Courchevel

It’s 5-card PLO, except the first flop card is face up before anybody bets

Deal everyone five hole cards, then turn one board card face up right away. Pre-flop betting happens with that card sitting there. Then the other two flop cards come, and the rest of the hand plays like any Omaha game. That early card is called the door card, which has nothing to do with stud’s door card: here it’s a board card everyone shares.

You are betting before the flop with a third of the flop already known.

30-second cheat sheet

• Five hole cards each. Then the first flop card is turned up before the first betting round.
• Pre-flop betting, then a burn and the other two flop cards. Then turn and river, one burn before each.
• Four betting rounds, pot-limit.
• Exactly 2 of your 5 hole cards and exactly 3 of the 5 board cards. The two-and-three rule is unchanged.
• Eight players maximum at the WSOP.
• High only here. Courchevel Hi-Lo is a different game.

Full rules

The deal

Button, small blind, big blind. Five cards face down each. Per the WSOP wording, the first flop card is opened directly after the deal, with no burn between the deal and the door card. Then pre-flop betting, starting with the player left of the big blind.

The door card is a real flop card, a real part of the board, and part of every player’s three-card flop. It isn’t a free extra card.

The flop and after

After pre-flop betting the dealer burns a card and deals the other two flop cards. Then it’s betting, burn, turn, betting, burn, river, betting, showdown. The board is built as 1 + 2 for the flop, then turn, then river. Four betting rounds, same as Omaha and Hold’em.

Betting

Pot-limit. A raise is capped at the pot after you call, as in Pot-Limit Omaha. Blinds are as in other Omaha games, with straddles and extra blinds per room. Fixed-limit and no-limit versions exist online per PokerListings, but pot-limit is the usual structure.

Table size

WSOP caps Courchevel at 8 players. [INFERENCE from arithmetic, not a quoted rule: nine players x 5 hole cards + door card + 3 burns + 4 more board cards = 53 cards, more than a deck.]

Showdown

High hand only. Pick exactly two of your five hole cards and exactly three of the five board cards. Standard rankings, aces high or low in straights, ties split, odd chip by position clockwise from the button.

Rooms disagree

• The burn before the door card. WSOP: no burn between the deal and the door card, then a burn before the other two flop cards. One explainer (Mixed Game Masters) says the dealer burns before exposing it. Poker Game Database says no burns are used for the door card and the rest of the board. Pagat only mentions the burn before the last two flop cards. This page uses the WSOP procedure. Local rooms may differ.
• Who acts first pre-flop. PokerListings loosely says “the player to the immediate left of the button.” Others say left of the big blind. With blinds, the normal order is left of the big blind, and that’s what this page assumes.
• Hi-lo. A hi-lo version exists, and it’s its own game.

Worked examples

Set over set

The door card gave Alice a set, but the flop gave Bob a bigger one

Board

Alice

• Three Eights

Bob

• Three Kings✓ wins

Bob scoops the whole pot.

The door card was the 8 of hearts. Alice holds a pair of eights, so before anybody bet she already had a set. Then the other two flop cards, king and jack, arrived and Bob’s pair of kings turned into a set of kings. Two sets, and the higher one wins. Having a made hand pre-flop is great until somebody makes a bigger one.

Three board cards, always

Still exactly two from your hand and three from the board

Board

Alice

• Ace-high flush✓ wins

Bob

• Three Kings

Alice scoops the whole pot.

The door card was the queen of clubs and Alice liked it, holding ace-nine of clubs. By the river there are three clubs on the board, and she uses exactly three of them with exactly two from her hand for an ace-high flush. Bob has two different sets, queens (his pair plus the door card) and kings (his pair plus the king on the flop), but a set is only three of a kind. Flush beats trips.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Forgetting the Omaha rule because a flop card is already exposed. You still use exactly two hole cards. You can’t play the board.
• Overvaluing a pre-flop hit. Trips with a hole pair plus the door card looks great, but PokerListings warns that trips with little redraw need to fill up or find a dry board.
• Using normal PLO5 ranges. Knowing a third of the flop shifts hand values before the first bet. It becomes a game of big hands, and chasing the nuts matters even more.
• Thinking the door card is a burn or an extra card. It’s the first card of the flop.

Lore and reputation

It’s named for the French Alps ski resort. Wikipedia repeats the “urban legend” that bored tourists wanted a poker game nobody had played and invented it. Treat that as folklore. Wikipedia says it was most commonly played at the Aviation Club de France in Paris (now closed), is popular in France, and has spread to other parts of Europe, notably the UK. Pagat says the same. Wikipedia also notes that as of 2019 there were hi-lo Courchevel sit-and-gos at micro stakes on PokerStars.

The WSOP includes Courchevel in its 2026 live-action rules list of Omaha variants, so a mixed table can legitimately call it.