How to Play Tripoly

Tripoly, or Tripoli, is a type of poker that combines three different games. In Tripoly players use a single hand for three different rounds of play: A money card round goes first, then a traditional five card poker hand and finally a round of Michigan rummy. After all three rounds have been played the deal rotates to the left and play continues with a new hand until one player has all the chips.

Buy in for a specific amount of chips or divide the chips evenly between each player.

Place one chip from every player’s pot into each of the nine squares on the Tripoly mat.

Shuffle a standard 52 card playing deck and deal the cards evenly to each player and one extra hand until all the cards are dealt.

Take the spare hand for free if you are the dealer, or auction the spare hand to the highest bidder. If the spare hand is taken by anyone they discard their first hand entirely before taking the new hand.

Take the chips from the corresponding squares on the Tripoly mat if your hand contains any of the required combinations. For example, if you have the Queen of hearts then you win the chips in the Queen of hearts square. If more than one person has an eight, nine and 10 of the same suit those players split the chips in the corresponding square evenly. If any of the squares are not won, then the chips remain in that square until the next hand is played.

Start betting your best five card poker hand with the dealer and go clockwise around the table with players checking, calling, betting or folding. All bets are placed in the pot in the center of the Tripoly mat. After the last player acts the person with the highest hand that did not fold wins the chips in the pot.

Place the cards used for the poker hand back in your hand.

Lay the lowest card in your hand face up in the center of the table starting with the dealer. Each subsequent player plays the next highest card from the same suit. Play follows the order of the cards depending on who holds them. Continue playing cards until you reach the last card in the suit. Whomever plays the last card in a suit then plays the lowest card in her hand from a different suit.

Play cards in the same fashion until one player has played all of her cards. The player to play all of her cards first wins the chips in the Kitty square of the Tripoli mat and each other player must pay her one chip for each card remaining in their hand.

Collect all the cards and pass the deck to the left for the next dealer.

Play through the remaining games until one player collects all the chips on the table.