Ari

It’s Archie, except there’s one shared card for the high half

You’ve (maybe) just read about Archie: five cards, three draws, pot split between a high hand and an ace-to-five low, with a qualifier on each. Ari is exactly that game with one change: a single community card sits in the middle of the table, and it can be used only for the high hand.

Your five hole cards still get drawn and redrawn over three draws. The community card never changes and never gets drawn. It’s just a sixth card you share with everybody else, available to the high half and not to the low.

Ari is a niche game. It’s on the WSOP live-action rules sheet and on Card Player Lifestyle’s Mixed Game Festival sheet. Beyond those, I couldn’t find a poker room game list that names it. If you see it in the wild, you’re probably in a game run by an organizer who likes to experiment.

30-second cheat sheet

• Everything from Archie: five cards, button and blinds, three draws, four betting rounds, usually limit, usually six players at most.
• One community card goes in the middle at the end of the initial deal.
• High half: your best five of your five cards plus the community card. Must qualify with a pair of sixes or better (WSOP).
• Low half: your own five cards only, ace-to-five. The community card doesn’t help. Must be eight-high or better.
• Half the pot each way, with the Archie qualifier rules for what happens if a half has no qualifier.

Full rules

The deal

Play follows Archie. There’s a button and blinds, and everyone gets five cards face down. The WSOP rule says the community card is put in the middle “at the end of the initial deal”. Card Player Lifestyle says it’s dealt “before action begins”. Neither says whether it’s face up, but a shared card only makes sense face up. [INFERENCE: it’s face up]

Draws and betting

Exactly as in Archie: three draws (zero to five cards each), a betting round after each, small bets before the first draw and after it, big bets after the second and third. The community card stays where it is the whole time.

Showdown: the high half

You have six cards available: your five hole cards and the community card. Your best five-card high hand is the one you play. Card Player Lifestyle’s example: you hold A-2-3-4-K and the community card is a 5. You have a five-high straight (the wheel) for high, and it qualifies and beats any pair. For low, your own cards are A-2-3-4-K, king-high, which doesn’t qualify.

To qualify for high you need 6’s or better (the WSOP’s words). I read that as a pair of sixes or better, matching the sixes qualifier that some rooms use for Archie. The WSOP wording doesn’t say “pair”, so this is [INFERENCE].

Showdown: the low half

Unchanged from Archie, and the WSOP is explicit: “The low hand won’t be using the community card.” Ace-to-five low from your five hole cards only. Aces are low, straights and flushes don’t hurt, pairs do. It has to be eight-high or better to qualify.

What if a half doesn’t qualify?

The WSOP says “All the rules of Archie apply” apart from the changes it lists. By that reading: no qualifying high, and the best qualifying low takes the whole pot. No qualifying low, and the best qualifying high takes it all. Nobody qualifies, and the pot is split among everyone still in. This is [INFERENCE] about the intent, since the Ari paragraph doesn’t repeat them. The Ari text also doesn’t give an odd-chip rule, so see Archie for that conflict.

Rooms disagree

• High qualifier: the WSOP says sixes for Ari. Card Player Lifestyle’s rule sheet says “Qualifiers for both high and low remain the same” as its Archie entry, and that Archie uses a pair of nines. So the WSOP says 6s and the festival sheet implies 9s, a real conflict. This page uses the WSOP version. Ask before you play.
• The board card: nobody I read says more than “at the end of the initial deal” (WSOP) or “before action begins” (Card Player Lifestyle) about when or how it’s dealt.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Counting the community card in your low. It only plays for high.
• Assuming the qualifier is the same as regular Archie. The WSOP says sixes here and nines in Archie. Other rooms disagree with both.
• Ignoring the board card when picking a draw. Haney says the community card “can greatly benefit the low draws”: a low draw like 3-4-5 can also be drawing at a straight for the high half, using the shared card, which makes it more able to scoop than in plain Archie. Don’t evaluate your hand as if the middle card isn’t there.
• Playing it as a deep game. Same as Archie: three draws chew through the deck.

Lore and reputation

There’s no sourced origin. Haney (Card Player) describes a community-card version only as an add-on to Archie, saying “A community card can also be deployed for use only on the high side”, and that it “can greatly benefit the low draws”. The WSOP and Card Player Lifestyle sheets are the only places I found it named as a game.