[Slow Play Ray]

one game i always loved to play, though it is not explicitly poker, is "red 4/14"

to start, everyone antes and is dealt 2 cards, one face down and one face up. the goal of the game is to get your cards to add up as close to 4 or 14 as possible, with the high and low hands splitting the pot. aces are worth 1 and/or 11, face cards are worth 1/2 point, and everything else is worth it's face value. but in this variation, ONLY RED CARDS COUNT. this is an important point as it helps build huge pots when a run of useless black cards hit.

so the ideal starting hand in this game is a red ace and a red 3 - you are already a lock to at least split the high and low.
to start, everyone gets their 2 cards and there is a round of betting. after the round of betting, anyone still in gets to choose if they want another card face-down or not, and there is another round of betting. it continues like this until everyone has either folded or is ready to stand pat with their hand. at this point, everyone shows their cards and the closest hands to 4 and 14 split the pot. we also sometimes play a variation where you have to declare whether you're going for high, low, or both, with the last better/raiser declaring first.

this is actually a variation of the game 7/27, which is played exactly the same way except all cards count and the low and high are 7 and 27 instead of 4 and 14. obviously you can make up any variant you want.

there is another great game, more poker-related, that we used to play called "challenge" and it's actually a mini-tournament that doesn't take too long to complete. if i have time and can actually remember all the rules, i'll describe it later.