Hetero Baseball.
One of the two Baseball games at the table. Nine community cards are laid in a 3×3 grid and revealed progressively, with betting rounds between flips. Wild cards are produced when a Queen meets a King or a Queen meets a Jack on the array.
The 2024 onboarding doc Jesse received describes a different (older?) version of Baseball, with two hole cards plus four up plus one down. The actual game at the table, as Jesse has been told, is the 9-card 3×3 array form — with progressive reveals and betting between each, starting with whoever's hand is currently best-showing and proceeding clockwise. The wild-card mechanic below is from the doc; the structural setup is from what Jesse has been told in person. There may be inaccuracies in either source; Jesse has not reviewed this page.
Setup
- Nine community cards are dealt face-down into a 3×3 grid in the centre of the table.
- Each player is dealt their own hole cards (count to be confirmed; the 3×3 form typically has fewer than the older stud-style baseball had).
- Standard house rules apply: 5¢ ante, 10¢ max bet, three raises per round, no check-raise.
Reveal & betting
Community cards are revealed one at a time, with a betting round after each reveal. The first betting round starts with whichever player's visible hand (their own face-up + the revealed array) is currently best; subsequent action proceeds clockwise from there. Where nothing has yet been revealed, the round starts clockwise from the dealer.
Reveals continue until all nine community cards are face-up. A final betting round and declaration close the hand.
Wild cards
On a Hetero Baseball table, wild cards are produced by the pairing of complementary face cards on the community array:
- A Queen + King pair anywhere visible on the array creates 2 wild cards.
- A Queen + Jack pair anywhere visible on the array creates 2 wild cards.
The "2 wild cards" in each case are the contributing face cards themselves — they play as wilds for any hand that uses them, including hands of players who do not happen to be using that row/column. Building is allowed: any card you can connect to a wild pair becomes part of the wild calculation.
Hand formation
From the 3×3 array you may use up to three cards in a single line — any horizontal row, any vertical column, or either diagonal — combined with the cards in your own hand. Best five-card poker hand by the standard house ranking wins.
Open questions in the notes
The exact hole-card count for the 3×3 form has not yet been pinned down. The older 2024 doc describes a stud-style baseball with two-down/four-up/one-down, which is clearly the wrong setup for the array game. It is also unclear whether the Queen+King or Queen+Jack pairing requires the two cards to be in the same line of the array, or whether the pairing is global (any Queen + any King, anywhere). The working interpretation leans toward global.
There is also a "buying a card when a 4 turns" rule in the older Baseball notes that has not yet been clarified for the array form. It may carry over; it may not.