Auction Flop Poker
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				Charles Magri ( [email protected] )
			This version of poker is inspired by a posting by Jean Roche in fr.rec.jeux.cartes entitled "Poker aux encheres" on 5th December, 2003. A base gane for four players is described below to illustrate how the game may be played. Players have at the beginning an equal number of chips for play. A dealer is selected at random. At the beginning of each hand, players contribute a fixed ante eg. 3 chips. The dealer distributes five cards to each player face down as in standard poker. The remainder of the cards form a stock pile. The players each look at their cards and discard some of then as they wish paying into the pot:-       1  chip for the first discard (if applic)     +2  chips for the second discard (if applic)     +3  chips for the third discard (if applic)     +4  chips for the fourth discard (af applic)     +5  chips for the fifth discard (if applic) So eg. to discard the entire hand costs 1+2+3+4+5=15 chips and discarding three costs 1+2+3 = 6 chips. Discarded cards are not revealed and are thrown into the centre (Discard pile) face down. The top three cards of the stock pile are now revealed (the flop) as in Texas Holdem poker. The player to the dealer's right is known as the "First voice" and has the choice of saying either "pass" or bids "one" for the flop. Each  player in turn can either pass or bids one higher than the best bid so far (or open the bid at one if all before him / her have passed until the flop is "sold" to the player who bids the highest followed by passes all round. The winner of the auction then takes the flop and discards some as desired keeping at least one card, discarding the unwanted cards without revealing his / her choice and adds the chosen card(s) to his hand. and pays into the pot the price bid. This process continues, rotating the first voice, so that players achieve full hands of five cards at which point they do not take part in further auctions and sit out to the end. If, for a flop, all players pass, then commencing with the first voice again chooses between "taking the flop" for free or "paying one, two, three etc" to not take the flop. (Each bid is one higher than the previous for this option) till someone finanally concedes to take the flop (and deal with it as above). Once a flop has been dealt with a new one is revealed and the first voice rotates to the next player. In the auction a player who had passed during the auction is permitted to re-enter the bidding. If the stock pile is exhausted and all players have not received their full hand(s), the discard pile is picked up, and shuffled to become the new stock pile.(NB: The last participating player gets to complete their hand for free by formally refusing to bid, then accepting the flop for free)
	Settlement of the pot: is as follows:-      60%   for the player with the highest ranking poker hand      30%   for the player with the second-highest ranking hand      10%   for the player with the third highest ranking hand. Dealer for the next hand rotates.
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