Bored now. Invent a novel poker variant.

[MarkGritter]

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure if anybody wrote this before, but in my homegame we sometimes play hold'em, omaha and CP with 2 or 3 (2 recomended) flops. You bet into the same pot, and if you win 1 of 2 boards you simply win 50% of the pot. Pretty easy, but still adds a lot to the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Double-flop Hold'em is well-known:

http://www.pokernews.com/poker-rules...lop-holdem.htm

(Heck, even Wikipedia mentions it.)

[Al Mirpuri]

[ QUOTE ]
This is my own invention, and I have named it, just this instant, Bhowani Junction, after the film of that title. It is an adaptation of the game Iron Cross aka Fiery Cross aka Southern Cross.

In Iron Cross each player has two hole cards and a common card is dealt face up. A round of betting ensues. A further three common cards are dealt with a round of betting after each. Each card represents a point on the compass with the initial card being north. Finally, a card is dealt to the centre of the cross. There now ensues the final round of betting. No cards are wild. In conjunction with your hole cards you use north-centre-south to comprise your five card hand or east-centre-west. So if you had AA in your hand and the cards were dealth K (n) Q (e) J (s) T (w) J (c) you would either have AAKJJ or AAQJJ but as you can only use one axis of the cross you would use AAKJJ for two pair. The trouble with this is that card that must comprise your hand the centre card is dealt last.

Bhowani Junction: the centre card is dealt first, then north-east-south-west follow. Dealing the centre card first takes much of the variance out of it. You still have the five rounds of betting as normal. No cards are wild.

This adaptation is one of my better tinkerings...

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Bhowani Junction has the attributes to make it a mainstream poker variation...

[Phat Mack]

I've played criss-cross where not only was the center card dealt first, it was always the same card, a joker. "Dealt first" is a bit of misnomer, however--the joker was nailed to the center of the table. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Georgia Avenue]

At the 2+2 homegame in DC we played Second Best Hold'em. Exactly same rules as LHE but the SECOND best hand wins the pot.

It's completely insane. Anyone heard of that before? Is it strategyless?

--GA

[2461Badugi]

[ QUOTE ]
At the 2+2 homegame in DC we played Second Best Hold'em. Exactly same rules as LHE but the SECOND best hand wins the pot.

It's completely insane. Anyone heard of that before? Is it strategyless?


[/ QUOTE ]

Mark and I have talked about it a fair bit, along with a variant where the most medium hand wins the pot, which is even weirder. There's a great deal of strategy in manipulating one and only one better hand than yours to stay in the pot while also making the pot bigger. Doing it as a board or draw game should be better than a community game.

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
At the 2+2 homegame in DC we played Second Best Hold'em. Exactly same rules as LHE but the SECOND best hand wins the pot.

It's completely insane. Anyone heard of that before? Is it strategyless?

--GA

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a good game with a good bit of strategy. If your best hand has a pretty good low and you can get it heads up, you have a lock. If a third player catches you making a move for heads up and is in the middle, he has a play to stay in, unless of course the best player drops.

Usually played NL.

[Murakawa]

51 Card Solitaire

You win when you kill yourself.

[daveT]

Called "No Look Omaha"

Every one is dealt four cards face-down.

Every one antes.

On the flop, everyone flips up one card. Mayhem ensues.

On the turn, everyone flips up the second card. Repeat betting.

One the river, everyone flips up one card and can now peak at his or her own card. Betting. The best hand wins.

"No Look Hold'em"

Every one is dealt two cards.

On the flop, every one flips up one card, mayhem ensues

On the turn, every one flips up the second card.

On the river, all remaining players are dealt one last card that they are allowed to look at.

I think that this game would have tons more strategy in it.

Think of it. If the board is all spades and you don't see the Ace out there, you can deliver a real beat on someone by drawing.

[tmcdmck]

Super power poker.

It may not quite be what you are looking for, but it is an extremely novel variant of holdem. It only works heads up.

Played exactly as normal holdem, except one player has to play with their cards face up. to make up for this, the person with the face up cards gets to know which cards are coming on the flop, river and turn before the hand begins.

I have played quite afew hours of this to settle an argument over whether having a perfect read, or knowing the coming cards was better HU. turns out they are surprisingly evenly balanced, making for a fun game.

[MarkGritter]

[ QUOTE ]
Super power poker.

It may not quite be what you are looking for, but it is an extremely novel variant of holdem. It only works heads up.

Played exactly as normal holdem, except one player has to play with their cards face up. to make up for this, the person with the face up cards gets to know which cards are coming on the flop, river and turn before the hand begins.

I have played quite afew hours of this to settle an argument over whether having a perfect read, or knowing the coming cards was better HU. turns out they are surprisingly evenly balanced, making for a fun game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. The same general idea could be applied to a Stud or Draw game, leading to these three variations (which work multiway):

California Clairvoyance: Each player is dealt one card face down, which they may look at and then return to the table. Each player is then dealt a five-card hand. Play proceeds as in California lowball (limit betting, low A-5 hand wins) except that if a player draws any cards, his first replacement comes from the "hole card" dealt to the player on his left.

Prognostication: Seven-card stud for high. The river cards for all players are dealt first; these river cards may be inspected by the player to the left. After that they must remain face-down until 7th street, at which point the player that owns the card may take it into his hand.

Vero Beach: Seven-card stud, hi/lo. Each player is dealt their 7th-street card first, but must place it on their forehead so that all the other players may observe it (while they cannot) until 7th street.