When people talk about poker today, they usually mean Texas Hold’em. But long before online battles and televised tournaments, Italy had its own tradition, one that feels almost alien to modern players.

Italian poker or Poker all’italiana is not a variant of Hold’em but a different species entirely. It is a game of "permission," where the rules dictate when you may draw your sword. Yet, despite its old-school reputation, it is the true philosophical ancestor of modern Short Deck, andit is basically a 5-card draw.

The Foundation: The Rule of 11

The first striking difference is the deck. Unlike the 52-card standard, Italians use a stripped deck. They use the Rule of 11 to determine the deck size:

• Subtract the number of players from 11 to find the lowest card.

• Example: With 4 players (11 - 4 = 7), the deck starts with the 7s.

• This means the deck size fluctuates between 32 and 40 cards, creating a high-density environment where "air" hands barely exist.

The main feature: no common cards!

Here's the differences between Hold'em and Poker All'Italiana start to be quite jarring: unlike the "community card" games that dominate the modern era, Italian Poker remains a game of total privacy. There is no Flop, no Turn, and no River. In its standard form, there is no board.

Every player is dealt five personal cards, hidden from the eyes of their opponents. Any improvement to your hand happens through the "Draw" (the cambio), where you discard and replace cards from your own hand. This creates a focused, psychological duel where you can't play the cards on the table, but instead you are forced to play the man across from you and the secrets he’s holding in his hand. It's (almost) purely psychological.

Opening the Hand: You Must Earn Your Play

Unlike Hold’em, where you can move all-in with 7-2 offsuit pre-flop if the mood strikes you, Italian Poker requires permission. To "Open" (Aprire) the betting, a player must hold:

• A pair of Jacks (JJ) or better.

• Four-fifths of a Royal Straight Flush open ended (e.g., K-Q-J-T of the same suit).

Starting from the player next to the dealer, one has to declare if he can "open" or not. If he can, he places a bet on the pot. If he cannot, it's up to the next player to declare. If no player can open, dealer moves and the cards are redealt. This eliminates pre-open bluffing and ensures that every opened pot represents a basic genuine strength. It creates one of the very few drops of informations players in Poker all'Italiana can rely upon. If one opens, he must AT least have JJ or better. 

Once a player opens, all the others in order have to decide whether to match the bet or raise. Once the bets are set, if there is still one or more players in the game, the hand continues with the Cambio Carte.

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Buio e Controbuio: the ancestors (and true nature) of Small and Big Blind

You may have noticed we have not talked about the Blinds. That's because in Italian Poker they are not compulsory: a hand opens if someone has JJ or better.

But crucially, there is the chance to open before the cards are dealt, skipping the JJ or better requirement: a player can therefore do an "Apertura al buio", opening the game blindly (or, literally translated, "opening in the dark") without knowing what cards he'll be dealt, and game will then start as if someone has already opened. The player doing so gets the privilege of not giving out any information on his hand should he receive good cards, and also he'll speak last.

The player next to him can double up that amount, with a Controbuio ("Counter-dark"), stealing the right to speak for last. As you can see, this sets up the Small and Big Blind situation, but the difference is that none of this is compulsory. One can open "al buio" and have no Controbuio against. But usually, Blinds are not frequently used in Italian Poker, seen more as a gambling move than a true strategic one.

The "Cambio Carte" or "Draw". 

Here enters another quirky feature of the Italian Poker, and one that gives another sliver of information to the other players. Every player, starting from the one next to the dealer, is given the possibility to "fold" up to 4 of his cards and receive 4 new cards from the deck. If a player asks for 4 cards, he will receive 3 and then the last one once every other player has done their "Cambio". 

If the player opening decides to discard one or more of the cards that made his opening possible, he has to declare so (but he must not show the cards). If any player doesn't wish to change any cards, he will declare to be "Servito" (Served).

Unique Mechanics: Chip, Parol, and the Blinds

After the Cambio Carte, there's another round of betting where further unique mechanics unfold. First important element: the first to talk after the Cambio is not the player after the openings or after the Controbuio (another big difference compared to Texas Hold'em).

Instead, the one talking first will be the player who opened, or the one who did the last raise in the opening series of bet. But there's more: if during "Cambio Carte" someone declared to be Servito, he'll be the one to speak first instead.

Some other betting language elements of the Italian game, you may want to know:

• "Chip" instead of Check: If you don't wish to bet, you say "chip". It is basically the same thing as Check, but if you want to fit into a Poker all'Italiana table, you have to remember that "Chip" does not mean you need  to pay anything. "Chip" but no chips on the pot from you!

• The Parol: the first to talk after the Cambio Carte, instead of saying Chip or betting, can say "Parol". This means that he wishes to speak for last, and player next in line has to speak now. He can bet, or chip, but he can declare Parol too! And what happens when every player goes Parol? Interestingly, the hand comes to an end without a winner, and the pot remains for the next hand. If this happens, the following hand has to be opened with KK or better, and there are no Buio and Controbuio allowed.

• "Punto" and "Rilancio": they mean "Bet" and "Raise".
  
  

Hand Rankings: When a Flush Beats a Full House

After this secound round of betting, if two or more players come to a showdown, it's time to decide who won, but even there, differences with Texas Hold'em are far from over!
One of the most counter-intuitive rules for modern players is the hierarchy. In Italian Poker, a Flush (Colore) beats a Full House (Full).

Mind you, this is not because of a quirky tradition but follows strict probability: in a stripped deck, the mathematical frequency shifts. It is statistically harder to complete five cards of the same suit than it is to pair a set. 

Another interesting difference: since the deck is stripped down, a straight can start with an A used as first card before the lowest. So in a 4 players table, A-7-8-9-T is a straight. 

Then there's the question of splitting the pot: in some traditional italian rules, this is not possible, as even if two players have the same hand (f.e. flush against flush), it'll be the cards suit that will break the tie. The value order is Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades. Italians have a simple sentence to remember this, "Come Quando Fuori Piove", litreally meaning Like when is raining outside, but it works because the first letter of each words are the same of the suits name in Italian: Cuori (hearts), Quadri (diamonds), Fiori (clubs), Picche (spades).

What if there are two straights of the same level? It'll be the suit of the higher card to determine who's the winner.  Once winner takes the pot, dealer moves and it's time for another hand.

The "Giochini": When Hold’em is Just a Side Quest

In the classic Italian tradition, Texas Hold’em isn't the main event but it exists as a "Giochino" (a little game).

When a player wins a showdown with a Flush or better, they earn a "Giro di Giochi" (a Game's Round). For one full orbit, the game shifts to variants like Telesina (5-card stud) or Hold’em.

Can you believe it? In Italian Poker, the world's most popular game is merely a celebratory distraction from the "serious" business of 5-Card Draw! There are countless variants that are known, but most of them are essentially based on introducing community cards and a dynamic to pair personal cards with them (Dentro e Fuori is a variant where there are two sets of community cards, one with 3 and one with just 1, and pot is split between best hands for both).

Italian Poker: a game where bluffing is an art

Contrary to Hold'em, every step of an Italian Poker hand is one where you can build a narrative, making others believe something that is not. It's almost a magicians' game of deception, where you can skip opening even with good cards only to raise to the opening of another player. But you could also have no good cards and declare to be Servito at the Cambio Carte stage. Italian Poker is a game based on clues, gazes, hints and very, very few elements of factual informations.

In other words: if your poker face is not at its top game, this is not the poker you were looking for. And now that you've read this article, you're ready to play with the Italians at their poker game tables: just remember to never ask for a Cappuccino after 11AM and you'll be fine. Probably.