(In Guts, the pair of Aces is the highest hand a player can receive.)
Card Game Rules
Guts is a 2 card variant of poker. The game is played with a standard 52 playing card deck and is for 2 or more players. In Guts, are high and 2s are low. The objective of Guts is to win the pot by having the highest hand.
For more casino games, check out our guides for Michigan and Seven Card Stud Poker.
If you are looking for cards to play Guts with, check out a standard pack here or one of our newest arrivals here.
Hand Rankings
Because players only receive two cards in Guts, the highest pair outranks other hands (e.g. a pair of Aces is the highest ranked hand). If there are no pairs, the highest card outranks other hands. If two people have the same high card, the highest second card wins.
Set Up
Players start by placing an ante, or initial bet, into the round’s pot.
Before gameplay can begin, a dealer must be selected. To do so, players must choose a random card from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. Ties are broken with repeated drawings. The dealer shuffles the deck and then passes out two cards face down to every player.
Players then look at their hand and decide if they would like to continue playing. If they decide to forfeit their hand, they receive back their ante.
How to Play
After players declare their intention to continue playing, cards are flipped over. The best hand wins the pot. If there is a tie for the best hand, the pot is shared amongst the winners equally.
For more information on Guts and its rules, check out Wikipedia’s article here or Pagat’s article here.
Looking for more card games to play? Check out this article:
40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions
Recommended product for casino type games.
If you want to know more about the world of gambling and casinos, check out this book by Hugh Miller here.
Interview with Inside the Casino
John Nielsen from Inside the Casino interviewed us during the summer of 2018. They know all about casino games and equipment and we were happy to talk with them about the playing card industry. You may view the interview here
About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.
2 comments
Our rules were if you forfeit rather than continue you do not get your ante back. Any that are in and loose must match the pot for the next hand. If three stay in, the winner gets the pot but then the next hand’s pot is then doubled by 2 losers making the new pot. Play continues till only one says they are in and takes the pot..
Our rules were if you forfeit rather than continue you do not get your ante back. Any that are in and loose must match the pot for the next hand. If three stay in, the winner gets the pot but then the next hand’s pot is then doubled by 2 losers making the new pot. Play continues till only one says they are in and takes the pot..