Rules of Poker · Chapter 23 · 2026 edition
Irish starts like Omaha and ends like Texas Hold'em. Each player is dealt four cards, bets the first two rounds holding all four, then throws two away and plays the turn and river with an ordinary two-card Hold'em hand. It is a close relative of Crazy Pineapple (Pineapple), with one more card dealt and one more thrown. Published summaries don't all put the discard at the same moment, so a home game should say when it comes before the first hand.
Everything not covered here is as in Texas Hold'em (Texas Hold'em): the blinds, the order of betting, the flop, turn and river, and the showdown. The name is also used for a drinking game played with a deck of cards; that game has no betting and is not covered here.
Irish is played with a standard 52-card deck. Each player holds four hole cards until the discard, so a full table of ten takes 40 cards; with five board cards and three burns that is 48 of the 52, which is why ten is about the most the game can seat. Cards thrown away are out of play and don't go back into the deck.
Source: pagat.com, Texas Hold'em, "Irish"; DeucesCracked, "Irish Poker Rules".
The deal is Hold'em's (20.2) with two more rounds: each player gets four cards face down. The board is dealt the same way, three on the flop and one each on the turn and river (20.3).
Source: pagat.com, Texas Hold'em, "Irish"; SafeClub, "Irish Poker Rules".
Irish uses two blinds, the player left of the big blind acts first before the flop, and the first player still in left of the button acts first after it, exactly as in Hold'em (20.4 to 20.7). DeucesCracked lists it as usually played pot-limit or no-limit; Full Tilt Poker spread it online as No-Limit Irish, and PokerNews's strategy article on it was written for that game.
Source: DeucesCracked, "Irish Poker Rules"; PokerNews, "Choosing Your Discards in No Limit Irish" (Gareth Chantler, 2015).
You hold all four cards through the pre-flop betting, see the flop with them, and bet the flop with them. When the flop betting is over, everyone still in throws away exactly two cards, keeping two. Then the turn is dealt and the hand plays on as Hold'em. pagat.com, DeucesCracked, SafeClub, Pokerology, PokerNews's strategy article and Wikipedia all describe it this way.
Example: you hold A-K-8-7 and the flop is K-8-2. You bet the flop holding top two pair between your four cards, but afterwards you must choose which pair of cards to keep: K-8 keeps the two pair, A-K keeps top pair with the best kicker, and 8-7 keeps a pair and a weak kicker.
Sources: pagat.com, Texas Hold'em, "Irish"; DeucesCracked, "Irish Poker Rules"; SafeClub, "Irish Poker Rules"; Pokerology, "Irish Poker Rules"; PokerNews, "Choosing Your Discards in No Limit Irish" (2015); Wikipedia, "Community card poker", section "Irish poker".
Most sources put the discard after the flop betting (23.4), but not all:
Holding A-K-8-7, under (a) you see a flop before choosing your two cards; under (b) you choose before any board card is shown. We found no published version that discards after the flop is dealt but before it is bet, as Crazy Pineapple sometimes does (21.5). Agree which one you're playing.
Source: DeucesCracked, "Irish Poker Rules"; PokerNews, "Choosing Your Discards in No Limit Irish" (2015); PokerNews, "How to Play Irish Poker: Rules & Hands".
Once you are down to two cards, your hand is made exactly as in Hold'em: the best five from your two cards and the board, using two, one or none of your own (20.10). Irish has none of Omaha's requirement to use exactly two hole cards (Omaha); four hole cards is where the resemblance to Omaha ends. The two cards you threw away are out of the hand for good.
Source: DeucesCracked, "Irish Poker Rules"; Wikipedia, "Community card poker", section "Irish poker".
The showdown order, the need to show your cards to win (20.13), splitting a tied pot and the odd chip are the same as in Hold'em; see Showdown and Pots. The discards are not part of anyone's hand and are not shown. Each player at showdown shows the two cards they kept.
Source: SafeClub, "Irish Poker Rules"; pagat.com, Texas Hold'em, "Irish" and "The Showdown".
The discard isn't a bet, so being all-in doesn't excuse you from it: the published rules have every player still in the hand throw two. Example: a player goes all-in before the flop and is called. The flop is dealt, both players throw two cards, and only then are the turn and river dealt. Nobody reaches showdown holding four cards.
Source: SafeClub, "Irish Poker Rules"; pagat.com, Texas Hold'em, "Irish"; compare the Pineapple rule, 21.11.
The discard is compulsory in every description we found, but none of them says what happens to a player who doesn't make it. Card-room rules for the closest game, Crazy Pineapple, treat that hand as fouled (21.10), and a home game without a rule of its own can do the same.
Source: DeucesCracked, "Irish Poker Rules"; Deuces Wild Casino, Crazy Pineapple Game Rules, section I (filed with the California Department of Justice).
No published rule covers Irish in a bomb pot (90.2) or in side games such as the 7-2 game (90.12). A bomb pot skips the pre-flop betting, so under the usual timing (23.4) the discard still has its place after the flop betting; under the early timing (23.5(b)) it has none. With four cards dealt, a 7-2 bonus also needs a rule for which cards count, since a player may hold a 7 and a 2 among four and then throw one of them away. Decide both before dealing Irish.
Source: common home-game practice; see PokerNews, "Bomb Pot Poker Rules" and Poker Now, "7-2 Bounty Has Arrived!" (2024).
Rules of Poker, 2026 edition, by MyHomeGame. Free to copy and reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0. How to cite and reuse.