Burlesque Poker

[DanielM]

My name is Daniel Moskal. I'm an inventor and an amateur poker player. I had an idea for a new poker game that you might find a fun change of pace. Please let me know what you think.

I tried to balance having enough luck to keep the weak player’s in, and enough skill for serious players to make decent money over time. Also, I wanted to balance the information available to the players with the hidden information. I’ve also tried to force situations where the player must make tough choices.

The rules are simple.

There is a small blind of ½ a small bet and a big blind of 1 small bet, as usual. Antes optional. The button acts last before the flop, but position after the flop is determined by a means explained below.

Each player is dealt 3 cards face down. They use 1 or 2 cards from their hand with the 5 community cards to make the best 5 card hand. You may not play the board.
Every player who has a live hand after the pre-flop betting is complete chooses one card, and sets it aside. All players turn up that cards simultaniously. Whomever has the highest card showing has position for the next betting round (ties broken by the usual spade, heart, diamond, club order). I think it works better if everyone turns their card up simultaneously, because if the cards are revealed one at a time it would provide too large of an advantage to the player showing last. (All rules are flexible, of coarse).
If playing Low, or Burlesque8 (Hi-Lo), the low card has position.

Post flop dealing and betting rounds are just like Hold-Em / Omaha. If the high card folds, the highest live card remaining gets position during the next betting round.

A few thoughts:

*Forcing the players to choose an up-card is a tough choice, and reveals much about their play- even when they fold. If playing multi-games, it can reveal something about how they play those games.
*Giving the high card position in later rounds creates a conflict of interest. You want to hide your best cards, but you want position too.
*Because the blinds won’t necessarily have bad position in later rounds, it gives them reason to defend.
*Players can buy position by forcing the high card out.
*You can't hide a dealt pair every time, sometimes you must split them. Otherwise observant players will know that if you pair your up card, you don't have trips.
*You can't say "My hand pre-flop is a XX% favorite against a hand with X upcard, because the upcard wasn't a random choice.
*A four-flush or four-straight on the board is dangerous.
*In Burlesque8, fewer low hands are made, so more scooping. A strong starting high hand has more value.

Let me know what you think, and happy playing.

Daniel Moskal

PS: I call it Burlesque Poker because you tease the players by only showing a little bit (when you turn the card face up).

[inyourface]

[ QUOTE ]
I call it Burlesque Poker because you tease the players by only showing a little bit (when you turn the card face up).

[/ QUOTE ]

Oooh stop it, you are turning me on [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[Esection]

you leave too many rules etc to have this make sense. does the upcard become dead? or are you allowed to use it as one of your 1 or 2 cards to make your 5 card hand.

personally i think it would be way more interesting to have the upcard remain live.

[DanielM]

All 3 cards are live, you can play 1 or 2 of your 3 cards regardless if they are up or down. You can't play the board, and you can't use all 3 cards dealt to you.

My post was already pretty long, so I left out details familiar to those who've played Omaha or Hold-Em.

Post flop, there is a board of 3 cards, then a betting round. Then a turn and river (1 card), each with a betting round. The high card has position (bets last, so player to left of player with position starts the betting) each round, like in Stud.

Hope that cleared things up.

Daniel

[garcia1000]

Burlesque Poker is too complicated a name for a poker variant. Imagine if Texas Hold'em would have been as successful if it was called Mitochondrial Eucalyptus Poker.

[pfapfap]

"Texas Hold'em" is two words and four syllables. "Burlesque" is one word and two syllables. I'm not sure how it's complicated.

[garcia1000]

It's because the general poker player won't know what Burlesque means.

[JereLock]

http://www.pokernstuff.com/

[Zagga]

Basically its a way to complicated mix of holdem, omaha stud and pinaccle.

Why don't you just play HORSE?

[neuroman]

Without spending too much time analyzing the mechanics, it sounds too complicated/not different enough from hold'em poker. Have you tried play testing it with friends in a home game?