Voodoo Bloodbath Executive Summary: ------------------ Voodoo Bloodbath is *seven-card beat-your-neighbor* *baseball*, where your hand is composed of any five cards out of your own seven and out of your right-hand neighbor's *red* cards. 1. Seven-card beat-your-neighbor: Each player is dealt seven cards face down. Starting with the player to the dealer's left, and proceeding clockwise, each player continues to turn cards until he has the best hand showing, or until all seven cards are turned. There is a betting round after each player is finished turning. Play typically proceeds around the table more than once. 2. Baseball: Threes are wild, and if Player A turns a nine, A can make the nine wild by matching the pot, up to any house limit. In addition, if A turns a four, A can discard the four and take a new card from the deck by paying a nickel to the pot; if the new card is also a four, it can be similarly discarded. Player A must discard the four immediately or not at all. 3. Your hand is composed of any five cards out of your own seven and out of your right-hand neighbor's red cards. So, a hand is chosen from up to, but typically less than, fourteen cards. Additional & Clarification -------------------------- 4. Since the player B to the left of Player A may use A's red cards in constructing his hand, B must either match the pot to make A's red nines wild, or fold. If B chooses to fold, A may or may not choose to match the pot and make the nine wild. Similarly, if Player A turns a red four and wants to exchange it, player B must pay a nickel to the pot or fold. Again, if B chooses to fold, A may or may not then choose to pay a nickel to the pot and exchange the four. 5. If Player A turns a red card, the hand of the player B to A's left also improves. So, A must be careful to continue turning until B's hand is beaten. 6. If Player A folds, the player B to A's left continues to use A's turned cards in constructing his best hand. If A folds before turning all seven cards, any unturned red cards of A's are lost to B. Note in particular that Player B *does not* begin to use the cards of the Player C to A's right. Accordingly, B does not pay for C's wild nines or discarded fours. 7. Even if Player A turns up all seven cards without producing the best hand showing, A may still subsequently win if the player B to A's right later turns up red cards that improve A's hand. 8. If all players have all cards showing, except for a single player who has some cards down but has the highest hand showing, that single player does not have to turn the remaining cards, since turning additional red cards could improve another player's hand.