No Peek Baseball

[Chris Daddy Cool]

Me and my friends were having a debate on a rule in no peek baseball. If the first card flipped over is a wild, say 3, is it treated as face value or is it played as highest possible card, A?

[Buzz]

Chris - Do it any way you like, but usually a single wild card counts as an ace. The next player has to beat an ace.

To my everlasting shame, I remember actually dealing this game in my youth.

If your group plays this game, they'll love "Tonto." Everybody gets one card and, without looking at it, sticks in on their forehead and holds it there with one finger so that everybody else can see it. Then there is a round of betting, followed by a declaration (high, low, or both), followed by a second and final betting round.

Buzz

[turnipmonster]

no peek baseball? it's called night baseball, my man.

--turnipmonster

[Phat Mack]

Everybody gets one card and, without looking at it, sticks in on their forehead and holds it there with one finger so that everybody else can see it.

All forum members should follow Buzz's dictum when playing Tonto. The cards last a lot longer when you don't spit on them to stick them to your forhead.

[gmunny]

Usually wild cards on the board are used as highest possible card/hand.

[gmunny]

Here's another "no peek" game. I really don't like no peek games, but this one is actually fun. It's called "10-card" or "bunk beds". Deal out 10 cards down to everone (max number of players is 5) and in rotational order each person flips up one card and must decide to put it in either a "low hand" or a "high hand". After everyone flips one card, there is a betting round. After betting there is a rotation of who flips first. At the end of the game everyone should have a 5 card high and a 5 card low hand, where best hands spilt the pot. To spice it up, after the 7th card is turned up, each player can trade one card between his low hand and high hand (also can just move move card instead of a trade) for a $1. The fun part is the decision making in whether to put your card in the low or high hand, determing the outs left and whether you think 8 is good or to go for a better low! This game generates a lot of action and is pretty fun.
G$

[Schmed]

highest possible card.

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Why not just chuck your money in the middle and cut cards? High card wins and you can do something else afterwords, like play poker.

[Buzz]

gmunny - Since only five of us could make my regular Friday evening weekly private game last night, we tried "Bunk Beds."

We changed it a bit. Exposing one card at a time would lead to an outrageous number of betting rounds. And we gradually modified the game as the evening progressed. The way it ended up is shown below.

(1) Ten "no peek" cards are dealt to each player. The game would have worked the same way for us if it was not played as a "no peek" game - if each player was simply dealt two cards at a time until everybody still playing had ten cards. (Of course if someone folded ahead of time, that would change the order of distribution of the cards from that of the no peek version).

(2) Each player exposes two cards. The cards can go in either of two piles or both can go in one pile.

The first game we played, we made one pile (the one on the right for each player) the high hand and the other pile the low hand. Somebody ended up with four cards to a straight flush in his low hand. After some discussion we decided (for all subsequent deals) to make either hand a high hand, a low hand, or both.

(3) Betting round number 1.

(4) Each player exposes two more cards. The cards can go in either of two piles or both can go in one pile. At this point the card distribution in the two piles for each player can be 4-0, 3-1, or 2-2.

(5) Betting round number 2.

(6) Each player exposes two more cards. The cards can go in either of two piles or both can go in one pile. But there never can be more than five cards in one pile. (Might have been better if there could have been - but that was never allowed in our modified rules). At this point the card distribution in the two piles for each player can be 5-1, 4-2, or 3-3.

(7) Betting round number 3.

(8) Each player exposes two more cards. The cards can go in either of the two piles or both can go in one pile. There still can never be more than five cards in one pile. Thus, at this point the card distribution in the two piles for each player can either be 5-3 or 4-4.

There is a noticable slowing of the action before people place their cards here. Everybody is trying to see what everyvbody else is doing before committing their own cards to one pile or the other. It never became an issue, but at any time someone might have insisted that the person ahead of him in the btting order make the decision first. We were rotating the betting order, but it simply never was an issue at this point.

(9) Betting round number 4.

There is a second noticable slowing before betting round number 4. Everybody is looking at everyvbody elses cards, counting their own outs and their opponent's outs.

(10) Each player exposes one more card. The card can go in either of the two piles. At this point the card distribution in the two piles for each player is 5-4.

(11) Betting round number 5.

(12) Optional card exchange round:

The first game we played, we allowed one
card to be switched between the high and low hands, or one card could be moved from one hand to the other. The price to make either of these moves was one dollar. After a few games we decided to let anyone move as many cards as he wanted from one hand to the other. The price was one dollar for each card moved. (One player wanted to be allowed to muck one card and play two four card hands with the tenth card going into one pile or the other, but we didn't allow that. Maybe it would have been better if we had.)

There is a third noticable slowing of the action before people exchange their cards here. Everybody is trying to figure what everyvbody else will be doing before movinging any cards from one pile to the other. It's such a huge advantage to be the last to make this decision that we rotated the order.

(13) Betting round number 6. This is the final betting round. And it's brutal. Capped every time with anyone still on a draw getting whip-sawed between the leader for high and the leader for low.

(14) The tenth card is exposed and goes into the four card hand.

One guy who usually loses had a big night - which was nice. These are friends with whom I've played poker for years, people with whom I play golf, people I see for other social occasions.

We'll probably never play the game again (it misses the essence of poker and is also too slow), but it was interesting last night.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Buzz

[gmunny]

Hi Buzz,
Thanks for trying it anyways. Did you play it the whole night? We usually play dealers choice (most of our games are usually Hold Em or Omaha Split 1/2), but if we are short handed we seem to play this game at least 3 or 4 times during the night. I just have a few comments to your reply.

"We changed it a bit. Exposing one card at a time would lead to an outrageous number of betting rounds."

We also play with 10 betting rounds. I know it's a lot but the first 3-4 rounds are pretty tame (we play quarter/dollar chips), so its usually a quarter until someone's hand takes the lead. But these pots usually get pretty big anyways.

"Everybody is trying to see what everyvbody else is doing before committing their own cards to one pile or the other. It never became an issue, but at any time someone might have insisted that the person ahead of him in the btting order make the decision first."

We play where each player flips one card in a rotational order. After each player flips one card, then there is a betting round. To ensure fairness to position, the flip and bet rotate each round. For example, in the first round, the first person to flip is first person to the left of the dealer. After all people flip one card, this person then bets. For the start of the 2nd round, the next person (2 left of the dealer) flips first and will also start the betting. This is also true when its time to switch/exhcange cards.

"we made one pile (the one on the right for each player) the high hand and the other pile the low hand. Somebody ended up with four cards to a straight flush in his low hand. After some discussion we decided (for all subsequent deals) to make either hand a high hand, a low hand, or both."

Although it sucks that you may have a winning high hand on the low hand, this is what I think is one of the most interesting asepcts of the game. Each player must commit whether they are going for low or the high. I thinking by allowing a "both" or "swing" hand changes the game too much. Incidently, the only way to scoop is to have a both high and a low hand.

"There is a second noticable slowing before betting round number 4. Everybody is looking at everyvbody elses cards, counting their own outs and their opponent's outs."

This is true, it does slow down. One thing to note it that this actually helps some of our newer players understand outs.

"The first game we played, we allowed one card to be switched between the high and low hands, or one card could be moved from one hand to the other. The price to make either of these moves was one dollar. After a few games we decided to let anyone move as many cards as he wanted from one hand to the other. The price was one dollar for each card moved. (One player wanted to be allowed to muck one card and play two four card hands with the tenth card going into one pile or the other, but we didn't allow that. Maybe it would have been better if we had.)"

Again, I think that you are changing the game too much. If a person needs to exchange more than one card in their hand, they should have folded. Part of the so-called strategy is to anticipate which card(s) will be moved. For example if I have a 8 of diamonds and I have 2 cards that are diamonds in my high hand already, then I may put the 8 in my low hand. I can switch this 8 if I think 8 is not a good enough low or if I need the diamond for the flush. I think if you allow an unlimited amount of exchanges, you may as well as play 7 card high/low no peek. To me the interesting part of the game is the committing to a low and a high hand and thinking ahead of how to use your 1 card exchange later.

"We'll probably never play the game again (it misses the essence of poker and is also too slow), but it was interesting last night."

Well thanks for trying it out. As I said, we don't play it all of the time, but it is something different and it is more fun than playing "night baseball" or the other "blind" games. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif
G$