Texas Hold'em with a dealt out river card

[PokerEveryDay]

IMO there is too much luck in this game and therefore each person still in the hand should be dealt a river card instead of a community card, everything else stays the same. What do you guys and gals think?

[MarkGritter]

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IMO there is too much luck in this game and therefore each person still in the hand should be dealt a river card instead of a community card, everything else stays the same. What do you guys and gals think?

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Meh. Just play 7 Stud instead.

I'm not sure why you think this would decrease the amount of 'luck'. It would penalize those who can actually read boards (when playing against players who can't.) But it would give made hands some redraws.

For example, a middle pair vs. top pair would be slightly more favorable for the top pair because both could hit two pair or trips instead of just one. But it would also give low two pair the chance of boating up even if one of its opponents 'counterfeited' his hand by pairing the board. So in this sense, some hands would be less affected by 'luck'.

On the other hand, a hand without redraws would be slightly worse off in some 'horse race' situations. Say two players are drawing to the same flush or straight. The odds that one of them will get there are somewhat increased over normal hold'em. (If the draws out there are competing for different cards then there might be less effect, I'm too lazy to work out the math at the moment.)

For example, with 2678 on board, and two players with TJ vs your AA, in normal hold'em you are a 0.905 favorite. In this variant you are only a 38/42*37/41 = 0.816 favorite. This effect could be fairly annoying when up against two flush draws.

I would think that the additional uncertainty on the river would also serve to increase variance, as there would be plenty of flush-vs-hidden boat, top pair-vs-spiked ace, 'nut flush'-vs-'nut flush', two pair-vs-trips, etc. situations that would cause extra bets to go in the pot.

[Notorious G.O.B.]

Already a game, called River Down Hold'em. Played hi-lo also.