Junkyard Carousel is a poker variant that centers on hand building and bluffing. No betting is involved (and the game was in fact invented to be a no-betting version of poker). It is typically played with a 54-card deck (with jokers), and is best played with 4-5 people.

Goal of the Game

Players will end the game with 7 cards in their hand (usually). The goal of the game is to have the best 5 card poker hand out of those seven cards. Jokers do not count towards this goal.

Note: Straight flushes will be common until your table learns to play defensively. This is normal.

Starting Out

The player who won the last game deals. Deal seven cards to each player. The player to the left of the dealer goes first.

A turn

On each player’s turn, he chooses to either flip the top card in the draw deck, or pull a card from the discard pile (the player who goes first may only flip the top card). This card is the card being bid on. The player must do so – he may not ‘pass’.

Starting with the player on that player’s left, each player chooses a card in their hand, and places it out to bid. Once every player has bid, the following occurs:

  • The player who has bid the lowest card gets the card being bid for. The card he bid is placed in the discard pile.
  • The player who has bid the highest card gets to draw the next card in the draw pile. The card he bid is placed in the discard pile. If no card is available to draw, this player simply discards his high bid. Yes, this means he got screwed.
  • All other players rotate their bids one player to the left.

After the player’s turn is over, the turn order passes to that player’s left.

Players must bid – you may not ‘pass’.

Note #1: Bid priority will often come down to suit priority. This follows standard poker rules: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs (from high to low).
Note #2: Note that low cards are the true power cards. The 2 of clubs is the most powerful non-joker card in the game.

Jokers

Jokers may be used as either a low card, or as a high card in the bid phase. The player does not have to reveal whether the card is low or high until the final player has bid. The joker is then removed from the game.

If two players bid jokers, then neither can be low or high – instead they are rotated as if they were middle cards.

If a player flips a joker for his bid card, he loses his turn. The joker is then removed from the game.

Jokers have no value at the end of the game – they do not contribute to your poker hand.

End of Game

Any time a player draws the last card in the draw pile (from either a flip or a high card draw), the game ends at the conclusion of that turn. The player with the best 5 card poker hand wins.

Optional Rules

The Nuclear Option: Instead of simply rotating, if two jokers are played in the same turn, they annihilate each other, and every other card played that turn, meaning that the rest of the hand is played with 6 cards.

Six+ Players: Playing with six players is possible if you go through the deck twice – i.e. the first time a player needs to draw or flip but cannot, shuffle the discard deck into a new draw pile. The second the draw pile is emptied, the game ends as normal.