 Ten interesting variants for your neighbourhood poker get-togethers.
Turn on your TV and you'd think
the only way to play poker is the boring Texas Hold 'Em game. The big
money tournaments have spurred an enormous growth in neighbourhood
poker get-togethers (and lots of reckless online gambling), but if you
just stick to the casino hold 'em games or the old standards
(seven-card stud, five-card draw) you're missing out on a lot of fun.
While I do agree with purists that some poker 'variants' aren't poker
at all, there are some great games that are
poker, and which involve some intriguing strategy, bluffing, and even
(gasp) cooperation. Or which are just plain fun. Here in Caledon our
monthly get-together now has 18 players at three different tables
(rotating at the breaks), so we've learned a lot of new games. Here are
our current ten favourites:
- Do Ya:
Like six-card stud, with a bunch of interesting wrinkles. Each player
is dealt a single card face-down. All cards of that rank in that
player's hand are considered wild, including the face-down one. The
dealer starts with the player to his left, turns over the top card from
the deck, and offers it to that player. If the player wants the card,
he adds it to his hand, face-up. If he does not, the dealer turns a
second card over. If the player does not want the second card, the
dealer turns over a third card, and the player is forced to take it.
The dealer then moves on to the second player to his left. If there are
any face-up cards after the previous player's choice, the current
player may take his pick of them. If he does not like any of them, the
dealer turns over another card, just like with the first player. Once
there are three face-up cards, the current player is always forced to
take the third one. At the end of the round, any cards rejected by the
last player are discarded, there's a betting round, and the whole
process is repeated five more times until each player has one down and
five up cards. Best hand wins. You can usually guess what each player
has down (wild) after a couple of rounds, so players try to appeal to
others to sacrifice by taking a card that would be wild to the next
player even though it's of no value to them. The psychology can get
interesting. The bluffing possibilities are extensive. And I've seen
straight flushes lose. Note: we play this as a six-card game, one more
than the standard.
- Pass the Trash / Anaconda:
A delightfully aggravating seven-card stud variant. Each player is
dealt seven cards face down, but must then (all players at once) pass
three of them to the left (potentially breaking up a great natural
hand). In the Anaconda variant, you then pass two more left and then
one more left (all players at once) -- though some dealers have the
second and third passes going right, next-to-left, or across. A betting
round follows. Now comes the pièce de résistance
-- the 'slow reveal'. Each player discards (face down) two cards and
puts his five best cards in a pile in the order he plans to reveal
them. Then all players at once reveal one card, followed by a betting
round, and this is repeated four times until all cards are showing. The
game can also be played high/low or lowball just to add to the mayhem.
Or for a truly perverse variant, have the winner split the pot with the
player to his right (the one who passed him the cards). The order of
the reveal can disguise a good hand as a bad one or vice versa -- for
awhile. Three of a kind can often bluff out a flush.
- Guts: There
are many variants of this game; here's the one we play: Ante, then each
player gets five cards face down and looks at them. At the count of
three, all players at the same time drop their hands if they're
folding, keep them if they're staying in. Best hand wins the pot, worst
hand of those staying in must match the pot. Deal passes left, ante and
repeat the process (everyone's dealt back in, even if they folded the
last round) until only one player stays in, and he wins the final big
pot. If the deal goes all around without this happening (i.e. with only
one player staying in) a final round is played with everyone staying in
and a regular last betting round for the whole pot. If everyone folds
in any round, the highest hand has to ante for everyone for the next
round.
- Choose Your Own: Like
seven-card stud, except you choose your own cards. Each player is dealt
one card down and one card up, followed by a betting round. Then a
kitty equal to one card per player is dealt face up in the middle, and
starting with the lowest card showing, each player in turn picks a card
from the kitty. After another betting round repeat the kitty deal and
selection starting with the lowest hand showing, until each player has
seven cards (one down, six up). The order of choice tends to keep
everyone in until the bitter end.
- Countdown: A
minor quirky variant of seven-card stud in which the denomination of
the wild card equals the number of players still in. You are not
permitted to fold (and hence change the wild card denomination) unless
you would have to pay money to the pot to stay in. So if you have a
mitt-full of deuces down, you bet like crazy and try to force all but
one other player out. But if you have a mitt-full of deuces up, the
other players won't bite.
- Follow the Queen, Bitch: A
home-grown combination of two seven-card stud variants. In Follow the
Queen, all queens are wild and the denomination dealt (face up)
immediately after a queen is also wild, unless another queen is
subsequently turned up, in which case the denomination dealt
immediately after that queen is wild instead. If the last card dealt up
is a queen, only queens are wild. If no queen is dealt up, or if the
Queen of Spades (the Bitch) is dealt up, all hands are thrown in, the
pot stays, only players who did not fold are dealt in and ante for the
next round, and this continues until a round is dealt that contains at
least one queen dealt up but not the Queen of Spades. In a seven-player
game, at least one throw-in is likely and pots can get large.
- Threes Call: A
variant of seven-card stud in which the recipient of the last '3' dealt
face up gets to declare whether the game is regular (high hand wins) or
lowball. As each '3' is turned up, the recipient must immediately
declare regular or lowball, which makes the decision more complicated
for the recipient of the next '3'.
- Diablo:
A variant of five-card draw. Deuces are wild, and you can only draw up
to two cards each. The wrinkle is that after the winner has collected
the pot, if the person who opened didn't win, he has to pay into the
pot a penalty of twice the ante times the total number of players --
The deal then rotates left, another hand is dealt to those who didn't
fold, they re-ante and play for the pot including the penalty. Rounds
continue until the person who opens wins the pot. If no one opens a
round, cards are thrown in and deal rotates.
- No-Peek: Purists
hate this game, but it is suspenseful and can build some great pots.
Each player is dealt seven cards (nine if there are five players or
less), which are left face down and unseen by anyone. Player to left of
dealer turns over a card, and each player around the table after that
flips cards until they beat the highest hand showing on the table,
which sets off a betting round. As each player runs out of cards
without topping the best hand showing, he folds. There is no betting
round after folds. This game can be played with wildcard variations,
such as Woolworths (5s and 10s wild, 4s get an extra card from the
deck, black 3s eliminate you from play) or Night Baseball (3s and 9s
wild, 3s have to match the pot or fold, 4s get an extra card from the
deck).
- Aviation: This
is a less-boring variation of Texas Hold 'Em. Each player gets four
cards face down instead of the usual two. Each player must discard one
card before the flop and another immediately after the flop. After
that, usual Hold 'Em rules apply.
We
play with low stakes, modest limits and very lenient house rules. It's
mostly couples, though spouses traditionally start at separate tables.
Winners at the time of the 10pm snack-break rotate to a different
table. The cards speak, so if you don't notice that your hand is the
winning
one, you still win. As you can tell, we go for games with suspense and
drama rather than those requiring machismo or great skill.
At the end of the evening we traditionally play a decidedly non-poker winner-takes-all game called Chase the Ace
to allow losers to recoup their losses. Ace is low in this game. Each
player places three one-dollar chips in front of them. First dealer
gives each player one card down. Starting to dealer's left, each player
can choose to 'stay' or to trade their card with the person on their
left. Player to the left must trade unless they have a king, in which
case they show the king immediately. When the trading gets back around
to the dealer, he can choose to 'stay' or to trade his card for a card
he cuts from the deck. Cards are revealed and player(s) with the lowest
denomination lose and must pay one dollar chip to the pot. Deal passes
to left and rounds continue until all players except one are eliminated
(run out of their three chips). That player wins the substantial pot.
It's a game that's mostly luck, but it can be very suspenseful.
And that's how we spend one Friday evening each month, when we're not trying to save the world and stuff.
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
