Make up your own games? (No REAL poker content, I guess)

[Tregan]

Hey all,

Last night after our cash game broke up, the 4 remaining people at my home game decided on a $3 dealer's-choice SNG for some fun. We started off somewhat normally, but then just started making up our own games (or playing some legit ones and modifying them greatly). Here's a list of some that we played, and had an awesomely fun time doing. It was the most enjoyable poker I think I've ever played! (I am crossposting this from the small stakes forum, because I got a little off topic there)

Without further, the games:
<ul type="square">[*]9-hole-card omaha (hi/lo also)[*]4-card omaha in which you could use any or all of your hole cards[*]pinepple (3 hole cards, discard one post-flop, plays like hold'em)[*]irish pineapple (4 hole cards, discard one preflop and one post-flop)[*]jamaican irish pineapple (5 hole cards, discard one preflop, post-flop, and post-turn)[*]deuce-to-seven triple draw (we also played it with one community card dealt before the third draw)[*]razz[*]acey-deucey triple-draw[*]tic-tac-holdem (in which three flops are dealt, in a 3x3 square, and you can use your 2 hole cards in addition to the cards in any row, column, or diagonal, to make the best 5-card hand)[*]bizzarro stud hi/lo (first 2 face up, 3rd-6th streets face down, 7th street face up)[*]blind man's semi-bluff (3 hole cards, 1 of which is exposed at random for everyone except you to see, flop/turn/river just like hold'em)[/list]
Throw in some double/triple flops, hi/lo splits, and a wild card or two for added fun.

My favorite game of the night, though, was Gin Poker. The game is played like so: 7 cards dealt to each player after antes. Top card of deck flipped face up. Dealer starts the action by "paying" a certain amount (say 5x the ante) to draw a card. He can draw from either the top of the deck, or from any of the cards face-up on the table. After drawing though, he needs to discard one card, so there are always 7 in each player's hand. Action proceeds to next player, who can pay the same amount to draw and discard in the same manner. As cards start collecting face-up from discards, players can pick any card, not just the top one, if they choose not to draw from the deck. If a player does not want to pay to draw, the only option is to fold and save money. This continues until one person thinks they've made the best 5-card poker hand. At this point, instead of paying 5x ante to draw a card, a player may announce "stand pat" and pay a higher fee, like 10x or 15x the ante. At this point, the other players must decide if they want to call that fee and go to showdown, or fold. A player may announce "stand pat" at any time, even just to try to steal the antes. Obviously, best 5-card poker hand at showdown takes the pot.

Anyhow, just figured I'd share some completely wacky games with you all in case you ever wanna laugh your butts off at the card table!

Regards,
Tregan

[soko]

tic tac holdem seems interesting

[Yads]

Jamaican and Jamaican Irish pineapple sound pretty fun. How the hell would you play 9 card Omaha? And the drunk Omaha version I think is a waste of time.

[Phat Mack]

Great post! Sounds like a lot of fun.

I've played omaha with 5 and 6 cards, but have never played with 9. Sounds interesting. I like pineapple games--may give Jamaican Irish a try the next time I'm at a home game.

I'm almost afraid to ask what acey-deucey triple draw is. Is it like the old barracks game where you get two cards, and then bet whether the next card off the deck splits them?

I've always liked tic-tac hold 'em--been playing it for years. Mike Caro touts it in one of his books.

I can say, with a great deal of certainty, that I've never been anywhere near a bizzarro stud or blind man's semi-bluff game, but will risk a buy-in if I am. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for sharing the weird games.

[blank frank]

My old group used to make up all sorts of weird stuff:

<ul type="square">[*]Balls: pairs of the same color are wild [*]Buck Seventy Five: Seven stud low chicago (low spade in the hole splits the pot), but all your cards are dealt up. You can pay max bet to get any card dealt down. (max bet was a quarter at the time).[*]Magic: consecutive cards of the same suit are wild. Anaconda is a messed up game played Magic.[*]Monkey Love: Five card draw, but the player to your left gets the cards you discard.[/list]If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out Poker Mike or my site.

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]

If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out Poker Mike or my site.

[/ QUOTE ]

Two interesting sites. I was aware of your because of our mutual interest in simming unusual games, but I hadn't seen Poker Mike's.

[blank frank]

[ QUOTE ]
Two interesting sites. I was aware of your because of our mutual interest in simming unusual games, but I hadn't seen Poker Mike's.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fascinating. What games have you run sims for? I want to do more, but I lost the java code I was using in a computer crash. I keep not having the time to redo them, although I've be thinking of trying to do some in R, instead.

[Phat Mack]

What games have you run sims for?

The games I simmed that had assignable strategies for the players were Tonk, Triple-Draw Lowball, Anaconda and 5-card omaha. I did a bunch of others that were basically monte carlo's attempting to determine the effect of various variables on hand values.

I lost the java code I was using in a computer crash

That can be heartbreaking. I'm not a programmer. I was writing the sims a little over a dozen years ago in line-number basic. They ran on ancient machines. It could take a week to run a statistically significant number of deals.

About a year ago, I was talking to 20-year old coder at a poker game. He expressed an interest in seeing some of my stuff. He looked at it, dumbfounded, and said, "My God! This stuff has line numbers," and started giggling uncontrollably.

In the late 90's, I came across an interesting mac program call iPoker. It will sim just about any game I can dream up, put only provides the simplest stat info. It's good for gettting a very rough idea of hand values.

I've got heaps of data lying around on old floppies. I started putting all the data up on a web site a few years ago, but halted the project when I realized the it was meaningless without some sort of interpretive or explanatory essay. I still work on the project when I get free time.

[dlk9s]

One game that I've played with friends that is fun (and potentially very profitable/disastrous) is 3-5-7.

First round, everyone puts in an ante and is dealt three cards and tries to make their best three-card hand. 3's are wild.

If you want to play the hand, you say, "I'm in," when it's your turn. The next player then has the choice of whether or not they want to challenge you. If they decide they are "out", play continues to move around the table. If nobody challenges, the player who said he was "in" gets a "chit" (usually an extra chip as a marker) in front of him.

If the player IS challenged, the two players show each other their cards without showing anybody else. The winner is kept a secret temporarily. Play then continues around the table, with players declaring "in" or "out".

After a challenge, the winner is announced either at the next challenge or after the rest of the players pass on the challenge opportunity, whichever comes first. No cards are shown - the only evidence of the winner is that the loser has to pay the winner an amount equal to the pot. If there is a second challenge in a round, the challenger goes up against whoever won the first challenge.

For the second round, each player gets two more cards and tries to make their best five-card hand. 5's are wild. Keep in mind, you have the same original three cards, so if there was a challenge, somebody knows somebody else's cards. "Ins" and "outs" go around the table like before.

Third round, two more cards are dealt and you make your best five-card hand. Now, 7's are wild and play is the same as before.

The game ends when one player has three "chits" in front of him. If nobody has won after the round of seven cards, everybody antes up again (thus increasing the pot and the stakes for challenges) and you start over with the three-card hand.

The winner takes the pot.

As you might be able to tell, the real money is in the challenges, not the final pot (although it can definitely be a big pot).

Hope all that made sense - it's a lot easier to explain at the poker table than on the computer. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Grisgra]

I'm very jealous -- the guys in my home game generally rebel against such creativeness [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

I've been thinking about a HE variant, "Mango Madness", which would basically be a split-pot HE in which two flops/turns/rivers are dealt -- two completely independent boards. Each player either gets two hole cards, or four (and then creates two hands, probably at the river) -- best hand for each board wins half the pot.