How to Play
Costanza Poker

emoji_events Hand Rankings — Best to Worst

1. #1High CardThe ultimate winner. Nothing fits together.
2. #2One PairSecond best — just two matching cards.
3. #3Two Pair
4. #4Three of a Kind
5. #5StraightA-2-3-4-5 is the best straight; T-J-Q-K-A is the worst.
6. #6Flush
7. #7Full House
8. #8Four of a Kind
9. #9Straight FlushAlmost always fatal. A-2-3-4-5 suited is the one version you can live with.
10. #10Royal FlushT-J-Q-K-A suited. You made it. You should be proud. Now please, just go low.

playing_cards The Game

• Heads-up (2 players) Texas Hold'em rules — but hand rankings are inverted.
• Hold'em mode: Each player gets 2 hole cards. Use any combination of hole cards and the board to make your best 5-card hand.
• Omaha mode: Each player gets 4 hole cards. You must use exactly 2 of your hole cards and exactly 3 board cards.
• Five community cards are dealt across three streets: Flop (3 cards), Turn (1), River (1).
• Best 5-card hand wins — but "best" means closest to High Card.
• Blinds start at 10 / 20. Starting stacks are 2,000.
• Match plays until one player runs out of chips.

format_list_numbered Tiebreakers

• Within the same hand type, lower card values win.
• High Card / Flush: lowest top card wins — 7-high beats Q-high; 2-high beats Ace-high.
• Pairs / Trips / Quads: lowest rank wins — pair of 2s beats pair of Aces.
• Straights: Ace plays low (as 1) — A-2-3-4-5 is the best straight because it's the lowest. T-J-Q-K-A is the worst.
• Outside of straights, Ace is always high (14) — so it's the worst card to hold in a high-card hand or flush.

lightbulb Strategy Tips

• Avoid connecting cards — straights and flushes will hurt you.
• Mixed suits, non-sequential ranks are your best friends.
• Suited connectors (7♠8♠) are trash — fold them preflop.
• Offsuit, disconnected cards (2♣ 9♦) are gold.
• The board can betray you. Three to a flush on the board might complete yours against your will.
• Learning to read danger instead of opportunity is the entire game.

grid_on Preflop Starting Hand Chart

This is a first-pass approximation — Costanza is still being formally codified, so treat this as a rough guide, not gospel. The chart shows each possible starting hand and whether to raise, call, mix, or fold based on simulated outcomes where each player takes the worst possible 5-card hand from their 7 available cards. Weaker normal poker hands win here, so everything you think you know is backwards.

• Raise
• Call
• Mix
• Fold

timer Blind Structure

BB-ante (= Big Blind) applies at every level when Ante is enabled.

bolt Actions

• Fold — Give up the hand.
• Check — Pass action when there is no bet to call.
• Call — Match the opponent's bet.
• Bet / Raise — Put more chips in. Minimum open-raise is 2× the big blind. Use the size slider or type an amount.
• All In — Bet your entire remaining stack.