Anaconda Betting Strategy

Anaconda, sometimes referred to as “Pass the trash,” is a fun twist to five card draw. The game can be played up to seven players since each person will be dealt seven cards at first.

To develop a strategy, you must dig a little deeper since the rules are slightly different than regular five card draw.

Top Tips For Anaconda Betting

Anaconda is a simple and easy variation of five card draw to learn. There are a few things to have to know before playing and some tips to learn along the way. The most popular tips for playing Anaconda are:

• Know the rules
• Understand your odds
• Position is important
• Folding or bluffing

Know The Rules

In Anaconda, the rules and hand rankings will follow your traditional five card draw. The change here is the cards dealt and the drawing method.

First, you ante up, and each player is dealt seven cards. Players look at their cards and discard three in front of them.

When all players are ready, each set of three cards is passed to the next active player to the left. Players now will look at the new cards they received, and there is a second round of betting.

Now everyone discards two unwanted cards. Players then choose the order for the other five cards and stack them face down.

Each player will then turn over the first card of their stack, which leads to a betting round, begun by the player with the highest hand showing.

This continues until everyone has four cards face up and just one left face down. Finally, after the final betting round, the highest five-card hand wins in the showdown.

Understand Your Odds

Since you are essentially being dealt three cards that your opponent does not want, you can try to figure out what they have and what your odds will look like. Also, you are being forced to discard three cards, whether you want to or not, so a good hand may not be the same once you have to trade cards.

The odds are still similar to a five card draw, but when you factor in you giving away your three “worst cards,” your hands will ultimately change in value. As such, your opponents will be going through the same thing, and you might end up lucky if they throw away to you what you need.

Position Is Key

Your position is important when you are trying to bet. If you are in an early position, you do not really have much of a chance to see what the other players are betting before making your decision.

You also have a disadvantage if you are seated next to someone good at this game versus a rookie. Newer players tend to throw away more of the good cards since they will look solely for one type of hand.

Folding Or Bluffing

Since everyone will have the same amount of odds and you will be able to see multiple cards being passed around, you have the opportunity to either fold or bluff along. The chances to bluff though will decrease as the game goes on since you reveal your cards one at a time towards the end.

If you can set up your hand right, you can reveal your cards in a way that makes your hand look “bad” at first. For example, you can reveal an A, 10, Q, K, J in that order one at a time to make it appear that you do not have a straight. Essentially, you are making your hand appear weaker to draw in more bets.