Wizards' Poker

A very old game played with various decks of cards, trinkets, and bits and pieces out of pockets. This game usually a game of wagers and antes. The rules are more numerous than any witch or wizard could ever compile. Basically, players take turns doing things and making best. Showing their hands, or hiding them, by declaring certain rules. The over all structure seems to resemble muggle poker, with rounds of betting. But it seems anything is possible in Wizard's Poker.

This game and its rules are very real. The game is considered to be of the highest sort of civility, and is a game for gentlewitches and gentlewizards. Nowadays, it's often viewed as a game for old people, impossibly boring. Nothing explodes or snaps or makes noise. That and the older you are the more rules you've learned, and young people usually find themselves lost. That isn't to say young people don't play, they do, but their rule sets are going to be more limited.

Cheating in Wizards' Poker would be very very easy to do. But to do so is of one of the highest disgraces. All sorts of regional punishments for cheating exist, from being shunned from playing, to simply never being trusted again in any arena of their life.

Very rarely do wizards actively teach each other their strategies or share their hands or decks. More often an older relative will teach a younger, or the very clever can learn by watching, or playing with patient players.

Any sort of card can be used to play and you'll find groups playing with decks that contain four-suit cards, Tarot cards, home-made versions and anything else under the sun. Betting is done with no standard increments or coinage, just about anything can be anted.

It is considered fair play to always state the name of the rule you are using.

The Basics

There is One Deck. Players keep a hand of cards, drawn or dealt from the One Deck. The goal is to win things from other players by winning hands and betting. In general, you take turns, but some rules change the turn rotation.

Plays Mentioned

Lethifold Split

[1]

He slid his hand of cards back into a stack, and used it to divide the pot (a hand full of sickles, a bluesmoke cigar, and a bit of paper representing promised house points) into two piles. He left the cards between them, and drew three more from the deck. "Lethifold Split," he declared, the threat of losing this hand delayed for at least another turn. "Give up half your hand or I get half the pot."

The Rule of 42

[2]

"But the Rule of 42 states that if [my] top three cards equal 42 or a quotient thereof, then the previously enacted rule is moot and the player gets to draw another card..."

"The Rule of 42! Oh, I've underestimated you, Devlin! I've only seen wizards over the age of 100 pull out that stinker!"

The Inventory of Nines

[3]

"The Mongolian Tiger of Nines, a Nine of Diamonds and The Nine of Wands. "Empty your pockets. Display your inventory."

The Inventory of Nines was based on an old rule that required the players to reveal their weapons - always a good move if you planned to win handsomely. But in modern times it had evolved to represent more of a survey of the field. What others might bet with, or merely to hassle other players.

Diamonds High

[4]

"Diamonds High... Unless you have something higher, then I can choose to replace anything in the betting pile with something from your inventory..."

Mornington Crescent

[5]

He laid down a card with a golden half moon on it. "Mornington Crescent. Seventy-five points for me."

Bulgarian Hail Mary

A risky move.

Weasley Twin Fold

[6]

Weasley Twin Fold. I draw a new hand, you get half the pot back.

House of Your Mother's Son

[7]

Spell out your name with cards. A very strong hand, but based on complex mechanics.

Bilger's Rule

[8]

"Against the rules to suggest a counter to your own trump."

Lady Xoc

[9]

Lady Xoc, Mayan queen. Summons a serpent god unless she's countered by something stronger," she explained. "Which I doubt you hold. "And you really don't want a serpent in play... "

Golden Dragon Kite Fight

[10]

"A famously good hand invented by the players in York in 1572"

Long-Fingered Witch

[11]

A seven card set, with a full run variant and can include the Morgana and black cat cards

Grimwold's Rules

[12]

A set of rules that negates a rule allowing an in-hand water card to block a Button steal. Instead, three water cards must be played by another player, a move called the ***River Lune's Rescue***.

Button Steal

[13]

Some illegal plays incur a Button Steal Penalty, where you have to cede a button you're wearing to the one who caught you. Previously blocked with a water card in-hand. Button Steals can be Impeded with a River Lune Rescue.

Pockets

If the circumstances are right, you can transfigure or replace a Galleon a walnut.

Luck of the Leprechaun

[14] If you play the four leaf clover card, you steal four cards from an opposing player.

Ancestor's Might

A powerful winning hand which includes a Lady Xoc in play

You can, apparently, light cards on fire

[15]

Cards

It's nearly impossible to list all the possible cards that could exist in a Wizards Poker deck. Each deck is highly personalized and some rules allow cards to be permanently stolen away. There is some advantage to playing with your own deck, so usually turns are taken, or decks temporarily combined.

• Tarot-like cards, like four of cups
• Letter cards, Elder Futhark cards, number cards
• Dragon cards - like Welsh green, Hungarian Horntail
• Rotten Mandrake - a bad card
• Mongolian Tiger of Nines
• Mornington Crescent - a card with a golden half-moon
• Lady Xoc - "It depicted a rough woodcut illustration of a woman pulling a cord through her tongue, the cord laced with blades."
• Morgana
• Black cat
• Four-leaf Clover
• Troll
• Stunning Stunner

How to Write It

If you've ever heard of Mao, Mornington Crescent or Calvinball, Wizard's Poker is it. In reality the rules are what you make them. The key is to have a good time coming up with strange moves, winning and losing as the rhythm of the group dictates. For the characters, the game is real with real rules. The characters themselves do not invent rules. Rather, we as writers, create rules that already exist in the Wizarding World. For Wizards, it's not make it up as you go along. For us, it's just fun.

References to the Game

• An example of Wizards' Poker being played from Specialis Revelio. [16] Link broken. :(
• Knox Greyfriar considers himself an excellent Wizards' Poker player. He learned to play from his uncles and "swindling cousins". [17]
• Archer Radley also plays in his spare time.
• Devlin Matthews is possibly the only student at Hogwarts who plays. He learned from a seventh year back when he first started Hogwarts. He got good at the game in Monte Carlo. [18]
• A game is played in the backdrop of a scene. [19]
• Knox Greyfriar and Devlin Matthews discuss matters over a game. [20]
• Niobe Thursby references a famous combination of cards: The Golden Dragon Kite Fight. [21]
• Johann Storm, visitor to Hogwarts castle, asks directions from a painting of four wizards playing cards and drinking mead. They are suspected to be playing Wizards' Poker. [22]
• Miranda Elliot plays with Ylva Maras aboard Durmstrang's ship. [23]
• Figaro Sellaphix learns to play from three old witches at the Leaky Cauldron [24]