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

[TwoOuter]

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

[snowgurts]

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.

[TwoOuter]

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.

[Moneyline]

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.

[GoblinMason (Craig)]

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

-Criag
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[bugstud]

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

-Criag
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this is the only good answer

[gmunny]

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

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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$

[Lottery Larry]

6-stud with first and last card down is better

[The_Missile]

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.

[TwoOuter]

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.