Sniper Hold'em

Rules

Sniper Hold’em is a poker game for 2 to 6 players, played with numbers instead of suits. It plays like Texas Hold’em with fewer cards, plus one new move at the end of every hand: the snipe.

Cards and hands

The deck has 40 cards: the numbers 1 to 10, four of each. There are no suits, so there are no flushes. Your hand is the best 5 cards out of your 2 private cards and the 4 community cards. From strongest to weakest:

1. Four of a kind (four cards of one number)
2. Full house (three of one number and two of another)
3. Straight (five numbers in a row, such as 4-5-6-7-8)
4. Three of a kind
5. Two pair
6. One pair
7. High card

Every hand has a top number: the number of the four or three of a kind, the three in a full house, the highest card of a straight, the higher pair, the pair, or the highest card.

A hand

1. Everyone puts 1 chip into the pot and gets 2 private cards.
2. Two community cards are turned face up, and there is a round of betting.
3. Two more community cards are turned, and there is a second round of betting.
4. In a betting round you can check, bet, call, raise or fold. Nobody can put in more than the smallest stack among the players still in the hand.
5. After the second round, each player still in may snipe once, in turn, or pass.
6. Showdown: the best hand that was not sniped takes the pot.

Sniping

A snipe names a hand type and its top number. “8 straight” means 4-5-6-7-8. “7 full house” means three 7s with any pair. Every hand that matches any snipe ranks last, whoever it belongs to.

Ties

Equal hands are compared on their numbers first, then on the higher private card, then on the other private card. If they are still equal the pot is split, and odd chips go 1 each to the winners in betting order.

Our version

• Everyone starts with 60 chips and antes 1 per hand. There are no blinds.
• A fresh deck is shuffled for every hand.
• Betting order rotates: a different player acts first each hand (marked “1st”). That player, or the next one still in, also starts the second betting round and the snipe round.
• Bets and raises come in steps of +1, +3, +5 or all-in. The cap is the smallest stack, before the ante, among the players still in the hand. Because nobody can bet past it, there are no side pots. If the short stack folds, the cap rises.
• If nobody can bet any more (everyone is at the cap), the rest of the betting is skipped.
• Straights do not wrap: 1 is always low, so 7-8-9-10-1 is not a straight. The lowest straight is 1-2-3-4-5 (“5 straight”).
• Your hand is always your best 5 of 6 cards. You cannot choose a weaker hand to dodge a snipe.
• A snipe can name any hand type with a top number that hand can have. High card can be sniped too (6 to 10). Snipes are public as soon as they are made, and sniping is free.
• If every hand at the showdown is sniped, they all tie for last and the pot is split.
• Each turn has 30 seconds. Running out of time checks if you can, and folds if you owe chips. In the snipe round it passes.
• Other players’ private cards stay hidden until the showdown. Folded hands are never shown. A hand won because everyone else folded is not shown either.
• After a hand the result stays on screen until someone deals, or 10 seconds pass.
• A game is 10 or 20 hands, and the most chips wins (a tie for first is a draw). Or play until one player holds every chip. A player with no chips is out. The show’s exit at 75 chips is not used.
• Against the computer you play with 3, 4 or 5 players in total (default 4). Online rooms take 2 to 6 players, and the host can fill empty seats with AI players.
• The AI estimates its chances by dealing out the cards it cannot see many times over (more on harder levels), bets and calls by those odds, and bluffs now and then. When it snipes, it names the hand it most often finds an opponent holding that would beat its own.
• The “Show my best hand” helper (on by default) names your current best hand and warns you if a snipe has hit it.

Strategy

Strong hands are targets. Everyone can see the community cards. If the board shows 6-6-9-9, a full house is the obvious danger, and someone will snipe it. A middling hand that nobody would think to name can be the safest winner.

Snipe what beats you, never what you hold. Before you name a hand, check your own. Then ask what the board makes likely: a pair on the board makes three of a kind and full houses; four numbers in a row make straights.

Betting tells snipers what to aim at. A player who raises hard is probably holding something big. That same raise tells the table which hand to snipe. Sometimes a quiet call is the stronger play.

Late in the snipe order is an advantage. Acting last in the snipe round, you have seen every other snipe, so you know which hands are already dead and which danger is still alive.

The cap protects short stacks. Nobody can bet more than the smallest stack still in, so a short stack can stay in to the showdown cheaply. Big stacks cannot simply push them out.

Count the copies. There are only four of each number. If two 8s are on the board and you hold one, only one more 8 is out there.

Sources: fan analyses of the show.