Home Game ideas

[jakuda]

For those that play in some home games you know how it is...in the beginning of the night the normal games are played like holdem, omaha hi, 7stud, lowball etc... but during the end third of the session the wild games come out. Heck sometimes we invent some games to see how the game theory would end up like. Such as NL 3-card Indian Poker HiLo declare. That one wasn't my creation.

But anyways any of you guys have wild poker variations you've played or created?

[ericsind]

I always liked a game we called annaconda. It's a high/low declare game where each person is dealt 7 cards face down. There's a betting round, then 3 cards are passed to the left. You take your best 5, arrange them in the order you want to turn them, and put them face down on the table. Everybody turns their first card, and there's a betting round, etc. until everybody has 4 cards face up. Then there's a declare for high/low, and another betting around after the declare.

The order you display your cards in is very important for betting/bluffing purposes, and it gets expensive when one guy has the lock low and everybody else is going for high.

[heatscan]

The only variation that gets played in the home games around here is "Blackjack Style Hold 'Em", in which one hole card is dealt face up. I haven't played it enough to develop any special strategy for it, though. Mostly it plays like normal hold 'em except that people generally don't pay you off if you have a suspicious hand. Of course, there are many more oppurtunities for bluffing too.

[tdomeski]

NL Crazy Holdem

Similar to NL Holdem except instead of 2 cards you get 5, 5 community cards (3 flop, 1 turn, 1 river) and you can use any combonation of the 5 cards in your hand and the 5 cards on the board.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

[ QUOTE ]
Heck sometimes we invent some games to see how the game theory would end up like. Such as NL 3-card Indian Poker HiLo declare.

[/ QUOTE ]

Youz are a bunch of sick SOBs. Please do invite me to your home games! I'll teach you my creation, 666*, the evil-est game of all times. Youz might throw me out tho after hearing this one.

Personally, I can play straight poker, the same old boring crap, all day long every day etc etc ad infinitum. I like home games with crazy games, it breaks up the monotony and makes poker fun. Cheex, guts, baseball, dr. pepper, 44 low in the hole, mexican sweat, whatever, I've never seen a poker game I won't play, tho I've invented a few others won't play.

Also, in the small home games I like to play in, I am often the best player there. However, I am almost never playing the best poker there. Home games are an excuse to play like a maniac for me. My favorite home game quote "is it my straddle?"

al

* 666

played pot limit, TABLE STAKES RULE IS SUSPENDED, BUT ONLY CASH TALKS

sixes are wild. nothing else is ever wild.

it's generally played seven card no peek. Someone turns a card and then bets or checks. The next person turns until he beats the first hand, then bets or checks. Only the highest hand may initiate betting, tho others may raise if he bets (even if they have not seen their cards, lol). If the highest hand checks, it goes to the next player in line to try to beat his hand. (no one can initiate betting except the highest showing hand).

Suicide king (Kh) and one eyed jacks are "match the pot or fold." But if you match the pot you get a "free" card (face down).

Here's the tricky part - anytime your cards add up to six, you start getting extra cards. The first one is free. The second one is some small amount, usually the size of the ante, say a quarter in a typical home game. The third one is fifty cents, the fourth a dollar, fifth $2, sixth $4, etc etc it keeps doubling. All "free" cards are face down of course. ALL combinations of cards adding up to six MUST be counted, and ALL must be paid for all at once. Therefore if you have AA23 showing, that adds up to six two ways (ala cribbage). Turn another three and that's three more combinations. Turn another ace, deuce, trey or four and you could be in big trouble. THE TABLE STAKES RULE IS SUSPENDED FOR THIS GAME. YOU MUST PAY FOR ALL YOUR "FREE CARDS" AT ONCE, OR FOLD, BUT YOU CANNOT EVER TURN THEM DOWN, EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE CASH IN YOUR STACK. EITHER GET THE CASH FROM YOUR POCKET, OR YOU ARE **FORCED** TO FOLD. You do of course always have the option to fold and not pay for your free cards / match the pots.

As a final dastardly and evil twist, the Qs is the KILL card, if you turn it up, you are instantly and forever dead, you lose whatever you had in the pot so far, gone, bye-bye, DOA.

This game can get very, very evil. I've made a TON of money playing it too.

I shant go into great detail about the strategy. If you can't figure it out, please do come play in my home game.

al