Dead Man's Hand (2013)

Dead Man’s Hand is a zombie themed take on Texas Hold'em, a community card poker game, with game play focused as much on the betting as on the cards being played. Some of the terms (blinds/river) have been changed here to more zombie centric ones (appetizers/blood), while others have been kept (flop/turn/showdown) for hopefully obvious reasons. Gameplay is the same as Hold’em except the criteria for determining and ranking winning hands has been changed due to the style of cards used in this version of the game.

To better understand these rankings, it is necessary to explain the makeup of cards in Dead Man’s Hand. In stead of the regular playing card deck used for Texas Hold'em, this deck is first made up of four types of zombies: Walkers, Shamblers, Runners, and Infected. There are twelve cards for each type of zombie. These twelve cards for each type are further divided into Red and Green colored text, with six of each zombie type. Each zombie card also has two numbers, a Decomposition number and a Hunger number ranging from one to six. These numbers and colors are arranged in such a way that each zombie has three other zombies (one of each type) that match it in both color and numbers. Thus, with these card differences, the criteria used for hand rankings is changed while keeping the dealing/betting/bluffing aspects of regular Hold'em.

Dead Man’s Hand is played on a single table with 2 to 10 players. The game is also played with an assortment of chips for the betting rounds. Traditional poker chips can be used or you can try our "Dead Man’s Hand: Poker Chips of the Living Dead" (available separately) for a set of zombie themed chips.

The goal is simple: win as many chips as you can, one pot at a time. You win a pot by having the best hand, or by having all other players fold before the showdown. As in Texas Hold'em, a hand of Dead Man’s Hand consists of one to four betting rounds. A hand ends when all players but one have folded, or the fourth and final betting round completes with multiple players still in the hand - whichever comes first. At that point, players enter into the showdown, where remaining players discover who has the best hand.