Split Card Poker
How to Split Pots
On the surface, splitting pots is easy enough: simply take the pot, split it evenly, and each player takes their winnings.
The ability to identify and read poker ranges is one of the most important skills a player can have. Poker is a game of incomplete information and we will almost never know exactly which two hole cards our opponent has.But with logical deduction and strong technical knowledge, we can build our opponent’s range and use that information to make even more profitable plays. Playing Basic Video Poker. As we briefly mentioned above, video poker in many ways combines.
- Six-Card Open Draw Poker. Each player is dealt six cards. They discard up to four cards (face down) which are replaced. There is a round of betting. They then discard one more, face up, leaving a standard five card poker hand. There's a final round of betting after the face up discard.
- The 9♦ is higher than the 2♠, but it doesn’t play, because only the best five-card poker hand counts. It is a split pot. The pot would also be split in the following example: Player 1 is holding 5♠ 4♥ and Player 2 has A♦ A♠ on a board of Q♣ J♥ 10♥ 9♣ 8♣. Both players have the identical straight.
This is especially easy when two players have the same five-card hand: each takes half. If it's three or four or more players all with the same hand, divide the pot by the number of players, and each player collects their winnings.
But things can get tricky fast.
High-Low
In high-low games, the easiest split pot is when one player wins the high and the other wins the low. Here, you simply divide by two and each player collects their winnings. A player with the best high and the best low hand 'scoops' the whole thing.
But, especially in games like Omaha High-Low, when lots of players might all have the same low or the same high, the pot needs to be split along more complicated lines.
For instance, more than one player might all have the same low hand--this is easy enough if a board contains lots of low cards. On the other hand, multiple players might share the same high--for example, they are all able to make the same straight.
In these cases, the easiest way to manage the pot is to first split it in two: one high pot and one low pot. Then, the players who share the same high divvy up the high pot, and the players with the same low divvy up the low pot. (This is the same way you would divvy up a pot in a game like Chicago: split the pot in two, with one half going to the player with the high spade in the hole, and the other half going to the player with the best five-card hand--and yes, sometimes those halves get scooped by the same player!)
The most common example of this is quartering: two players have the same low hand, but one has a better high hand. So they split the low, and one player takes the high, so that one player gets 75% of the whole pot and the other gets 25%--a quarter. But it's not uncommon for three or more players to play for the same high or low, so players might get one sixth or one eighth or an even smaller fraction of the pot, while one player ends up take two-thirds of five eights for themselves.
Sidepots
When one player is all in, they can win the main pot: the pot that every active player can theoretically win. But other players can continue betting amongst each other by placing their chips into a side pot: a pot that only some active players can win. And yes, sometimes the side pots can get even bigger than the main one!
On the surface, side pots are relatively simple: the main pot usually gets stacked near the player who is all in, and the other two players can bet into the side pot. But, when multiple players are all in, there might be more than one side pot: for instance, a player is blinded all in, another player goes all in on the flop, and other players continue betting through the river and turn. Imagine what can happen if there are three or four or more players all in at the same time, with side pots stacked all around the table, while two big stacks keep betting into one another--complicated enough at a Texas Hold'Em table, and even more so at a High-Low game, where all those pots could get split up even more!
In these cases, the key is remembering who can win each pot. At casinos, this is simple enough, since the dealer sorts out each pot. But at home games, it's crucial to remember who can win each pot: every player can win the main pot, including the player who went all in first; then the next side pot can be won by everyone who could match the next all-in bet; and so on and so on. If it sounds complicated, don't be afraid to take extra steps to sort it out--if you play a lot of Omaha High-Low, you might consider keeping a pad and paper at the table!
Most video poker variants include a single special feature that distinguishes it from other games. This feature in Split Card Poker is that 2 cards can occupy a single spot on the screen. This (naturally) improves your probability of getting a good hand.
The 2 cards that occupy this individual spot are called “Split Cards”. They’re always suited, of the same rank, or of adjacent ranks. As with most of these variants, you activate this special feature by doubling the number of coins you’re betting on each hand.
How to Play Split Card Poker
All video poker games share certain gameplay features, which are explained in detail on our main video poker page. They’re almost all variants of 5 card draw. You place a bet of between 1 and 5 coins on your hand, then you’re dealt 5 cards.
This is followed by the opportunity to discard between 0 and 5 cards. (In other words, you can keep or discard any combination of cards.) You’re dealt replacements for the cards you’ve discarded, and then you get paid off based on a pay table which is organized by the standard ranking of poker hands.
One tip we share on every page we write doesn’t change:
When you bet 5 coins on a hand, you trigger a higher payout on the royal flush. It pays off at 250 to 1 if you bet 1, 2, 3, or 4 coins, but it pays off at 800 to 1 if you bet 5 coins.
Split Card Poker is a multi-play video poker game. In these games, you’re able to play multiple hands at once. The initial hand is the same on all lines, but the replacement cards are dealt independently for the additional lines. If you bet 1-5 coins, Split Card Poker machines play just like a standard game.
Betting 10 coins per line triggers the “Split Card” functionality. Your wins are still paid off as if you’d bet 5 coins, though—the extra 5 coins just trigger the bonus feature. You don’t get to choose which card becomes the Split Card, either—the computer does that for you. Here’s how that works:
The computer chooses a card at random from your initial hand or from your hand after drawing. That becomes the Split Card. The 2nd card is in the same suit as the original card, and it’s either the same rank or an adjacent rank.
Example
You’re dealt 5 cards, and the queen of spades is chosen as the Split Card. The 2nd card in that position is also the queen of spades. But it could just as easily be the jack of spades of the king of spades. This increases the probability of a flush, a straight, or another high-paying hand. The probability of getting each of those variations is the same.
It’s possible that you could wind up with a hand that would qualify for multiple rankings on the pay table. If that happens, you get paid for the highest of those hands. You don’t get paid for each of them.
One of the other things that a lot of these newer video poker variants have in common is that they’re really just older video poker games with a bonus feature added to them. These bonus features are optional and usually require you to pony up some extra coins in order to activate them. The original game that has the extra feature added to it is called “the base game”.
Split Card Poker is available in the following base game versions:
- Deuces Wild
- Double Double Bonus Poker
- Joker Poker
- Super Aces Bonus Poker
- Super Double Bonus Poker
- Triple Double Bonus Poker
Free Split Card Video Poker
The pay tables and returns for these games all work the same way until you factor in the Split Card. But since we don’t have detailed, accurate information about how likely it is to get a Split Card on a hand, it’s impossible to calculate how it affects the payback percentage.
You can visit the appropriate page for each base game to get the payback percentage for the various pay tables. Most video poker games have a 95% or higher payback percentage. The best games have a payback percentage of 98% or more. Of course, that assumes you’re playing with perfect strategy.
We’re sure there are strategy adjustments that need to be made to account for the Split Card option, but we’re not entirely sure what they are or how to calculate them. Our usual go-to source for this kind of information is Michael Shackleford’s site, and he does offer a detailed analysis of the game there. But he had no strategy advice to share there.
How To Play Split Poker
We can share some general strategy advice, though. It helps to have some card sense. If you know that there’s a 1/47 chance of filling a draw, you can calculate the expected value of drawing to that hand versus standing on a pat hand that might not pay as well.
Example
Big Split Poker Free
You’re dealt a hand with a pair of jacks. But it’s also a 4 card draw to a royal flush. If you hang on to the jacks, you have a 100% chance of getting at least even money. You also have a 2/47 (or 1 in 23.5) of drawing to a 3 of a kind. You might also improve to some other hands, like 2 pairs, 4 of a kind, or a full house. The payouts for all of those are low compared to the payoff if you hit the royal flush. If you draw to it, you win 800 to 1. You’d rather have a 1 in 47 chance of getting an 800 credit win than you would a 100% chance of getting even money.
All of these strategy insights apply to Split Poker as well as to regular video poker.
Split Poker is one of the more interesting twists on regular video poker. It’s just one wrinkle tacked onto one of the more traditional base games. It’s also a game where the bonus feature’s exact effect on the payback percentage is a little unclear.
It’s probably worth trying for the novelty of it, but we doubt it’s going to become a mainstay of your gambling hobby.