. Everyone antes into the pot.
The dealer gives each player three cards face down, one at a time. Look at them, then lay them face down in a row in front of you, in the order you want to reveal them. Once you set the row, you can’t rearrange it.
How to play
The dealer deals one card face up to each player, followed by a betting round. This happens four times, so everyone ends up with four face-up cards and has been through four rounds of betting.
Next, everyone turns up the first card in their face-down row, and there is a fifth betting round. Then everyone turns up the second card, and there is a sixth and final betting round.
Finally, the players still in turn up their last hidden card for the showdown. By now all seven of your cards are face up, which is why there is no betting after the last reveal.
In most home games, the player whose face-up cards make the best poker hand acts first in each betting round. On the first round, that means the highest single card showing. In each round you can check, bet, call, raise or fold, within the limits you agreed.
- 1Ante, then set your three hole cards in a fixed order
- 2Take four face-up cards, betting after each
- 3Turn up hole card one, bet; turn up hole card two, bet
- 4Turn up the last card and show down
Scoring
Bull uses the standard poker hand rankings. You make the best five-card hand from your seven cards. Suits do not rank, so identical hands split the pot.
| Hand | What it is |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | A, K, Q, J, 10 of one suit |
| Straight flush | Five in sequence, same suit |
| Four of a kind | Four cards of one rank |
| Full house | Three of a kind plus a pair |
| Flush | Five cards of one suit |
| Straight | Five in sequence, any suits |
| Three of a kind | Three cards of one rank |
| Two pair | Two different pairs |
| One pair | Two cards of one rank |
| High card | None of the above; highest card plays |
If everyone but one player folds at any point, that player takes the pot without showing a card.
Variations
Joker Bull: add one joker as a wild card. Five of a kind becomes possible and beats a royal flush.
High-low Bull: the pot is split between the best hand and the worst hand. Agree before the deal on how the low hand is judged.
Wild ranks: some tables name a wild rank, such as deuces, to make big hands more common. If you like wild cards in stud, Baseball Poker is built around them.
Tips from the table
Think hard about the order of your hole cards. Putting your best card last keeps it hidden until the final betting round, when the bets are biggest. Putting it first can push weaker players out early.
Watch what other players chose to show first. Someone who led with a king and kept betting may be holding a second one at the back of the row.
On the last betting round, everyone has only one hidden card. Count the cards you can see before you call. You often know exactly which cards would beat you and how many are left.
Video Guides Are on the Way
We’re filming Game Guides that walk through full hands at the table, from the deal to the score.
Frequently asked
Can I change the order of my hole cards later?
No. Once you lay out your three face-down cards, the order is locked. That is the whole point of the game.
How many betting rounds are there?
Six: one after each of the four face-up cards, and one after each of your first two hidden cards is turned up.
How is Bull different from seven-card stud?
In regular seven-card stud you get two cards down, four up and a last card down, and you never have to show the hidden ones before the showdown. In Bull all three hidden cards are dealt first and revealed one by one in an order you set.
Are there wild cards?
Not in the standard game. A joker or a wild rank is a common house rule, as long as everyone agrees before the deal.
New rules every month
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