Star Poker (1994)

Object
Create poker hands - pairs, straights, flushes, etc. - to score points. After all the tiles have been played, the player with the highest score wins!

Contents
54 poker tiles including 2 jokers
Scoring chips: Blue = 5 points, Red = 10 points, White = 25 points
7 racks
Disk
Label
Score card

Set up
Players draw a tile from the "pool;" the one with the highest tile goes first, then play moves in a clockwise direction. Return those tiles to the pool and mix them.

Playing
On a turn, place a tile on one of the seven sides of the disk. Then take a tile from the pool so that you always have five tiles in your hand. Play continues to the second player who can place a tile after the tile just played, or on any of the other sides of the disk. Then he takes a tile from the pool. Players continue taking their turns until someone scores.

Scoring
Players score by making various poker hands: 1 Pair, 3 of a Kind, Full House, Straight, etc. (see POKER HANDS). The hands are formed by combining the last or "open" tiles in any of the paths leading from the disk.

Blocking
When you do not have a tile that you can lay down to score points, you may want to block the other players from scoring.

5 Tile Plays
Any time a player scores by creating a 5 of a Kind, Full House, Straight, Flush, Straight Flush, Royal Flush after receiving his points for that round, ALL of those tiles that were used to score are turned face down so that they cannot be used again. Players can play tiles from their hands off of the turned down tiles, as if starting from the beginning (tiles placed before the turned-down tiles cannot be used to form hands).

Note: Do not turn the tiles over upon creating 2 pairs and 4 of a Kind. This allows for the creation of a Full House and 5 of a Kind.

Jokers
A joker can be used as a "Wild Card" to represent a ny tile. (Color does not matter - a red joker can represent a spade or club, etc.) The player that places a joker determines what tile it represents; the joker will remain as that chosen tile for the rest of the game. If another player holds the tile that the joker represents, he can play that tile as well.

Points Chart
Some of the scoring in Star Poker differs from the scoring in the standard poker game. This is due to the probabilities of creating different hands.

1 Pair = 5 pts.
2 Pairs = 10 pts.
3 of a Kind = 30 pts.
4 of a Kind = 75 pts.
5 of a Kind = 100 pts.
Full House = 40 pts.
Straight = 50 pts.
Flush = 50 pts.
Straight Flush = 100 pts.
Royal Flush = 100 pts.
Blue Chips = 5 pts.
Red Chips = 10 pts.
White Chips = 25 pts.

Ending and Winning the Game
Players continue until there are no more tiles to draw from and all tiles in their hands have been placed. In a four player game, once a player draws the tile that leaves two tiles left, the game ends after that player takes his turn. In a five player game, play until there are four tiles left and in a seven player game, play until five tiles are left. The player with the most points wins.