Kill Game (poker) - Triggers

Triggers

Rules on what triggers a kill hand (known as "activating the kill") vary. Sometimes the kill is activated when the last pot won exceeds a particular value. One common value is ten times the value of the large bet (in a $20/$40 game, the kill would be active if the previous pot won was greater than $400). Another common way a kill is activated is when a single player wins two pots in a row.

The kill can be active during multiple consecutive hands. When the kill is triggered by a pot amount, if the kill pot exceeds a certain value (often 10 times the kill hand's large bet), the kill will remain active, though it may change players. When triggered by winning consecutive pots, the kill will typically remain active on the same player if that player continues to win consecutive hands.

In "split-pot" games such as high-low or when two players tie, if a player has won the previous hand and splits the pot with another player, that may also activate a kill hand. If a pot is split and neither player has won the previous hand, winning the pot of the next hand does not typically activate a kill hand. In high-low games, typically the kill is activated when one person takes the whole pot (known as "scooping"), either by having both the winning high and low hands, or by having the winning high hand when no low qualifies, though in some games the pot must exceed a specified amount for the kill to be triggered.