why 5 community cards

[jdl22]

My guess is that it comes from 7 card but I'm not sure. Why are there 5 community cards in Hold'em?

Has anybody played with more or less cards? Thought of this when I was playing and really wanted to see 6th street. Of course it goes the other way and at times I would like fourth street to be the last card.

[bdk3clash]

If hold'em were played with four community cards instead of five, losing players would whine about being sucked out on on on the turn.

[MicroBob]

"why 5 community cards"


because it's pretty and symmetrical.

[jdl22]

Symmetrical? Sure if you cut the center card in half.

[JTG51]

Because seven cards makes for a good poker game. Enough good hands to have lots of action but not so many that you need a monster to win.

[Tosh]

I guess its just because it gives more good hands. Theres so many variations of poker though so theres probably a version with 3 community cards somewhere.

[Peter Harris]

our university poker society had a talk by a bloke called Jesse May [who commentates some poker games in the UK].

He says the most compelling argument he heard is that old hustlers didn't like seven card stud - while they could fix the deck so they knew what the other players' hole cards were, the "river card" was an unknown parameter.

So, Hold 'em comes in, where the two hole cards can be fixed and all other cards are face up. Hurrah! the cheats win again.

Just an interesting anecdote, i imagine, but it has some elements that are rather compelling...

Peter Harris

[Spyder]

You know, I've been wondering exactly what kind of game would evolve with 3 down cards and 4 community cards (two on the flop).

I think it would be similar to hold'em but would allow the player a lot more power. The game would begin to be more about cahones than about the cards. What do the experts think about the type of game that would evolve from this style of play?

Spyder

[MicroBob]

doesnt crazy-pineapple involve 3 hole cards (but 5 community)??
not sure on this one.

i think they have pineapple on UB

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
You know, I've been wondering exactly what kind of game would evolve with 3 down cards and 4 community cards (two on the flop).

I think it would be similar to hold'em but would allow the player a lot more power. The game would begin to be more about cahones than about the cards. What do the experts think about the type of game that would evolve from this style of play?

[/ QUOTE ]

The potential for monster hidden hands (pocket trips and three flushes) will kill the action of the game.

[bakku]

[ QUOTE ]
doesnt crazy-pineapple involve 3 hole cards (but 5 community)??
not sure on this one.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, but you have to discard one of your hole cards after you see the flop

[andyfox]

At a 2+2 mini-convention here in L.A. at the Bike, we played a variation of pineapple in which you got 4 cards, discarded one after the flop, and then discarded one more after the turn. So you were left with a standard hold'em hand of two down cards by the river. It was a lot of fun.

We played 4-8. Dynasty and I lost $10,000 between the two of us. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[MicroBob]

"It was a lot of fun. Dynasty and I lost $10,000 between the two of us."

yeah....losing 10k sounds like a blast!!!


omaha has plenty of hidden-trip and straight potential....and there's plenty of action in lots of PLO games.
not exactly what we're talking about here, but i suspect the general principle is similar.

[James282]

Hey MicroBob, if you were really aware of how Omaha were played you would realize that it requires you to use exactly 2 of the cards from your hand and exactly three cards from the board to make your hand. Thus, starting with trips or a 4-flush or quads is actually a pretty terrible hand. Also, Omaha is a far less popular game because of the whole needing the nuts to feel confident problem - as Dynasty said, it kills the action. Hold'em is fine the way it is, although Pineapple makes for some interesting decisions.
-James