Low Chicago
A simpler cousin of standard (high) Chicago: half the pot goes to the best hand, the other half to the lowest spade dealt in the hole — no wild cards involved.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Low Chicago is dealt exactly like standard Seven-Card Stud: two hole cards and a door card to start, up-cards on fourth through sixth street, a final hole card on seventh street, with a betting round after each street.
At showdown, the pot is split in two, just as in standard (high) Chicago — but here, the spade-based half goes to whichever player holds the LOWEST spade among their hole cards, rather than the highest. The other half of the pot still goes to the best standard five-card poker hand. Unlike Black Mariah, there is no wild card involved — Low Chicago is simply standard Chicago with the spade-half criterion reversed.
If no player holds any spade at all in the hole, the low-spade half of the pot is typically carried over to the next hand or awarded to the best hand, per house agreement — same convention as standard Chicago.
Strategy notes: Holding a single low spade (a deuce or three) in the hole is quietly valuable here the same way a high spade is valuable in standard Chicago — it's worth continuing with an otherwise mediocre hand purely for a shot at half the pot, and this "low spade" incentive is the entire reason to distinguish Low Chicago from the standard high-spade version at the table.
Common house rules
Confirm high or low before dealing
Because the name 'Chicago' alone is ambiguous between the high-spade and low-spade versions, always confirm which is meant before the deal — calling it specifically 'Low Chicago' or 'High Chicago' avoids confusion at showdown.
Folded players ineligible for spade half
As in standard Chicago, most tables require a player to stay in through showdown to be eligible for the low-spade half of the pot, even if they'd otherwise hold the lowest spade.
Add the wild queen for Black Mariah
Adding a wild queen of spades to this exact structure turns Low Chicago into Black Mariah (also in this library) — a natural 'next step up' in complexity for a table that enjoys this game.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Black Mariah
An intense Chicago variant, also called Follow the Bitch: the queen of spades is wild, and the lowest spade in the hole (not the highest) wins half the pot.
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A Seven-Card Stud variant where half the pot is awarded not for the best hand, but for the highest spade dealt face down in the hole.
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The classic stud game and the backbone of home poker for decades: seven cards dealt to each player, three down and four up, with the best five-card hand winning.
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A Seven-Card Stud variant where the wild card for the hand isn't fixed in advance — players bid chips into a side pot for the right to name it, right after third street.
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