In Shindig, Book, Jayne, and Simon are playing a kind of poker-like card game where the stakes are various kinds of household duties, like 'garbage', 'dishes' and 'septic vat'.

• Poker Hand Precedence
• Poker Hand Order Of Precedence

1. There’s a seemingly endless list of nicknames used for hands in poker. The list seems to get bigger and bigger all the time too, as players are often coming up with new ones. Some of them are obvious, some of them amusing, and many of them are really quite tenuous.
2. The texas holdem hands described below can be rated in order connected with precedence like found in most poker games, via best to worst. Typically the top shown, the Noble Flush, the greatest hand and one which is not usually seen because of typically the extremely small probability regarding having the right cards in the right pattern.
3. So the next question that has to be addressed is why multiplication usually has precedence over addition (note that some programming languages, notably, do not follow this convention). It seems to have arisen from a global consensus, mainly over concerns of simplicity of writing polynomials, but wasn't formalised until the 20th century.

In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. What is the order of suit ranking? Last modified: 01 Nov 2006 Please send feedback to faq@i-p-c-s.org. John McLeod supplied the following answer. I will assume for the moment that we are talking about French suits (hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades).

Jayne takes three and

A moment later he folds and

So... what's this game they're playing?

In the Shindig DVD commentary, writer Jane Espenson says that the rules of Tall Card were once posted on FOX's official Firefly website. However, what was actually posted was merely a script excerpt in which the characters play the game. There is no sign that the official rules ever appeared online, and when asked, Adam Baldwin couldn't remember being taught any.

Until someone can ask Ms. Espenson for her rules, we do have this unofficial set created by the late Browncoat extraordinaire, Lux Lucre:

If you use the above card deck (72 cards, etc.), the probabilities of receiving certain hands change, so the new hand rank for the above deck should be:

Royal Flush, 5 of a Kind, Straight Flush, Flush, 4 of a Kind, Full House, Straight, 3 of a Kind, Two Pair, One pair...(descending order)

Notice the only real changes from the normal poker rank is that it is much harder to receive a Flush, and the addition of 5 of a Kind.

This is a different set of rules I developed with my fiance. The rules mimic draw poker with the exception of how the Tall Card affects the game:

Everyone antes up. (throws one chip of lowest value in the pot) Dealer gives 5 cards to each player.

First round of betting.

• As per normal poker betting, it starts with the person to the dealer’s left and proceeds clockwise.
• Your options are:
  • Pass—If no one has placed a bet you can choose not to do so either. If everyone passes no betting ocurrs.
  • Bet—Put chips in the pot, everyone else must match this bet to stay in
  • Check—Match the current bet and stay in the game.
  • Raise—Meet the current bet and add more chips as well. If someone does this betting continues going around until someone has met the new raised bet.
  • Fold—Drop out of the game instead of putting in money.

Poker Hand Precedence

Tall card is revealed:

• The tall card is a circular card that displays a suit. That suit is then Tall.
  • The Tall suit is trumps, meaning it beats any equal hand, as Aces would in traditional poker. For example if Coins are Tall and I have 2 pair with 5 of Coins high, and you have Two-Pair without a Coin (or with a lower coin) then I win.

Players draw new cards:

• As in traditional Poker you may draw up to four new cards. However *instead* of drawing you may choose to 'Claim the Tall'
  • If you claim the tall then all cards of that suit in your hand count as their face value or one number higher at your discretion. (If I have a 5 of blossoms and four of coins with the Tall Coin card, I have a pair of 5s (in trumps). If no one claims the tall, the dealer is forced to claim it instead of drawing. If the Dealer has folded, no one is forced to claim it.

Last round of betting.

As in normal poker the hand precedence is:

Pair, Two-Pair, Three of a Kind, Full House, Straight, Flush, Four of a Kind, Straight Flush, Five of a Kind

Poker Hand Order Of Precedence

--pixiecrack