Iron Cross or Criss Cross?

[PBDrunkIdiot]

I'm searching for low stakes home games in LA and I think I found one, but they play mixed games and one of them is called Iron Cross, which from the emails I've recieved sounds like the game of choice. It's only a $10 buy-in so I'm not too nervous, but if anyone has ever heard of it and knows some strategy I would appreciate it. I'll try to get some rules, and maybe I can start coming up with some ideas from there...

Sounds like these might be the rules: http://www.pokertips.org/variants/article/34.php

[MarkGritter]

Home Poker might be able to give you better advice about home game variants like Iron Cross or FTQ.

Winning hand strengths are likely to be quite high in Iron Cross since there are many more combinations possible. In Omaha, for example, there are 60 possible hands per player and thus 480 at an 8-player table. In Iron Cross there are, per player:

1 combination using the 5 cards in hand
5 combinations using 4 from hand and the one in the center
20 combinations using 4 from the hand and one of the four end cards
40 combinations using 3 from the hand, the center, and one end
20 combinations using 3 from the hand and two matching endpoints
20 combinations using two from the hand and three in a row on the board

=106 combinations per player. Thus you can expect the winning hand to be somewhat stronger than that in Omaha high.

I would look for starters that are high pairs or better with backup straight or flush possibilities. You might be up against a pat hand, of course, but it is unlikely--- some sense of draw poker probabilities might be useful.

Notice that if you have a pair-type hand your probability of improving is somewhat higher than in a draw game. You improve to two pair not just by drawing a pair but also by matching one of the kickers in your hand. Two pair will boat up about 1-(43/47)(42/46)(41/45)(40/44)(39/40) = 37% of the time.

Flushes and straight draws are more likely to come in than in draw as well, because you get multiple cards to make your hand. But because of the increased boat frequency they are less likely to be good.

[PBDrunkIdiot]

From talking to the one guy in the game the players are action junkies, and this game is their favorite. It seems that only one of the five community cards are flipped over at a time, so there's six rounds of betting. This is such a bizzarre sounding game that I really didn't have much hope in finding a strategy guide.

I played out a couple of hands and it seemed that flush draws, 3oK and two pair were the most common hands at show down. The way that the community cards were dealt it was hard to see a straight draw making it to show down.

[MarkGritter]

With six rounds of betting the reverse implied odds for a straight are probably horrible. Does the bet size change at all?

Suppose you start with a 4-flush. Then you have 5 chances to make your flush. That should be something like
1-(38/47)(37/46)(36/45)(35/44)(34/43) = 67% to make it. So I'm not surprised that flushes are fairly common, given that it will not be uncommon to have a two-flush present in the community cards as well.

[PBDrunkIdiot]

Um, this seems like a really loose friendly home game, so I don't think they want to fuss with multiple bet sizes. I think my strategy is to go butt nutty if I get an high four flush draw. Otherwise stick to two pair hands.

I'm going to dig out my chips and start playing and betting like I have seven different personalities and can't see all the hands. It's hard to figure out what the money swings and chances of making a hand are and how big the pots will be, etc.

[PBDrunkIdiot]

Ok, so I did some playing, I dealt out seven hands and bet as if I didn't know what ever hand held, and tried to simulate how the game would play out.

I decided the best strategy would be to preflop push with any four flush, or set, both of which seemed to have the most promise. Two pair didn't play too well, and straight draws were tricky. It seemed that the most common show down was between flushes and full houses.

Any ways, the pots were huge, so if you're an action junky, you'll like this game.