How to Play Phoenix Burn
- 1). Organize a home poker night. The Phoenix Burn game is best played as the sole game of the night, or along with other "guts" variations of poker. The minimum number of players is four, and the maximum number is 10. The ideal number is between seven and nine.
- 2). Direct each player to ante an agreed-upon amount into the pot if this is the first hand of Phoenix Burn.
- 3). Deal three cards to each player, one at a time. Each player can ask for his card to be dealt either face up or face down until he has one face-up card. After that, the remaining of the three cards are dealt face down.
- 4). Deal three cards face-down to make the "pot." Anyone playing the hand will have to defeat the "pot" hand to win the money. This avoids the possibility of just one player declaring in for the hand and winning the pot automatically.
- 5). Declare which players are in. Each player, starting with the player sitting to the left of the dealer, announces if he is in or out of the hand.
- 6). Reveal the cards of all of the players who are playing the hand. The player with the best three-card poker hand is considered the high hand at this point; the rest of the players who declared in but lost to that player are considered losers of the hand. (There are no straights or flushes in Phoenix Burn.) The high hand is then compared to the "pot" hand. If the high hand defeats the "pot" hand, the player with that hand collects all of the chips in the pot. If not, that player is considered a loser of the hand.
- 7). Direct each loser of the hand to pay a penalty in chips that is equal to the value of the pot at that hand. This replenishes the pot, and can increase it significantly from hand to hand if multiple players have declared in and lost, or if the "pot" hand was the highest hand.
- 8). Collect the cards and play another hand of Phoenix Burn, with the player to the left of the dealer being the new dealer. Repeat Steps 3 though 7.
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