Great home game I just learned

[KdoubleK]

They told me the game is called "Mr. Big" and I didn't bother asking why, but this one really needs to catch on! The best way I have to describe the game is that its 5 card stud with 2 single card trades. Its played high/low and can be scooped. The beauty of it is how the 5 card hands develop. In the 1st round everyone gets 1 card down and the dealer puts 3 cards in the middle. Players then buy cards from the middle to make their hands. 1st card is 25, 2nd is 50, 3rd is 75. if there's nothing you like in the middle you can take a card off the top for $1 face up or $2 face down. Price of cards can vary according to stakes as this is mostly a pot building mechanism. Betting rounds come after card buying and are spread limit with a 3 raise cap. There is no minimum bet or raise. This allows players to stump betting if necessary. While from outside appearences this appears to be a crazy house game with massive pots, there is a great deal of strategy involved and a smart player can really make away like a bandit with pots this big. Anyone else play this?

[Eihli]

In what order does the card-buying on the flop go?

[KdoubleK]

There is no flop because its not a community card game. Its five card stud where the players have a choice of what cards they want. It could also be played 7 card stud where the players get 7 cards instead of trading 2 at the end. That would make more sense. Anyway, players buy their cards then a betting round. this continues till the end. As you can imagine there are huge pots. The strategy has to do with buying the cards you need while keeping other players from getting theirs.

[Phat Mack]

The strategy has to do with buying the cards you need while keeping other players from getting theirs.

I played a similar game that was posted by Al Mirpuri. Players didn't have to buy the cards, when they were turned up in the middle the lowest board got to pick first. It was a good game and the strategy was similar to the above where sometimes you were torn between developing your own hand and blocking another.

What is stump betting?

[charliec]

We sometimes play a varient of this game called "Grocery Store Dots". For us it's just seven card stud (two down, four up and one down) but when you get your up cards you can either buy a card from the "grocery store" (the three cards face up on the table for similar values that you indicated) or get one for free off the deck. So, in that respect it's just seven card stud where you can choose to buy a card that you can see or get one free off the deck.

The "Dots" part of the game (and this is where the game enters the realm of "chick poker") is where the pot is split with the person who has the most center pips among all seven of his cards. We only count center pips (a three would be 3 pips, a four would be no pips and face cards have none). So, if your hand sucks you tend to by threes from the Grocery store.