Cincinnati |Poker Strategy|

Cincinnati (also called Utah or Lamebrains). The dealer gives five cards to each player, face down, and an extra hand of five cards in the center of the table, face down. The cards in the center are turned up one at a time, with a betting interval following the turn of each card; the active player at dealer's left bets first in each betting interval. After the final betting interval there is a showdown in which each player may select any five cards from among his hand and the five cards in the center.

Tennessee. This is the same game as Cincinnati except that the five cards to be exposed on the table are not dealt as an extra hand but are turned up, one by one, from the top of the undealt portion of the pack. How to play: Skill at games in which there are a large number of common cards is mainly a matter of comparing the value of your hand with the ranks of cards faced as common cards. Thus, if a face card is turned as a common card, and you have cards which match it, you are in a good position.

Your hand has improved, and other players are unlikely to make good use of that face card. Similarly, your three-of-a-kind is strong if it ranks higher than any exposed common card, but weak if there are common cards of higher rank. However, when there are as many as five common cards, as in Cincinnati, three-of-a-kind is almost worthless. In fact, inexperienced players will be trapped into playing for a flush or a straight. Only a high full house which uses the ranks of the common cards (so that other players cannot use them to make four-of-a-kind), or an actual four-of-a-kind, can be considered an adequate hand.