A variant of poker, played with a special deck of cards: a 65-card deck of 5 suits of 13 cards each (instead of the usual 4). I heard of it ages ago, first from an old book of card games I had (The Modern Hoyle, by Albert H. Morehead). It describes:
In 1938 there appeared a five-suit deck, having the usual 52 cards
of the standard deck plus a complete fifth suit. In the United States
this fifth suit was green, called EAGLES, and marked by an
appropriate symbol; in England it was blue, called ROYALS, and
marked by a crown. A five suit Bridge game was widely played
for some months, but was soon forgotten. Five-suit poker made a
better game, but can seldom be played today because the cards
are no longer generally on sale.
The book also gave the ranking of the hands in five-suit poker, including the hand it called a "flash": one card from each suit. According to that source (see also below), the ranks were:
- Five of a kind
- Straigh flush
- Flash four of a kind
- Flash full house
- Flash straight
- Four of a kind
- Flush
- Full house
- Flash three of a kind
- Flash two pair
- Straight
- Flash (no pair)
- Flash with a pair
- Three of a kind
- Two pair
- Pair
- (High card)
I, of course, just had to try one of these out. So I went and bought two decks of cards with the same back, pulled all the diamonds out of one, colored their pips blue with a magic marker, and shuffled them into the deck. Woohoo.
Then, earlier this year, I found a place, www.stardeck.com, that sells five-suit decks! Most cool. Their fifth suit is a star, black and red in color. They have a different ranking for the hands, though. They call the one-card-from-all-suits hand a "rainbow."
- 5 of a Kind
- Straight Flush
- Rainbow 4 of a Kind
- Rainbow Straight
- Rainbow Full House
- 4 of a Kind
- Flush
- Full House
- Rainbow 3 of a Kind
- Rainbow 2 Pair
- Straight
- 3 of a Kind
- *Rainbow (<2 Pair)
- 2 Pair
- 1 Pair
- Runt (high card)
Note that in both sets, a flush beats a full house, unlike in regular poker (which makes sense: with five suits, it's harder to collect a hand from only one). In the older set, a flash with no pair beats a flash with a pair, but here, the asterisk above leads to a note on their list that says that a rainbow with a pair beats a rainbow without a pair. Interesting. I keep meaning to do the math.
Anyway, the cards themselves are so-so quality, unfortunately, but the game is quite playable. I recommend it to connoisseurs of poker variants.