Tripoli is a card game that is played with four to seven players in three stages. The game is played with one deck of cards, poker chips and Tripoli board or cloth. It is sold under various names including Tripoley, Michigan Rummy and Royal Rummy in addition to Tripoli.
Dealing and Placing the Stakes
Before the hand is dealt, each player will place one chip on each of the nine spaces on the Tripoli board. One the chips are placed, the dealer will deal out the cards, face down, to each player and one card for an extra hand. The extra hand doesn't belong to anyone, but must be dealt. The deal continues, as per an article published in online-betting.ph website, until the dealer runs out of cards and some players will have more cards than other players. The dealer has the option to exchange his hand for the extra hand without looking at the cards first. The extra hand can also be auctioned off to the remaining players for chips if they don't like their hand. No one can look at the extra hand before the swap and the person who chooses to swap his cards cannot swap back.
Stage One: Collecting Stakes for Pay Cards
In stage one the players will collect chips from the pay cards. Sections of the board are labeled for the ace, king, queen, jack and ten of hearts. The players who hold these cards will receive the chips in the respective spaces. In addition, there is a space that is labeled king-queen of hearts. If a player holds both the king and queen of hearts, they will collect the chips from this space leaving the chips in the spaces labeled separately. The chips in the space labeled eight-nine-ten can be picked up by any player who has an eight, nine and ten of one suit. If more than one player has this combination, the chips are split evenly between them with any extras left on the board. The chips unclaimed are left on the board for future hands.
Stage Two: Poker
Each player chooses five cards from her hand to play the poker phase with and set the remaining cards to the side. The round begins starting with the person to the left of the dealer. Each player has the option to place or raise a bid, fold his cards or call. Players who choose to fold place their card down and do not continue to play this hand. Players who call will place the amount of chips that were bet by the first player in the game. All chips should be placed in the middle section labeled “pot” and the betting ends when all players have either folded their cards or all players have bet the same amount. Players then show their hand and the one with the best poker hand wins the chips in the pot.
Third Stage: Michigan
All players will pick up all of their cards and the person who won the poker stage will start the Michigan stage. A card of any suit will lead the hand, but it must be that person's lowest card of the suit the choose. The player who holds the next highest card of that suit will then play her card. This will continue until the ace is reached or no one can play a card. When the end of the sequence is reached the player who laid the ace or the last card played will begin the new sequence. The player who runs out of cards will win all of the chips in the “kitty” space and chips from each other player for the amount of cards left in their hand.
Ending the Game
At the end of the three rounds, there are normally chips left on the board. These chips can be earned by dealing each person five cards and playing an extra round of poker the same way round two was played. The winner of this hand will receive all of the chips on the board.
Napalm Poker Card Game Rules of Play
In Napalm, regular poker chips are used for betting and additional chips or other “tokens” are also used. Tokens are awarded to players at various times in the game and the first person to collect five tokens wins the pot.
To Begin Napalm
Everyone in the game antes one chip and the dealer deals two cards to each player and the players look at their cards and they each declare, in turn, “Yes” or “No” indicating whether they believe they have the best two cards dealt in that deal. If all players say “No” and the play returns to the dealer and he says “Yes”, the other players each get a turn to challenge him by changing their “No” to “Yes”.
After all “Yes” and “No” statements have been made:
If only one player has said “Yes”, he is awarded one token from the token pile.
If two or more players have said “Yes”, they show each other their hands without showing them to the other players and the player with the highest hand wins their side bet, equal to the amount that is currently in the pot.
If there is a tie for best hand, no chips are paid, unless there is another player who also said “Yes” but whose hand is lower than the other players' hands. If this occurs, the losing player pays chips to both of the winning players, equal to the amount of the current pot.
If no players said “Yes” no chips are awarded and the play continues.
The highest ranking card is an Ace, followed by K, Q, J, 10 and so on. Any pair beats any single cards. If there is a tie for the highest card, the second card is used to determine the winner.
Stage Two of Napalm Poker
An additional three cards are dealt to be added to the two cards that are already in each player's hand. Each player, in turn, makes their declarations about whether they believe they have the lowest hand with their five cards. At this stage, straights and flushes count with the same values they have in other poker games.
After declarations are over, cards are compared and side bets awarded.
Stage Three of Napalm Poker
Two more cards are dealt to each player. Players make their declarations based on whether they think they have the best poker hand using any five of their cards. Awards and tokens are given based on the “Yes” declarations of the players and the best five card hand amongst those who said “Yes”.
The cards are all folded and shuffled and a new dealer begins the next hand. With each new dealer, everyone antes another chip. The game ends when one player has been awarded five (or any agreed upon number) that player receives all the chips in the pot.
