Chicago Varient

Saturday I showed up at a new dealers choice homegame, where the primary game was a varient of Chicago.


Now, they said normally chicago is played split pot, half to the high hand, half to the high spade in the hole. In their varient you have to win both to win either. If there is no winner, the pot carries over. If you fold, you're out until someone wins.


Dime ante, Quarter to bring in. .25 - 1 spread the rest of the time.


I was kind of dumbfounded, and I doubt I'll be going back to the game. But I am curious about the game. It seems to be just kind of a crap shoot to me.


So my questions are:


A) Isn't this an incredibly dumb game?

B) Is there any way to play this game well?

C) Am I missing something?

The first round you can play more or less like you would regular Chicago: don't play unless you've got a lock on one half or a very good chance of scooping. Play hands with the Ace, or hands like (Ah Ks)Kh and (Qs Qh) Qc. People are probably going to be staying in, hoping to get to play in the next round, even with so you can probably afford to play very tight.


Once in the pot, if it looks like you've got a lock one way, but will lose the other, you need to start jamming to knock people out. If you're certain its going to be a "split" pot, you need to do this even if you're not one of the people "splitting".


Next few rounds: if you're unfortunate enough to make it to a later round of the hand, its likely that you should never fold. Now the game really is a crap shoot.


Oh, and to answer your first question, yes it's a pretty dumb game. I've played dumber games, though. There are people I play with who call this high/low split game where you get nine cards, five of which are shared. I keep trying to tell them that any game where you get nine cards is not poker, but they keep calling it.

Jack,

I play the other game you speak of as well. I don't know why I play it. I fold just about every hand and if i do play with a "good" hand, its never very good by the end. yet my game keeps calling it as well.

what i think is fun is to flop to nuts and fold knowing that low/flush/whatever is sure to come and make my hand worthless. i'm usually right about it. i suggested that we should each put about 10 bets into the pot and just turn our hands over and deal it out. the table didn't like that.

The original version, the deal would go COMPLETELY around the table (having to stay in for every hand, no matter how stupid your hand was) if no one scooped. When it got back to the dealer, the scoop was no longer required.


So, you could be forced to call multiple bets for 8-10 HANDS, just to get 2h3d9s on the last hand... My response- I started to refuse to play it (i'd be dealt out).

Now it's been chopped down to 3-4 hands, then automatically split.


Your best bet is to refuse to be dealt in. To maintain a good atmosphere, insist on a hand number limit.

Conventional Chicago is a game for punishing suckers. The correct play, as in all split-pot games, is to play to scoop, which means that if you don't get dealt the ace of spades in your hole cards, you should fold on third street, and let the suckers draw to the high half of the pot. (If the ace of spades is one of the third-street upcards, then you can play with the spade king as one of your downcards.)


In this variant, you should play the same way, except your starting hand needs to be a strong high hand as well. Start with a pair of aces with the spade ace down; or best pair on the board with the ace of spades for a kicker. And be very easy to relinquish your hand, the earlier the better, if you think you may be beat for high.


Pots will tend to be huge in this game, as pot after pot will be missed, until some yotz wins with tens up with the ten of spades down. The key to coming out ahead is to not play past third street without being a favorite to scoop. Remember, if you've got a lock on the high spade but can't win the high hand, you are NOT freerolling (as you would be in conventional Chicago), but are instead contributing to the pot for the next hand, when someone else entirely can win your money.

if you fold, you're out COMPLETELY- no coming back in until after the pot is finally won.


Told you, VERY dumb game

Fold everything except (As Ax) Zy, (As, Xy) Xz, or (if the As is out on third street) (Ks Kx)Zy and (Ks Xy)Xz. If you take a scooping hand to the river and are beat for high, it's *probably* correct to take a bare As in the hole to fifth street to see if it improves; but you'd *really* want some kind of live draw to scoop to keep taking cards off. If you are so luckless or foolish to see two rivers without scooping, you probably ought to play any big spade with a draw to go with it on later hands.


But the key still is, *get away from non-scooping hands as early as possible* and let the suckers build pots for each other.

[Will]

A: Yes
B: No
C: Not unless we both are.

--
Will in New Haven