Follow the Queen
A Seven-Card Stud variant where the appearance of a queen as an up-card designates the next card dealt face up as wild for the rest of the hand.
Rules
Follow the Queen is dealt exactly like standard Seven-Card Stud — two hole cards and one up-card to start, then up-cards on fourth, fifth, and sixth street, with a final down card on seventh street.
The wild card mechanic: Whenever a queen is dealt face up on any street, the next card dealt face up to any player (on that same street, once all players have received their card for that street) becomes wild for every player, for the remainder of the hand. If another queen appears face up later, the wildness immediately transfers to whatever rank follows that new queen, replacing the old wild card. If a queen itself is ever turned up as the 'follow' card (i.e., the card immediately after a queen is also a queen), queens themselves typically become wild, or the game may continue with no wild card until the next queen appears, depending on house rule — this should be agreed before the deal.
Wild cards, wherever they land (hole or up), can represent any rank and suit the holder chooses, including completing five-of-a-kind, which outranks a straight flush.
Betting and showdown proceed exactly as in standard stud: bring-in on third street, then a betting round after each subsequent card, with the best five-card hand (using wild cards as needed) winning at showdown.
Strategy notes: Because the wild rank can change multiple times during a hand, players must track not just their own cards but which rank is currently wild and how many of that rank are already visible (dead), which affects the odds anyone is holding one in the hole.
Common house rules
Queen begets queen
If the card following an up-queen is itself a queen, some tables make all four queens wild for the hand instead of chasing a new rank.
Only one wild rank at a time
The most common house rule is that the most recently designated wild rank fully replaces the previous one — there is never more than one wild rank live at once.
Bug variant
A stricter version limits the wild card to being 'the bug' (usable only for straights, flushes, and aces) rather than fully wild, to keep hand values from inflating too far.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
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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.
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