What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

I play with friends who don't like traditional games so we end up playing Baseball and Anaconda etc. over and over. It's incredibly boring when every other card is wild and every hand ends up with 5 of a kind beating a straight flush, but what can I do- they're my friends and I enjoy hanging out with them.

Any suggestions on different games of this ilk to break up the monotony? I'm not thinking of Guts or 7/27 or anything like that. Just some variations or made up games that are fun and require some skill.

Thanks for any feedback

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

If you guys are into Omaha or that wimpy limit game, 7-card stud (note the sarcasm in wimpy), 7-stud Chicago is a fun way to mix it up (highest spade in the hole, NOT showing, takes half the pot, the best hand takes the other half). A variation my friends and I made was by making Omaha Chicago. We play it two ways: standard Omaha rules, except highest spade takes half the pot; OR Omaha with a twist -- you can use any or all 4 of your cards. I don't know. There's a ton of things you can change to make exciting with Omaha Chicago.

Texas hold 'em Chicago? Texas hold 'em with the turn and river coming out at the same time? Texas hold 'em or Omaha with cards turned up?

Just ideas.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

My favorite home game is "TJ Cloutier" (AKA: Bob Dole). TJ Cloutier is played in honor of TJ's two second place finishes in the WSOP main event, and is the exact same as 7 Card Stud... only the 2nd best hand wins at showdown. TJ Cloutier hold 'em is a pretty good game as well.

I like it because you can get some really big pots going without having to resort to wild cards.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

I don't know the name, but 5CS H/L declare is good times.

-Criag
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Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. Omaha Chicago sounds good, although in general this crowd has to really spice up games like Hold'em and Omaha and 7 stud- things like "your lowest hole card is wild and you can buy (exchange) two cards at the end." Or we play "Bingo" where there are 9 community cards turned up one at a time to go along with your 4 hole cards, the highest of which is wild. Good grief.

The T.J. Cloutier variation may be a nice change of pace. It'll throw everyone off but positioning your hand for a 2nd place finish sounds interesting. I'll see if it I can talk everyone into trying it.

5 card H/L is my kind of game but alas may be too much like real poker for my friends. They don't like calculating whether or not their ace high is good- they like to see royal flushes around the table. I like 7 card high/low stud roll your own, but they usually insist that we play with face cards wild or something which kind of throws the game out of whack.

Much appreciated. If I have to play Anaconda one more time I'm going to explode.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know the name, but 5CS H/L declare is good times.

-Criag
<font color="red">

[/ QUOTE ]

this is the only good answer

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

When we play dealer's choice games, we play a lot of games. Personal favorites are:

Cross
Good-Bad
Chicago
Greek
Guts
The Big Gay (also known as Mariah)

The last one is a type of seven-card stud in which in order to take down the pot, you must have the best hand AND the highest hole-card spade. If no player has that, another hand is dealt, with the same antes and betting. Pots in this game can get huge, but I recommend it.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

6-stud with first and last card down is better

Here are a few
 

Non-wild:

5/7/9- This is a high/low game. 5 card draw that becomes 7 card stud. first round, dump up to 3 cards to get up to 4 (drawing to 6 cards). Second round, dump 3 to get 4 to get 7 cards.
Now arrange them in order. Next 4 rounds, turn one card at a time and bet each time. Declare at the end, make a final bet.

Tree- Sort of a reverse Omaha. You are dealt 4-5 cards, you set up 7 pairs of board card in a tree pattern (trunk and canopy). Turn over two pairs on the canopy, bet. Turn over the other two pairs, bet. Now bets double and you turn over one pair on the "trunk" on each round.
You HAVE to use 3 cards from your hand and a pair on the board. High/low declare.

Double Diamond- Omaha/8 version. 4 cards to each player, 8 board cards (two diamond shapes touching at the side). Must use a row of 3 connecting cards and two from your hand. Turn over 3 cards, bet, 2 more cards, bet, then 1 card for three rounds. You can add a replace to this game.

Bingo- not a traditional type game. Each player gets X cards, until only around 11 cards are left. Player to dealer's left discards a rank- any matching cards are also discarded by all players. Each player does this once, with dealer going last (4 players, go around twice)
High/low game- cards are face value, with royalty worth 10 and Aces worth either 1 or 11 (or both if you're scooping)
Declare, bet and show cards. An ending (acquire or replace option) is good for this game.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Thanks for the additional suggestions.

Missle, that Mariah game with the escalating pots sounds great- I'll definitely play this next weekend. Haven't heard of Greek or Good/Bad, but I'll google 'em and see if anything turns up.

Lottery Larry, thanks for the reminder about 6 stud with two down. I used to play this a long time ago and it will be resurrected. Tree and double-diamond also seem perfect for my motley assortment of friends- especially with the replace at the end. In our game everyone likes to have many, many chances to make a hand [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img])

Thanks all.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple, Iron cross, tomahoe are all great texas hold em varations
You should also try chinese poker, It is not really poker,but it is fun and there can be a lot of strategy to it.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

We play some really crazy games and can recommend some.

Double Flop Crazy Pinapple - I am trying to get this one more popular so you need to try it. Just like crazy pineapple, but there are two flops (and turns and rivers). Winner of each flop splits the pot. Great paradox when figuring which card to toss after the flop. Makes for good size pots.

Cincinnatti - 5 Card draw. After draw (and betting) is completed, place 5 cards face down on board. Flip 1, bet, flip 1, bet, flip 1, bet, flip 1, bet, show. A lot of betting.

And the holy grail of messed up games:

Clusterf**k - 7 Card Stud - Follow the queen and queens, baseball, low chicago, black mariah. So to start 3s, 9s, Qs are wild and the card that follows an up queen is also wild. Potentially 16 wildcards. 4's (up or down) can buy another card. If the queen of spades comes up, everyone still in tosses in their cards, they re-ante, and a new hand is dealt (max 3 times). This keeps people in and the pot will grow huge. With low Chicago it is a seriously crazy game. We play $1 max bet/raise and have had $40 pots. Not much strategy (you want the 2 of spades, a lot of wild cards, and an ace or king). Best hands (7 or 8 handed) is typically 4 of a kind, straight flushes, and yes, five of a kind...(I hear the collective gasp). We play this quite a bit after we have drank a lot. Takes a bit to get used to, but a blast to play (every once in a while).

If you like Anaconda but want a change: - Kings are wild for low and 3s are wild for high.

Or even better:
Love thy neighbor: High only, pass left only, winner splits the pot with the player still in to their right. Another good paradox game...you want to pass good cards, but keep them as well. A pretty good strategy game.

Blind Baseball - 7 cards down. No peek. 3s and 9s are wild. 4s buys another. Not much skill....but kinda fun.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Blind Baseball - 7 cards down. No peek. 3s and 9s are wild. 4s buys another. Not much skill....but kinda fun.

[/ QUOTE ]
We call it Night Baseball. It's a bitch to be the dealer since everyone else rolls cards and you have to keep putting in bets from the 6 players in front of you before you see your first card...

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Make it high/low to give you a better chance on making decisions.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Make it high/low to give you a better chance on making decisions.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nice idea. The only time NB worked to my advantage as the dealer was when several guys had rolled a bunch of cards trying to beat an early pair and there was only 1 wild exposed. I knew I had to be sitting a at least a couple of them.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

THERMONUCLEAR PINEAPPLE

I think I read it on this site somewhere...

Anyways, flop/turn/river hi-lo game. 5 cards dealt to each player.
Toss 1 after the flop, another after the turn, another on the river.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

You might owe us royalties for the use of the name! :P

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple,

[/ QUOTE ]

What is the difference between these two?

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Pineapple, you discard before the flop. Crazy Pineapple, you discard after the flop (and the betting that results)

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

if you got guys that want wild cards, there's nothing you can do but suffer through it.

we play 5CS hi/low declare with 2 replacement "buys" after the first 5 are dealt. throw in a milk-betting round after the declare and it's plenty of action.
5 card omaha hi/low 8 or better gets plenty of action as well. still only use 2 cards from your hand, but 5 cards to choose from.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT under any circumstances use good/expensive cards for this game. Use old Bicycles or Bees or just dollar store cards.

Clear an area of anything breakable. Place a table anywhere in this room. Leave chipstacks on the table. Make a relatively large ante (eg 0.50 for a $1/$2 game).

Button rotates, the dealer shuffles the cards, walks to the centre of the room, and then spews the cards all over the place. Full contact no holds barred free-for-all to make the best 5 card hand and get to the table with it. The last person to arrive at the table is automatically folded. The remaining players have a round of betting (preferably No Limit) starting to the left of the button. Best hand wins. Usually played at the end of the night when everyeone is too drunk to sit at the table anymore.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

double flop hold 'em...

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know the name, but 5CS H/L declare is good times.
-Criag
/quote]
this is the only good answer

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL- My group plays this game but we "roll your own" and last one stays down. We also play 7 stud split this way sometimes as well. Because we roll our own up cards, the bet rotates.

Also for a wild game, we play Kings and Deuces, which is a 7-card stud hi/low game with Kings wild if you go low and Deuces wild if you go high.

For an action gambling game, we play a game called Hitchcock, which is a "Guts" style game. It's dealt like the Cross poker game, everyone gets either 3 or 4 cards and there are communinity cards in shape of a cross or X. Everyone ante's 50 cents or a buck and its played match the pot, so if you lose you match the pot for the next round. There are no betting rounds and basically everyone declares if they are in or out after looking at their cards. Before the dealer looks at his cards he flips over the outside of the X (4 cards) and arranges them however he/she wants (like making a flush or straight draw, etc), but the middle card is kept down and flipped after everyone declares. The catch is if no one goes in, everyone flips the cards and whoever would have won the hand, matches the pot and the pot doubles. Usually we have cap on the pot, like $20.

Have fun,
G$

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

super hold'em, three dealt hole cards. can use all three or just two. i usually play with only using two and it still creates a lot more action with all the skill of hold'em. flushes and straight all over the place though, at least to worry about. pre-flop sees much more action especially.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Thanks to everyone for all the great ideas. I'm really looking forward to trying these out and throwing a little excitement back into our stale home game.

Much appreciated.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Guts can be BRUTAL it is fun though. Blind man's bluff as well.


My favorite crazy game of all time is Vanunu or whatever it's called, Danny N had an article on it (did he invent it? I dont remember) a while back, it is a serious blast where kids can gamble have a good time and hand reading skills will earn you nice.

It's 7 card stud hi/lo no qualifer roll your own the whole way with a pitch and buy on the end and declare.

Search Danny N.s archives its probably still there.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

[ QUOTE ]
THERMONUCLEAR PINEAPPLE

I think I read it on this site somewhere...

Anyways, flop/turn/river hi-lo game. 5 cards dealt to each player.
Toss 1 after the flop, another after the turn, another on the river.

[/ QUOTE ]

I play that, but the discards are shuffled and the board is dealt from them. So if you get 4 of a suit, you throw in the low cards to try and make your flush come.

Also,we play triple board Omaha - the top board is hi only, the center board is hi/lo split (8 qualifier), and the bottom is lo (no qualifier). Also, double board Omaha hi-lo.

But the fave is Beat The Board. It's 5 card draw, straight, and then, to win the pot, you must beat the 5 cards on top of the deck (the board). The Board gets 3s, 5s, and 7s wild. If you can't beat the board, the pot rolls over, and the card on the bottom of the deck determines a wild rank for the players in the next hand.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

My friends and I played dealer's choice before we got into holdem tourneys.

My favorite game was 5 card draw with 2 draws of 2 cards.

steve
Check out my home league: <font color="orange">North Shore Low Rollers</font>

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Mine is "Grundy County Auction"

All players get five cards. Five cards are put face down in the middle of the table. The first card is turned over and players can bid for it. High big takes the card, then discards a card from his hand. Then players bid on that card. When no one bids on the card, it is turned over and the second card is turned up. This continues until all five cards are finished with. Then you bet on your hand and winner takes all.

HOmaha
 

My friend likes his "Homaha" - Omaha Hi, Queens are wild, Straights don't count. He likes Queens best and can't read the board when he has straights, so he finds this levels out the opposition.

Regards,
Pete Harris

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

Black Mariah
7 stud high spade in the whole splits the pot just like chicago ,but to make it interesting if the Qs shows her face u re-ante and re-deal until u finally get a hand where mariah shows. also for an extra bet on the end u can get the option to have your river dealt face up in order to give mariah another chance to show.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

we play mariah, but different. If you have the Q spade as a down card you can "play" it anytime the action is on you (even if you are due to call a bet) and that resets the hand, just like the mariah coming as an up card. Also, anyone who has folded is NOT in on the next round (this keeps it from going all nite).

Interesting variation is to play it hichicago (hi sqade down splits pot). If you have the Q spade, you have an interesting decision.. is it good for half or do I throw it in).

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

"The first card is turned over and players can bid for it. High big takes the card, then discards a card from his hand. Then players bid on that card. When no one bids on the card, it is turned over and the second card is turned up. This continues until all five cards are finished with. Then you bet on your hand and winner takes all"

But don't you know everyone's hand? I guess if this is limited to the original 5 board cards, there's some deception. How well does this game play?

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

I've made up a version called "Assassin" where the Queen can be used at the end to knock out another hand of your choice

Another version was "Bomb" where getting the Queen knocked the lucky receipient out of the game.

They didn't prove to be that popular.

Re: What\'s your favorite (variation or made up) home game?
 

A few that haven't been mentioned.

"Dots" 7 card stud only the person with the most dots down the center of thier cards gets half the pot. For example a 3 is 3 dots, a 10 is 2 dots, a face card/4/6 is zero dots, Ace is 1 dot.

"Tropical dots" Same as dots only spades count all the dots on the card. (as some cards are different, always assume 10 dots for the Ts or 6 dots for the 6s)

"Ped" Each person gets 5 cards. There is a flop, turn, and river, and like in Omaha you must use 3 on the board and 2 in your hand. Hi/Lo split with NO qualifier.

"fake nickel" 7 card stud, all black 5's and the card following the last face up black 5 is wild. K of hearts face up kills the black 5's (any hand with a black 5 must be folded), but does not kill any wild card that followed a black 5. The low diamond in the hole (the real money) takes half the pot. The only final twist is that if one player has the three K's (natural) in their down cards they are royalty and take the entire pot. (this has only happened once in all the times I've played this game)