Three dragon ante is a game made by Wizards of the Coast recently, a simple but strategic card game using one deck for the group. Best played with about 4-8 people, I'd say. I've only played twice, and don't own a deck myself, but it's really fun. As mentioned, it's sorta like poker for D&D.
Each player starts with something like 50 gold (using tokens to represent increments of 1, 5, and 10 gold). Everyone is dealt a hand, then antes a card from their hand. Those ante cards are flipped face-up, and whoever anted the highest-valued card becomes leader for that round. Everyone must then ante an amount of gold equal to the value of that highest ante card. The ante cards are put off to the side, by the deck, and the ante gold is put in the middle of the table; whoever wins the round gets that ante'd gold.
The deck itself is made up of various dragon cards, based on the D&D chromatic and metallic dragons (so, 10 varieties; but there are many copies of each of these dragons, of varying value), plus one Tiamat, one Bahamut, one Dracolich, and one each of various "mortal" cards (there's a Priest, a Dragonslayer, a Druid, a Princess, a Thief, an Archmage, and maybe 1-2 others I don't recall). All cards have a value ranging from 1 to 13, if I recall correctly.
The person who won the card ante, the "leader" for the round, goes first, placing a card from his or her hand face-up in front of him/herself. The ability of the leader's card activates, and then the next player goes. This continues until all players have laid down three cards in a row, called their "flight". However, each card's ability only activates if the card has an equal or lower value than the card just put down by the previous player (IIRC). Only the leader's cards all activate automatically, IIRC. Once all players have a flight of 3 cards laid down before them, the round ends; the player with the highest total value in his or her flight wins the round, and thus the ante'd gold from that round. However, the ante cards remain in the discard pile or whatnot. If two or more players have a tie in their flight's total value, then those tied players each play another card to see who wins the round. If still tied, they each go again, IIRC, until someone wins. You lose the game if you have no gold at the end of the round. The game ends when one only one player remains.
At the end of each turn (that is, each time that every player has played a card; I might be confusing rounds and turns though), whoever played the highest-valued card that turn becomes leader for the next turn. Also, if at any time a player has only 1 card in hand, he or she has to add some more gold (I forget how much) to the ante and draw 3 cards (IIRC). At the start of each round beyond the first, each player is dealt 3 more cards, IIRC, to add to their existing hand. Any cards played are discarded at the end of the round.
Each card has a special ability of some sort. For instance, some of them allow you to steal a certain amount of gold from the ante, or to steal a certain amount of gold from another player or all players. Some abilities allow you to draw a card, or to force an opponent to discard a card. Some allow you to steal a card from an opponent's hand. A few cards have the ability to steal some of the round's ante cards and add them to your hand. And so on and so forth. The mortals have some of the better abilities, but are kinda limited in their usefulness. For instance, the Druid makes it so that the player with the WEAKEST flight wins the round, so the Druid is only helpful if you have two other weak cards in your hand that you intend to play that round. The Dragonslayer, of course, can slay a dragon from another player's flight (and they don't get to replace it). The Thief, naturally, steals some gold from the ante or from another player. I forget exactly what the others do.
Whenever a player plays their third card for the round, they might have a Power Flight or Color Flight; if I recall correctly, you cannot get a Power Flight or Color Flight if you have any mortals in your flight, though; a Power Flight is if you have three dragons with the same card value; a Color Flight is if you have three dragons of the same color (three silver dragon cards, for instance). Bahamut counts as all five kinds of metallic dragon for purposes of getting a Color Flight, and Tiamat counts as all five kinds of chromatic dragon for purposes of getting a Color Flight. Mortals and the Dracolich can't be used to get a Color Flight. Also, Bahamut, IIRC, prevents you from winning the round if you have any chromatic dragons in your flight, and Tiamat does likewise if you have any metallic dragons in your flight. If you get a Color Flight or Power Flight, though, you win some gold from the ante or from all players (I forget exactly which, and I think it depends on which kind of special flight you have), and I think there's something else about those two special flights that I don't remember right now.
I'm explaining the game in more detail than necessary, and really there's just one rules card in the deck that explains it all. And, obviously, I don't recall some of the minor details; the rules card is pretty concise and explains the game well enough.
