Pack Rat Poker

poker meets the rodent world

by Kevin R. Horovitz and Kevin G. Nunn

Players: 3-4
Needs: One deck of standard playing cards, Jokers excluded. One pawn for
each player.

Pack Rats (also known as Trade Rats and Wood Rats) are small gray or
reddish-browns rodents of the genus Neotoma found in North and Central
America. They range anywhere from about nine to nineteen inches in size,
have big ears and long tails. They also have a particularly interesting
habit. They collect bright, shiny objects to decorate their nests. But
whenever they pick up such an object, they leave another object,
something like a nut or a rock in its place. This peculiar habit is the basis
of their version of poker.

The Big Idea

Your goal is the same as that of any poker player—build the best five-card hand you can. The difference
is how you go about getting the cards that’ll make that hand. You will be dealt cards, but it’s extremely
unlikely they’ll be in that final hand. Instead, the cards you’ve been dealt will be used to move your pawn,
then capture cards on the table. It is the cards you capture that will make your poker hand.

Setup
Shuffle a deck of regular playing cards and deal sixteen of them into a 4 x 4 grid. These sixteen cards
comprise the game board and each card represents one space. A sample board is depicted below.

J 2 9 K
♣ ♦ ♠ ♠
Q 7 9 A
♥ ♣ ♥ ♣
3 4 J A
♦ ♠ ♥ ♥
3 5 Q 8
♥ ♥ ♣ ♣
The remaining cards are dealt out face-down to the players. In a four player game, each player will
receive nine cards. In a three player game, each player will receive twelve.
Beginning Play
Each game begins with a bidding round.

Choose a card from your hand and play it face down on the table. This card is your bid for the round.
Once everyone has placed a bid card on the table, simultaneously reveal them.

Beginning with the player who bid with the highest card, select a starting position on the board for your
pawn, pick up the card resting there, and place it in face up front of you. Next, replace it with your bid
card and set your pawn on top of it. Be sure that the card you claimed is resting on the table face up. It
is important that the card be face up; all players should be able to see all the cards everyone else has
picked up at all times.

Continue these steps with the player who played the second highest card, then the player who played the
third highest card, and so on until every player has placed their pawn. Note that as later players choose
their starting positions there may be no more than one pawn per space.

In the case that bid cards are tied in rank, determine who bid highest by suit. Poker does not rank suits,
so we’ll rank then as they do in bridge—Spades (highest), Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs (lowest).

Continuing Play
Every round of play that follows will also begin with a bidding round. However, the cards now represent
more than just turn order. They also represent how far you’ll move your pawn.

Again acting in descending order by bids, each player moves their pawn an exact number of spaces,
according to the chart below:

Card Spaces
2-4 1
5-7 2
8-10 3
J-K 4
A 5
• You must move your pawn exactly as many spaces as the chart above indicates, no more, no less.
• Movement may be any combination of orthogonal (i.e. horizontal and vertical) spaces.
• Movement may not be diagonal.
• You may neither move through an occupied space nor end your movement in an occupied space.
• It is not legal to move through the same space more than once per movement.
• It is not legal to end your movement in the same space that you started.

Just as in the opening setup, pick up the card at your pawn’s new location and place it front of you, face
up, along with any cards you’ve already captured. Then place the card you played from your hand into
the space formerly occupied by the card you picked up.

It is possible that you will find yourself unable to legally move the number of spaces dictated by your bid
card because you’ve been blocked by other players. In this case, you may pick up your pawn and place it
in any unoccupied space on the board.
Notice that as the game progresses, the stock of cards dealt to you dwindles and the number of cards
you’ve captured grows. The game ends on the round in which every player plays the last of the cards
they were dealt, moves their pawn, and picks up the appropriate card from the board.

Scoring
Once the last player has made their last move, discard the
sixteen cards which now comprise the game board.
Pick up the cards you’ve collected (the ones
sitting face-up in front of you) and sort them into
the best five-card poker hand you can. Discard
any cards which remain.

The winner is the player who builds the best

poker hand from the cards they’ve collected.

Advanced Play
One you’ve played a few times, you’ll notice that you frequently know who’s won the game well before it’s
over but have to keep playing to the end anyway. Under the advanced rules, you’re can do something
about that.

The advanced game is played over several smaller hands. Each of these smaller hands is very nearly
identical to the basic game, with a few small adjustments.

First, each player gets thirty tokens. Obviously, poker chips would work well, as would game stones.
Next, find a place for the pot. The pot should be a communal space within easy reach of each player. An
open space on the table works well, as does a small bowl. During play you must add one of your tokens
to the pot each time you play a bid card.

Now, you can control how long you stay in a losing hand. If you feel that you are in such a hand, you may
fold out of it. Simply remove your pawn from the board and set your hand, along with any cards you’ve
captured, face down in front of you. You’re finished with this hand but may rejoin the game on the next
hand. By folding, you give up the tokens you’ve already contributed to the pot, but you also limit the
number you lose.

If every player except one drops out, that player takes the pot. If two or more players remain until the
hand ends, the player who builds the best hand takes the pot.

Play continues over several hands (and several pots) until one player owns two-thirds of the tokens (sixty
in a three player game, eighty in a four player game). That player is then the winner.

As in many versions of poker, the advanced game also permits players to go “all in.” If you should run out
of tokens during a hand, you are not required to withdraw. Instead, you are allowed to continue playing
for the rest of the hand, for free. When you put your last chip in, you are said to be “going all in” and you
must announce this to the rest of the players at that time.

Strategy Tip
It’s quite unlikely that the cards you’re initially dealt will be in your final hand. Don’t think of them as part
of it. Instead, think of them as a means to an end. They exist only to help you to capture the cards you
really need.