Buy Your Card Substitution Card Game

Buy Your Card Substitution, as many other games can be played differently, according to the table rules, or to the decision of the dealer. The things to determine before the game starts are the number of buying rounds and four prices for four different cards. In the traditional version there is buying round and the prices are the minimum bet, double the minimum bet, triple and quadruple the minimum bet. The example below describes a game that follows these traditional rules and is played at a quarter table.

How to Play

Each player receives three face-down and two face-up cards. Three face-up cards are then dealt into the center of the table, and players are given an option to buy these cards. Cards in the center lie in one line beside the deck. The price for the card farthest from the deck is 25 cents, the price for the middle card is 50 cents and the price for the card closest to the deck is 75 cents. The first player to the dealer's left is the first to make his choice. He can choose to buy one of the cards, paying its prize to the pot or to ask for a blind card from the top of the remaining deck. If he chooses a blind card, he must pay 1 dollar for it. The player can also choose not to buy cards. In this case he will finish his turn and the next player in the clockwise direction will be offered the same choice. If a player chooses to buy a card, he discards any other card from his hand. If the card, the player has bought is one of the face-up cards from the center of the table, the dealer draws a new card from the top of the deck and places it in the center of the table to replace the purchased card.

Three cards are dealt face-down to each player, and two cards are dealt face-up to each player. The dealer then flips over three cards face-up in a line beside the deck, a price having been assigned to each of these cards. At a quarter table, for example, the price for the card farthest from the deck is a quarter, the second farthest card from the deck, two quarters, and the card closest to the deck, three quarters. A player also has the option to spend the highest price for a blind card from the top of the deck, typically for the cost of a dollar at a quarter table. The community card layout in front of the dealer should look as follows:

If a player buys a face-up card, he can replace it by either a face-down or a face-up card from his hand, but as far as everyone has already seen the card he buys (because it lied face-up in the center of the table), the player should place this card face-up in his hand. So, replacing a face-down card by a face-up card is not the best tactics. On the contrary, when a player buys a blind card from the top of the deck, it goes as a face-down card to his hand. Even though a blind card is the most expensive one, and you can never know what it is, it gives the player a tactical advantage, especially if it replaces a face-up card.

When all players, including the dealer make their turns, a standard betting round occurs. If there are more then one buying round in the game, the next buying round takes place, followed by the next betting round. In the end, all players reveal and compare their hands, and the player with the best hand wins the game.

Free Enterprise:

Free Enterprise is a variation of Buy Your Card game. In Free Enterprise, players do not replace a card from their hand by a bought one, but simply choose to buy a card or to receive a blind one instead. In the beginning two face-down cards are dealt to each player and three face-up cards are dealt to the center of the table, as in Buy Your Card Substitution. After which all players, one by one, decide either to buy one of these cards for its price or to get a blind card from the top of the deck for free. This time, the blind card goes to the player's hand face-up and is not any better than the cards he can buy.

When players receive four face-up cards in such manner, they receive an additional, seventh card dealt face-down in a regular manner. So, the game is very similar to 7 card stud, but involves the buying principle of Buy Your Card Substitution game.