At number 10 on this list of the richest poker players is Antonio Esfandiari, one of the best-known players on the poker circuit. The former magician managed to win three World Series of Poker. I ♥ Suits Poker is distributed by Shuffle Master (a.k.a. Scientific Games). Following are the rules of the base game, which are identical to High Card Flush. High Card Flush is played with a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. To begin play, each player makes the mandatory Ante wager, and if desired, any side bets.
We’re going to show you how to play Help Your Neighbor! This is a card game (well, really a card and dice game) that is perfect to teach kids. It can be hard to find games that are equally fun for young kids as well as older kids and teens, and this one really fits the bill. I grew up playing this card game with my family when my grandparents came to visit.
Number of players: 4-8
Recommended ages: This game is great for ages 4 to 99! Seriously!
This game works with 3 players, and my kids will sometimes play it that way. But I think it’s more fun with at least 4. You can have any number of players from 4 to 8. I wouldn’t recommend it with more than 8, just because it would get a little crazy, and the wait for turns would be longer.
Here’s what you’ll need to play Help Your Neighbor:
- 1-2 decks of cards. You’ll need one full suit for each player.
- 2 dice
- Poker chips – 15 for each player
- A bowl to be the “pot” for the poker chips
Setting Up the Game
Remove the kings, aces, and 7’s from the deck. You won’t need the jokers either.
Each player will get 10 cards from the same suit. They should arrange them face up in front of them as shown below.
Each player will also get some poker chips. You can decide how many, and it depends on how long you want the game to last. I would recommend 10 for families with young kids, and 15 if you want your game to last longer. When we have played with 10 chips each, players are starting to be eliminated in round 2.
How to Play
Each player will put a chip in the pot to start the game.
The first player will roll the dice. Then they will flip over the card that matches the number rolled. Jacks are 11, Queens are 12.
Here’s the help your neighbor part! During game play, if a player rolls a number that they do not need (because that card is already flipped over), it will go to the next person who needs it, going clockwise around the table. This ends that player’s turn, and play resumes with the player who accepted the roll. The player who accepted the roll ALSO gets to roll and take their own turn.
As the game progresses, a player will likely roll a number that everyone has already flipped over. If that happens, they keep rolling until they get something that they can use, or someone else can use.
During game play, anyone who rolls a 7 puts a chip in the pot. This ends their turn.
The first person to turn over all of their cards wins! Each player puts a chip in the pot for every card left face up. Then the winner gets ALL the chips in the pot!
Then you can continue to round 2, etc. Once a player is out of poker chips, they are out of the game.
Poker For Lovers Rules Online
And that’s all there is to it!
Looking for more family game ideas?
Here are 15 Card Games for Families – these games are perfect to play with kids and adults together.
14 Comments
Post a CommentThanks for sharing! This sounds fun and pretty doable even with the littler kids... great for counting. :)
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This looks like fun! We are going to play after dinner.
It would be awesome if you had a printable of the rules of the games on your site. ☺️
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So much fun! Modified the game a bit for preschoolers...only used cards 2-6, one die and if you rolled a 1 is when you put a chip in the pot. Also helped with manners...Thanks neighbor! You’re welcome!
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I play this with my aftercare group. They love it thank you for a new activity!
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My family of six just played. We had a blast! All ages, 8 through 18, all had fun. Thanks so much, we will enjoy this one again!
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This would also be great for elders in a daycare setting because they usually have varying degrees of dementia. Most of them naturally gravitates towards helping one another out.
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When someone is rolling the dice do they continue to roll until there is nothing to turn over, or do they only roll one time and then pass the dice?
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If they roll a number that they need to turn over, then they turn the card over and pass the dice. If they roll a number that they don't need but someone else needs, then the turn goes to that person. They DO keep rolling if they roll a number that no one else at the table needs. I hope that helps!
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I don't, but that's a great idea!
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Thank you for posting! This is the game I remember playing at my grandparents house with my cousins. I've been looking for the rules so I could teach my kids. So excited to finally find them! Thanks!
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I remember playing at my grandparents house when I was growing up. I loved it. Of course my grandmother loved playing cards. I didn't realize this was on here and just needed a refresher course. Forgot about the chip part of it. Thanks for sharing. Love it.
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You don't put out the number 7 card, lay out 2 through king, but skip the 7. Whenever you roll a 7, you put a chip in the pot.
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Thanks for sharing! This is a game that I could have my students play to build our classroom community vibe!
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Oh, the fond memories of playing this as a kid with my extended family of all ages back in the 1950s and 1960s! It was a big hit for the 8-12 of us who opted to play it at the long dinner table after a Thanksgiving feast.
I never forgot the fun nor the name of this game but I DID forget how to play it long ago and by then the older generation who did know how to play it had passed. So I'm very pleased to see this well-organized set of rules so I can play it again with extended family again someday!
And we all did make sure to say 'Thank you, Neighbor' at the right time as noted in the third post. That was also fun to do because we kids could be creative in how we said that!
Thank you so much!
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Say everyone only has one card left. Does the next person to roll keep rolling until they either win, roll someone else’s face card (in which case that person would win), or roll a 7?
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If you’ve followed my articles thus far or have read my book, Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist, then you know about my history as a card mechanic and poker hustler. Throughout my career playing high-stakes poker in Hollywood, I’ve seen just about every scam that could ever be perpetrated with a deck of playing cards.
Today, I consult with casinos and individuals who run high-stakes poker games in order to help them protect their players from all sorts of cheating tactics. And while it doesn’t pay nearly as well as running over a game like in the old days, I suppose it’s a respectable side hustle that keeps me close to my love of card manipulation.
Then again, maybe helping detect cheaters is my penance for so many years developing and deploying what I like to call “skills of a misspent youth.”
To truly understand the way cheaters approach rounding games and scamming private games, it’s good to understand some of the basic methods used by traditional card cheats. Even given the vast amount of poker information available today on the internet, it’s surprising how little (truly accurate) information is out there about card cheating.
There are a lot of magicians who teach card manipulation, but few of them have ever used the skills they teach under fire in a live game, and those who truly know what they are talking about are few and far between. The most knowledgeable person on the subject that I know is my dear friend Steve Forte, author of Casino Protection, Poker Protection, and the newly released, Gambling Sleight of Hand – Forte Years of Research, which is a two-volume masterpiece sold for 300 bucks!
When the hold’em craze hit in the early 2000s an interesting thing happened. Poker players began to multiply like never before. Suddenly there were people playing high-stakes hold’em without even knowing how to execute a standard table riffle shuffle, or deal a hand of seven card stud. To me, these players were like children who understood how to ride in a car strapped in the child safety seat, but had no idea how to drive. If you get behind the wheel, you want to know how to control the car right? The same should be the case with poker.
One big aspect that poker players count on is a straight deal. Another thing they count on is the honor and integrity of the man sitting next to them. I always look for and expect the best out of people, but in the immortal words of S.W. Erdnase, author of the 1902 classic, Expert At The Card Table, “Men who play for any considerable amount of money are looking to get the best of it.” And for many of today’s modern era poker players, it’s safe to say, they can go for a ride in the car, but there are few who know how to drive it.
Now, don’t get me wrong… it’s not necessary to learn how to cheat in order to spot a cheater. But in this writer’s humble opinion, knowing the methods of a cheat are just as important as knowing how many outs you have on the river, or whether or not you are being laid the right price to call after a three-bet.
In order to determine whether or not you are well-versed in the ways one can get cheated at the poker table, I have provided you with an introductory card cheater’s assessment. Take the quiz seriously and answer the questions honestly. Otherwise, you’ll just be cheating yourself! HAHA
The answers will be revealed in a video at the end of quiz. The video will also provide tips and examples of ways you can protect your home game, and protect yourself when playing live poker.
1. At a recent book signing, someone asked me if Tobey Maguire and I had “paper down” when we ran the big game. What was he referring to?
a) Keeping a paper trail of wins and losses
b) Posting the buy in with cash
c) Making a list of fish to hustle
d) None of the above
2. To spot someone base dealing is to notice they are…
a) Dealing from the button
b) Stealing chips from the pot while no one is looking
c) Dealing cards off the bottom of the deck
d) None of the above
3. What did the player mean when he said, the dealer had been dealing deuces all night long and no-one ever noticed?
a) Dealing the second card from the top of the deck
b) Stacking the deck to flop two pair to a partner
c) Dealing low cards on purpose
d) None of the above
Poker For Lovers Rules 2019
4. Why did the player get worried when he noticed the dealer continuously doing a short shuffle?
a) Because the dealer could have been controlling a slug
b) Because the cards weren’t being fairly shuffled
c) Because he feared the dealer was culling card to the bottom.
d) All of the above
5. The Overhand Run Up, Riffle Stacking, Short Shuffles, Push Thru Shuffles, and Zarrow Shuffles are all forms of what?
a) Casino shuffling procedures
b) Card control
c) Second dealing
6. What is a Double Duke?
a) Doubling up with a pair of jacks
b) Losing a huge hand to a bigger hand from a stacked deck
c) Dealing the second card off the top of the deck
d) None of the above
7. The Crimp, the Hop, and the Shift are all ways to do what?
a) Cheat at cards
b) Control a slug to the top or bottom of the deck
c) Nullify the cut
d) All of the above
8. What does it mean to “ring in a cooler?”
a) To invite a hustler to your card game
b) To stack the deck during a shuffle
c) To switch the entire deck after or during the cut
d) To play poker in an igloo
9. What is cold stacking?
a) Arranging your chips in a way that signals your hand to a partner
b) Switching the deck after it has been shuffled
c) Stacking the deck on the fly
d) Maintaining the entire deck order using a false shuffle
10. What is the form of cheating known as a Hold Out?
a) When you wait for one big pot and then cheat in order to win it
b) When you short the pot by palming off chips during a call
c) When you secretly hold on to cards that should have been mucked
d) All of the above
To check your answers, watch the video below.
I also have autographed copies of Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist now available at my website for those interested in reading the true story behind the biggest poker game in Hollywood history.
Until next time, stay sharp… stay KardSharp!
Houston Curtis, founder of KardSharp.com and author of Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist has lived a successful double life as both a producer and card mechanic for nearly 30 years. His credits include executive producing gambling related TV shows such as The Ultimate Blackjack Tour on CBS, The Aruba Poker Classic on GSN and pioneering the poker instructional DVD genre with titles featuring poker champion Phil Hellmuth.
Barred for life from Las Vegas Golden Nugget for “excessive winning” at blackjack, Houston is one of the world’s most successful card mechanics and sleight-of-hand artists of the modern era. Curtis, who rarely plays in tournaments, won a 2004 Legends of Poker no-limit hold’em championship event besting Scotty Nguyen heads-up at the final table before going on to co-found the elite Hollywood poker ring that inspired Aaron Sorkin’s Academy Award-nominated film Molly’s Game.
Curtis resides in Phoenix, Arizona where in addition to running a production company and independent record label, he is also a private gaming/casino protection consultant to clients across the globe seeking insight into master level card cheating tactics via advanced sleight-of-hand technique. To reach Houston for a speaking engagement, consulting or production services send email to stacked@Kardsharp.com.
All views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Card Player.