Double Psychotic Chowaha

[DPCondit]

Buzz, I just read in one of your posts from a week or two ago, that this was one of your favorite games. How do you play, how is this like regular Chowaha?

Don

[Buzz]

Hi Don - Double psychotic Chowaha (DPC-8) evolved in a series of steps - almost accidental steps. Let me explain.

I play poker almost every week in a home game with the same group of friends. The game is more about camaraderie than winning, and we have a good time playing some pretty screwy dealer’s choice dollar limit poker games.

One Friday evening there were six of us who were scheduled to play. As luck would have it, two of the people who had planned to play phoned the host at the last minute with personal emergencies and had to cancel. That left three of us en route to the game at the host’s house.

One of those present thought four players is not really enough and dealt each player two hands instead of just one. The idea was that you keep the two hands separate from each other, and have the option of playing no hands, one hand, or both hands. If you play both hands, then the cost per bet would be double the cost of playing only one hand.

The idea caught on. Now we deal some games (Texas hold ‘em high/low, for example) two handed sometimes even when there are seven or eight of us in attendance.

At some point, during that first evening of two handed games, someone dealt two handed high/low crazy pineapple (CP-8).

Do you see the possibilities? Maybe you can see the next step in the evolution of DPC-8 coming.

Someone suggested that, rather than discarding one card from each three card hand, we each have the option of making a third hand after the flop with the two discards, one from each original three-card hand. (Of course if you chose to only play one hand for the first betting round, then you wouldn't have that option).

Someone else wanted to play any two cards for low and so we also dropped the eight-or-better requirement for low.

And that is how psychotic pineapple was born.

We started playing psychotic pineapple (affectionately called "psycho") in that four handed game a couple of years ago. It's one of the most popular games we play.

Enter Chowaha. Played as a high only game, with only one hand, Chowaha did not have much appeal to the group. Even played as a high/low game, Chowaha did not have much appeal to the group.

Then earlier this year someone dealt a variation of Chowaha where each player was dealt three cards, with one of the three to be discarded after the (9-card) flop. That variation wasn’t played long enough to even get a name. Within the first hour it was dealt, the new variation quickly evolved into psychotic-Chowaha-8. And we played the game that way for several months.

(Someone again suggested dropping the eight-or-better requirement for low, as we had done for psychotic pineapple, but we decided to stick with the eight or better requirement for variations of Chowaha).

One person in the group wanted to also use the three vertical rows in the 3X3 flop group (in addition to the three horizontal rows). Just last month he dealt, for the first time, the 9 card flop group with the 2 turn cards and one river card off to the right side of the flop group and a second 2 turn cards and one river card below the nine card flop group.

Instead of the board looking like this:

F F F
.........T
F F F....R
.........T
F F F

the board looked like this:

FFF
.......T
FFF....R
.......T
FFF
.TT
..R

where F is flop card, T is turn card, R is river card.

The resultant 15-card matrix forms the board for *double* psychotic Chowaha. (Yes, we also tried *quadruple* psychotic Chowaha, but, gee whiz, enough is enough!)

Just as in regular Chowaha, you have to use both cards in your hand. Unlike regular Chowaha, DPC-8 is played high/low with an 8-or-better qualifier for low. Also unlike regular Chowaha, each player starts with two three-card hands which become three two card hands (one card only from each starting hand to be used in creating the third hand). And there are six possible 5-card DPC-8 boards rather than three possible 5-card Chowaha boards.

Will you be playing in the Sport of Kings O-8 tournament 5:00 p.m. Saturday at HPC? If so, I’ll be happy to show you the game during a break, if you like. DPC-8 sounds goofy, but it’s fun in a non-serious game of low-limit dealer's choice.

In a game of dealer's choice where one player tries to top the next with nutty poker variations, DPC-8 certainly qualifies as one of the nuttiest.

Just my opinion.

Buzz

[rr2000]

an example would probably help.

[Buzz]

"an example would probably help."

Don Condit, the poster to whom I responded, played (and made some money) in the last ESCARGOT Chowaha contest. Thus he clearly understands Chowaha (the starting point for understanding double psychotic Chowaha-8).

However, I don't know exactly where to start for you, if you're interested. Do you understand Chowaha?

It's a game where you're dealt two cards. The first betting round follows.

Then nine cards (three by three) are exposed. This is the flop. The second betting round follows.

Next two more cards are exposed. This is the turn. The third betting round follows.

Finally the last board card, the river, is exposed. The fourth and final betting round follows.

The game may be played high-only or high/low. As played at ESCARGOT every year, the game is high-only.

Each player must use *both* of the two cards in his/her hand plus three board cards to make a five card hand.

Here's an example for you.

The flop is made up of three horizontal rows of three cards each.

Suppose the flop is
7cKc2c (call this row A)
3d6sJs (call this row B)
4s3s9d (call this row C)

There are two turn cards, one of which goes with rows A and B, and the other of which goes with rows B and C.

Suppose the turn is
6h
3c

The board then looks like this:

7cKc2c
............6h
3d6sJs
............3c
4s3s9d

There is one river card, which goes with rows A, B, and C.

Suppose the river is 5h.

The board then looks like this:

7cKc2c
............6h
3d6sJs........5h
............3c
4s3s9d

The four board complete rows are

7cKc2c6h5h
3d6sJs6h5h
3d6sJs3c5h
4s3s9d3c5h

Notice that horizontal row B of the flop is used twice, once with one turn card, and once with the other.

Now suppose the cards in your hand are 2h7d.

You make two pair with the top row, sevens and twos.
You make a 76532 low with the second row.
You make a pair of threes with the third row.
You make a pair of threes with the fourth row.

The best high hand would be a pair of jacks, making jacks full of threes with the third row.

The best low hand would be A2, making a wheel with the fourth row.

There's a web site somewhere that explains this game better than I just did. Try

http://www.coonrod.com/scot/poker/chowaha.html

I don't know much about the internet and I love/hate computers. To get the above site, I just typed "Chowaha" in the internet address box and then clicked on the first choice provided to me by the search engine. Then I copied and pasted the address you see above. There were twelve pages of choices listed for Chowaha.

Hope this helps you. It will be a couple of days before I get back to this site, but feel free to ask more if you like and I will eventually try to answer your questions (or anyone else is welcome to chime in).

Buzz

[DPCondit]

Chowaha High-Low? Good, I'm glad you're playing it high-low, it seems like it would be much better that way. DPC-8? I like the initials, I am known by some as DPC3.

That sounds like a fun game to play.

I guess that tournament is today, huh? I had fogotten about that. I'll see if I can make it, I'm not 100% sure whether I'll be there. I did play the Bike Tourney a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't see you or any of the "poker pals" there, oh well.

Although my "overall" expectation in tournaments has been good, I haven't cashed in a while, and the prospect of an "easy win" in a ring game sounds more tempting (obviously not much of a guarantee there either, but much higher probability of a win, and much lower variance), but, it's early in the day, I may just do both.

I'll hopefully see you, but as you can see, I'm not overly committed either way right now, and the fact that I haven't cashed a tournament for a while *may* tilt me towards just playing a ring game, or not.

Good luck,
Don

[DPCondit]

Does his explanation make sense to you?

It is actually a great game (not spread at casinos), like hold em as you get two starting cards, but like Omaha because you have to use BOTH of the cards in your hand. It is generally played high, although it seems (to me anyways, I love high-low) that the game would be ideally suited for high-low.

You have 3 flops to choose from:

FFF
FFF
FFF

Then the turn comes:

FFF
T
FFF
T
FFF

Now notice how the turn cards are between the first and second and second and third flops. The 1st flop can only use the 1st turn card, the middle flop can use either turn card, and the 3rd flop can only use the 2nd turn card. Then the river:

FFF
T
FFF R
T
FFF

The river card is in the middle and can be used with any of the flops/turn cards.

My illustration is off a little the turn cards are supposed to be slightly after the flop cards, which is how I typed it, but they are showing up all the way to the left, still it illustrates the mechanics of the game clearly enough.

Don`