Manila

The Aussie equivalent of Texas Holdem, Manila is being played at the Star City Casino in Sydney.

The game is very much like Texas Holdem, yet in the same time it is quite different too.

The game begins with the dealer handing each player 2 holecards (much like TH) or sometimes 3. Only one blind is posted (by the player on the immediate left of the dealer) and the first betting round commences. After that, a single community card is laid out on the board followed by another betting round.

The community-card - betting round sequence goes on until there are 5 community cards on the board. The last betting round is followed by the showdown.

An interesting thing in Manila is, that each player needs to use exactly 2 of his hole cards (in case he received three, one is usually mucked or kept till the end but not used) and exactly three of the community cards from the table.

Because of this rule, making straights or flushes becomes more difficult than in Texas Holdem.

The game is only played with a 32-card deck (not the standard 52) All cards lower than 7 are stripped from the deck, thus the game also goes by the name ‘7 up’ (and it’s not named after the soft drink either).

The stripped deck is cause for some particular issues in Manila: first off, the flush beats the full house, and secondly: the Aces cannot be used low in a straight. (it kind of makes sense too if you consider that the typical low value for an ace is 1 and all cards lower than 7 were removed).

The game of Manila is a very close relative of Spanish Poker but unlike the latter (which is usually a no limit game) it is played with a fixed limit.