Chicago
A Seven-Card Stud variant where half the pot is awarded not for the best hand, but for the highest spade dealt face down in the hole.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Chicago is dealt exactly like standard Seven-Card Stud: two hole cards and a door card to begin, up-cards on fourth through sixth street, and a final hole card on seventh street. Betting rounds proceed the same way, with the lowest door card bringing it in on third street.
The twist: at showdown, the pot is split in two. Half goes to the player with the best standard five-card poker hand, exactly as in regular stud. The other half goes to whichever player is holding the highest spade among their hole cards (i.e., the cards that were dealt face down, not the up-cards), regardless of whether that player wins, loses, or even folds before showdown in some house variants — though most commonly only players who stay to showdown are eligible for the spade side of the pot.
If a single player has both the best hand and the highest spade in the hole, they scoop the entire pot. If no player holds any spade at all in the hole, the 'low spade' half of the pot is typically either carried over to the next hand or awarded entirely to the best hand, per house agreement.
Strategy notes: Holding a single high spade (especially the ace or king) in the hole early is valuable even with a weak hand, since it guarantees half the pot at showdown if no one beats it — this makes otherwise-unplayable hole cards worth continuing with in Chicago.
Common house rules
Folded players ineligible for spade half
The most common rule is that only players who remain in the hand through showdown can win the high-spade-in-the-hole half of the pot; folding forfeits both halves.
Chicago Hi-Lo variant
A popular twist splits the pot between the best high hand and the best low hand (using ace-to-five or ace-to-six low rules) instead of the high spade in the hole.
No spade in hole carries over
If nobody has a spade in their hole cards, many tables carry the low-spade half of the pot forward to the next hand rather than giving it to the high hand.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Black Mariah
An intense Chicago variant, also called Follow the Bitch: the queen of spades is wild, and the lowest spade in the hole (not the highest) wins half the pot.
Learn the rules →Low Chicago
A simpler cousin of standard (high) Chicago: half the pot goes to the best hand, the other half to the lowest spade dealt in the hole — no wild cards involved.
Learn the rules →Seven-Card Stud
The classic stud game and the backbone of home poker for decades: seven cards dealt to each player, three down and four up, with the best five-card hand winning.
▶ Play nowAuction
A Seven-Card Stud variant where the wild card for the hand isn't fixed in advance — players bid chips into a side pot for the right to name it, right after third street.
Learn the rules →