[ohnonotthat]

How is this being structured ?

Is it identical to holdem with a small and big blind - i.e. no check-raising ?

If so, a simple ranking system would fail. Such a system would fail to take position, prior callers (or raisors) and the dynamics of tight vs. weak players.

We used to play a vicious form of 2-card poker when I was in H.S. but we played it with simultaneous declarations - identical to high-low stud declare except here the declaration was either "call" or "fold" (a chip for play, an empty hand for fold.

We had antes but no blinds and since position was irrelevant and there were no raises, unless I'm "missing the forrest for the trees" a simple ranking system would work fine here.

Oh, btw, pot-odds were also not applicable; the ante was 1 chip (usually a quarter) and losers all matched the pot while the winner collected, but he collected only the antes. The "match money" then remained for the next hand. Thus while the size of the pot in $$ would vary from hand to hand, pot odds never changed; you were always betting even money that your hand beat all other hands that chose to play.

Note that there would still be strategy but it would be based solely on your opponents tendencies - making this a perfect game for those proficient in the application of game theory.

If you always based your choice on the same [absolute] standards you got killed.

It might seem that reading tells would have been far more important than game theory but we were a bunch of idiot kids - usually drunk - so this was not the case.

There was one tell that worked on quite a few players though I'm not sure this is a tell in the typical sense of the word.

Alot of the guys would fail to take a chip off the table and place it in their lap (out of view to anyone) if they knew they would not be contesting that hand; ergo if a player looked at his cards then reached under the table WITHOUT GRABBING A CHIP FROM HIS STACK there was one fewer player to worry about.

It was not 100% reliable but there were no reverse tells; "all poodles are dogs but not all dogs are poodles" was the rule.

Translation: Some players would take a chip when they had no intention of calling but I never saw anyone leave a chip in their lap after a fold and use it to play the next hand.

It was a great game for anyone with half of a brain; it also produced lots of hilarious instances.

My favorite was when the game got 5-handed and a new player opened his hand to reveal TWO chips, rolled over A-2/suited (A-high flush and a likely winner 5-handed) and declared "both" - likely a sound play had we been playing hi-lo. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]