Tips for Playing Train Wreck Poker

PLAYING TIPS for TRAIN WRECK POKER

HOW TO PLAY TRAIN WRECK STUD POKER
Deal 5 hole cards to each player. Place 3 horizontal rows of 4 cards each face down on the table. Players will use their hole cards plus the cards in either the middle or bottom row (the play rows) to make their hand. The top row is referred to as the muck row. As each card is revealed in the muck row, any player holding the same ranked card(s) in their hand must discard it. For example, if you hold a pair of sixes as hole cards and a six appears in the muck row, you must immediately discard them. Likewise, any card appearing in the 2 play rows that matches a card in the muck row must be removed.
Start with a round of betting, then reveal 1 card from each of the 3 horizontal rows. Continue with bet, then reveal (1 card from each row per round) until all the board cards are exposed.

Muck Row     1     2     3     4
Play Row A    X     X    X     X
Play Row B    Y     Y     Y     Y

At the showdown, should a player still possess a card that should have been mucked, their entire hand is dead.

SUMMARY of ACTION
Deal 5 hole cards to each player. Place 3 horizontal rows of 4 cards each face down on board. The top row is designated as the "muck" row. The other 2 rows are "play" rows.
Bet
Reveal 1 card from each of the horizontal rows. Remove any cards of the same rank that appears in the "muck" row from either of the "play" rows or held in a players hand.
Bet
Reveal 1 card from each of the horizontal rows. Remove any cards of the same rank that appears in the "muck" row from either of the "play" rows or held in a players hand.
Bet
Reveal 1 card from each of the horizontal rows. Remove any cards of the same rank that appears in the "muck" row from either of the "play" rows or held in a players hand.
Bet
Reveal the final card from each of the horizontal rows. Remove any cards of the same rank that appears in the "muck" row from either of the "play" rows or held in a players hand.
Bet
High only: Showdown
High-low split: Declare
Bet
Showdown

The key component of Train Wreck poker is the removal of cards as dictated by the cards that appear in the "muck" row. This concentrates the deck with the remaining card ranks. It also tends to polarize the strength of winning hands. The removal of cards typically results in players making fewer mid-strength hands like straights and flushes. Thus, winning hands tend to be either very strong (e.g. full house or quads) with which it is safe to bet and raise or relatively weak (e.g three of a kind) which are difficult to play.

STARTING HAND SELECTION
Starting hands take on a bit less significance in Train Wreck. Even some of the strongest made hands can be ruined when one or more of your hole cards must be mucked. And, if the right cards hit the play rows and avoid the muck nearly any starting cards can turn into a winner.

The first principle in Train Wreck is that you want cards that are already or have a good opportunity to turn into full houses or quads. The very best starting hand you could be dealt is 4 of a kind. This hand can never be counterfeited by the board since you hold all 4 of the same ranked cards. Unfortunately, the odds of being dealt hole card quads is about 4100:1. It is about 650:1 to be dealt a made full house. Its a great hand, but can potentially be ruined if one of those cards pops up in the "muck" row (if you lose the trips portion, your hand is almost assuredly ruined; losing the pair it could be rescued if another pair appears in a "play" row). Another strong starting hand is to be dealt 3 of a kind. At about 46:1 this is a much more realistically appearing hand. Clearly, you are looking for the 4th card to appear on the board and it will about 25% of the time. When it does, the good news is that two-thirds of the time it will appear in a play row, giving you quads. The bad news is that it will appear in the muck row one-third of the time and your hand is now absolutely ruined. If it does not appear at all on the board you still have at least (a very vulnerable) 3 of a kind but, you also stand a decent chance of making a full house should a play row contain a pair (preferably ranked lower than your trips). Two pair hands are also decent starting hands, and have similar opportunities and dangers as starting with trips. In either case, the higher ranked your starting trips or pairs are the better.

The second principle is that you do not want to be dealt a made straight as it is so very vulnerable and will seldom stand up by itself. Made flushes face less danger since even if you lose a card you can still pick up another one of the same suit in a play row. While extremely rare, being dealt a made straight flush is by far more of a catastrophe than a blessing. If it stands up it is undoubtedly a winner. But, it needs to dodge a total of 15 cards (3 each of the same 5 ranks you hold) over 4 rounds of muck cards. Simple straights and flushes face the same danger.

WHEN PLAYING HIGH-LOW SPLIT
When playing for a low hand it should be obvious that the lower the 5 cards in you hand are the better. But even if the highest 1 or 2 of the cards you hold are mid-ranked cards they might still end up best. While high hands are very vulnerable to the dangers of the muck row low hands tend to be a bit less so. The most important thing to do is to keep very close track on what would be the very best low hand possible throughout play. It will often change round by round and it can turn out that the nuts can easily change from a 5 or 6 low at the start of the hand to a nine or ten low by the end. When playing by 5432A rules every low card (A-5) that is mucked moves the best possible low 1 card higher (e.g. if a five is mucked, the nut low becomes 6-high, 2 different low cards bump it up to a 7-low, etc). Under 6432A rules a mucked five has little effect - the best low is still 6432A. When an ace, deuce, three or four is mucked the best low will still be a 65XXX low.

PLAYING TIPS for TRAIN WRECK
As hinted at earlier, Train Wreck can be a very complicated game. It is also frustrating as the currently best hands are easily and frequently changed and ruined as the hand progresses. At the end, it should be fairly easy to identify the best possible or most likely winning high hand. Concentrate on making full houses or better. Don't chase straights. Avoid chasing flushes when a pair appears in a play row. (Even without a pair on the board a full house is possible.) Remember that as cards are removed by the muck row, it means that players' hands are more concentrated toward the cards that appear in the play rows. If a player gets through all 4 rounds without forfeiting any of their starting cards they probably have a hand that connects strongly to the board. It is perfectly all right for a player to ask another how many hole cards they have left and this information can not be denied.

Low hands can pose a much bigger problem. It is very important that you take your time to read the board and correctly identify the best possible low hand. It will probably take that hand to win.

OPTIONAL RULE of PLAY: Straight beats flush.
With the removal of up to 4 different ranks of cards in the "muck" row it becomes much more difficult to make a straight. At the very least the number of potential straight combinations will be reduced from 10 to 5. At the worst a straight becomes impossible. The most critical cards are fives and tens as all straights must contain one of those rank.

ONE MORE THING
All poker hands must contain 5 cards. There is no exception to this in Train Wreck. At showdown your hand can be made from any combination of hole cards and board cards but it absolutely must be 5 cards. If not, your hand is disqualified. Here is an example of a situation where this rule might apply:

After the last round you are down to 2 hole cards - a pair of aces. There is another pair of aces in one of the play rows but, the other 2 cards in that row were mucked. You're screwed! While you have A A A A that is only 4 cards. There is no fifth card "kicker" available in either your hand or in the same row to complete a valid hand.