Description

Monster is a gambling game in which the best
hand must defeat the Monster, a hand made
from everyone’s discards.

Equipment:
A Pairs deck. A button for indicating the
dealer, and chips for keeping score.

To Begin:
Start by paying an ante into the pot. If you have 4 or 5 players, the ante is 2 chips. With 6 to 8 players, the ante is 1 chip.
Shuffle the deck and deal a hand of six cards to each player. The player on the dealer’s left will act first. (Move the dealer button only after a full game, i.e., after the pot clears.)
Each player acts once, in turn. On your turn, you may discard zero to three cards, or fold. You are not allowed to keep a hand that includes a pair; if this is your only choice, you must fold. You may want to fold some other hands as well,
depending on circumstances
Your discards go facedown into a pile in the middle, which becomes the Monster’s hand. Folded cards do not go to the Monster; they go completely out of play. Note: This is not draw poker. Your discarded cards are not replaced!

The Showdown:
After each player on the next page) becomes the “Champion,” and
must compare hands with the Monster. When the Champion faces the Monster,he must defeat it in order to take the pot. The
Monster wins ties.

If the Champion loses (or ties), he pays 5 chips to the pot and is knocked out of the game.

Definition of High Hand:
Any player hand that contains a pair is a losing hand, and
can’t be kept for the showdown. All hands in the showdown will be compared by highest card, then second highest card, and so on. The best player hand is 10-9-8-7-6-5. A card is better than nothing, so a hand of 10-8-7-4 is better than 10-8-7. This is similar to comparing poker hands for high card, except that there is no limit on the number of cards that can play. The Monster uses the same rules, but it ignores duplicate cards. Treat the Monster as if it had only one card of each rank.

Winning:
To win the pot, you must become the Champion and defeat the monster. If no one wins, play another round with only the
surviving players. Players who folded, or who lost a fight with the Monster, are out. All cards are reshuffled in the next round
(the Monster does not keep its cards).

Oddities: If one player is left, he automatically wins. If zero players are left, either because they all had to fold, or because the last player couldn’t defeat his own discards, then play again with the same players who started the round.

Ties:
If two Champions win with exactly the same hand, they split the pot. If two Champions have the same hand but lose to the Monster, they must each drop out and pay the 5 chip penalty, unless they are the only two players remaining, in which case they pay 5 chips but play another round.

Strategy: In the first few rounds, you may want to “duck,” playing low hands and trying not to become the Champion. As players leave the game, it becomes easier to defeat the Monster, because it is getting fewer cards.