Introduction and Basic Strategy for "Follow the Queen" Poker

Follow The Queen is another one of the home poker variations my friends and I like to play on our poker nights. The game utilizes several wild cards, some which could change as the game goes on, which tends to keep people in the hand longer. Follow The Queen is played in a way similar to 7-card stud, but there are a few key differences.

Each player starts with two face down hole cards. Then the first face up card is dealt to each person. Anyone that has a queen in their hand either face up or face down treats the Queen as a wild card. If a Queen is dealt face up though, the queen is wild as well as the next card dealt face up after it. So let's say the Qd is dealt face up, and after that the 5s. Every queen and 5 in the deck are now wild. But, here is the trick..... if another queen is dealt face up, the queen is still wild but it cancels the previous wild card and once again the card dealt after that queen is wild. So someone could have two wild cards conceivably after the first couple of face up cards dealt and betting, only to find their wild cards become no longer wild on a future face up round.

The last round of cards dealt face up is the fourth face up card for each player, if a Q comes as the final face up card of the game (the last player dealt to in the last face up round), the only cards that are wild are queens. Some also play that the Queen of spades is the "Killer Queen", meaning if the queen of spades is dealt face up (and only face up), everyone throws their hands away and the hand is redealt after everyone antes again. The trick here though is that if someone has folded before the "Killer Queen" is dealt, they will not be allowed to play the redealt hand. This is another way to keep people in the game longer. Of course as in normal 7-card stud, the last card is down and the wild cards can't change in the last round since the cards are face down.

There are two strategies people try in Follow The Queen when they have a good hand. You can either try to max bet early and try to get everyone to fold so you win a small pot, or you can keep playing small to medium bets hoping nobody will defeat you in the end. If your hand depends on the card that is currently wild other than a queen, you might want to bet big early hoping to limit the number of people that stay in hoping for another queen to be dealt face up. If you have one or two queens in your hand, then you would probably prefer to slow play the hand, which is the other strategy. Of course the risk of slow playing is someone might pick up a couple wild cards later in the game when the card they want to be wild follows a face up queen.

In general in Follow The Queen it is hard to force your opponents out too early, because they have the hope of the changing wild card, or of a redeal if you play "Killer Queen". This is a game where it helps to know how willing your opponents are to take a risk and wait for the cards they need when the betting gets big early.

I will be publishing another article shortly regarding "High Chicago" and "Low Chicago" rules, which can be played along with Follow The Queen and make the game even more interesting.

Remember, the object of this game is to have fun with your friends, if you aren't going to have fun because you lose a small sum of money, then poker might not be the best game for your group.