A secret poker game you can play on the subway

It’s not clear to me when or how you “choose” your row of 5. I feel dense but I don’t think this is described…

Seems fun!

You choose any time to start (mutually agreed upon)

You can choose any row you want. The chance (skill?) comes into play in that people can get up from those seats and new people can come in. That's why you have to choose an end station. It probably wouldn't be very fun for just one stop.

Notice the image which says “A pair of aces is a good start”, because two elderly people are sitting there. Think of it like each row being a pre-populated hand (which may be missing some cards) based on the people already sitting there. You pick it and then the “cards” change themselves between stations.

In other words, you pick immediately once the game starts. Look around to see which row you think has the best chance to develop into something good by the time you reach the designated station.

But what's the play?

It seems you don't have any control over the hand, no control over the evaluation, and there is no betting either.

Something more akin to bingo, where you call out when a winning combination is found, would be a lot more engaging.

Or maybe keep your chosen hand a secret, so you can do the normal betting/bluffing/folding of Poker? With the added fun that your hand might change over the course of the game.

this is a far better explanation than the article

I found myself looking for some rules on how you can influence your "hand" - is it "legal", for example:

- to stand in a specific place in order to (subtly) direct other passengers into a specific section of the car, or

- to take a seat yourself and give it up to an elderly person later on, in an attempt to gain an extra ace ;)

A group of friends and I used to play what we called "cheater's poker". There were no stakes expect bragging rights, but you were allowed to cheat in anyway what so ever. Stacked decks, marked cards, false shuffles etc. I'm curious what that would look like in this game and how far you could take it before it became socially awkward.

Could you ask a friend/plant to come to a particular station at some time and sit in a specific seat to aid/hinder a set? Gesturing to someone a specific seat is open? How about outright asking someone if they'd be willing to sit in a particular spot?

This makes it sound a lot more fun.

Cheaters poker sounds like a blast, but it sounds like it would descend pretty quickly into a physical game of trying to peak at other people's cards and them defending theirs (and the game deck).