Dead Man's Hand

The goal
Each Dealer guards a pot (a score you must reach). Play poker hands to deal damage to the pot — empty it and you bust the Dealer and move on. Fail to empty it before your Hands run out, and your run ends.

Playing a hand
- Select up to 5 cards from your dealt cards and play them as a poker hand.
- Your score is Chips × Mult — bigger hands and better cards mean more of both. That score is dealt straight to the pot.
- You get a limited number of Hands per Dealer (four by default). Spend them wisely.

Discards
- You also get a few Discards — toss cards you don't want and draw replacements to dig for a stronger hand. Discards don't cost you a Hand, but they're limited too.

Build your power
- Charms — passive modifiers that warp your scoring (your run-defining engine). Hold several at once.
- Calibers — permanently level up a hand type (e.g. make every Flush hit harder for the rest of the run).
- Omens — transform and enchant individual cards.
- Hexes — rare, powerful effects for players willing to gamble.
- Tools — one-off utilities you trigger in the moment.

The Ante ladder
- Each Ante has three Dealers: a small-time one, a bigger one, and a Boss Dealer that bends the rules with its own Tell.
- Clear Ante 8 to win the run — then keep going into Endless for as far as your build holds.

The shop
Between Dealers, spend your winnings on Charms, Tools, consumables, and card packs. Reroll for fresh stock if you don't like what's on offer.

Money matters
- Earn cash for busting Dealers, pocket a bonus for every Hand you didn't need, and earn interest on cash you hold back — so there's a real tension between spending now and saving to snowball.

Loadouts & Stakes
- Pick a Loadout (your starting deck and perk) and a Stake (difficulty). Higher Stakes pile on nastier rules for bigger bragging rights.
- Win runs to unlock new Loadouts and Stakes, chase 112 achievements, and climb the global leaderboards.