What crazy forms of poker go on in your home games?

[dalecooper]

I used to be hardcore into hold 'em in my home games, and that was it, but lately I've been having fun playing dealer's choice - and it's making me a lot of money, because when the crazy variants come out, none of the guys but me know even basic strategy for them. Here's what we've been playing:

- The basics: hold 'em, 7 card stud (limit), pot limit Omaha, 5 card draw (jacks or better to open)

NOTE: I now hate 5 card draw. Last night we had to redeal four times because no one had jacks or better, and in those redeals I folded three open ended straight draws. On the fourth deal I got aces and kings, and some other guy was dealt a flush. Just an excruciating game all around: many minutes of boredom and redealing followed by me losing my shirt to a very improbable coincidence. Stupid game.

- The slightly weird: pineapple and crazy pineapple

NOTE: Pineapple is a game that sounds more interesting than it is. Basically it's hold 'em with a third hole card, that you discard either pre-flop (in Pineapple) or post-flop (in Crazy Pineapple). It sounds neat but in practice, it's basically just like hold 'em. Maybe once every twenty hands does the third card really affect anything.

- The rare and esoteric: anaconda, black widow, 7 card no peek

NOTE: if you've never played either of these games, they are dumb fun. Anaconda works like this: you are dealt 7 cards, you pick three and pass them to the person on your left. With the three you receive, you make a 5 card hand and stack them in any order. Then each player turns over 1 card and betting commences as the cards are sequentially turned over. It's fun psychological warfare, and you usually need a boat to win.

Black Widow is a pot-building game that is exactly like 7 card stud, but whenever the queen of spades shows up in anyone's face-up cards, the whole hand is scrapped and dealt fresh (with the pot building up - no one rakes it until a hand finishes). With four people this is amusing and occasionally frustrating. With eight people this is the kind of game that pretty much randomly hands everyone's money to one player at the table who gets lucky. If you like pure gambling, this is the game for you.

7 card no peek is a weird game. You get 7 cards and the first to act turns one over. Then there's some betting. Then the next player turns over cards until he has a hand that beats the first player, and more betting ensues. It proceeds from there, with each player basically flipping cards until they beat the hand before them, and then everyone bets. Last time we played this, I turned up a medium-high open ended straight draw in my first four cards, and eventually missed it on my last three as two idiots called me all the way down with no good cards showing (their high cards beat mine, you see). I see this as a good math geek game (if you can figure odds and pot odds you'll profit from this easily), and also a good drunk poker night game (when most people play this they just call every bet all the way down, because darn it, there's so many cards left to see in their hands).

- The stupid: monkey poker

NOTE: This is a variant named by us that I believe a lot of people call Indian Poker (is that non-PC? I don't know the genesis of that name). We play it just like hold 'em, but both cards are held to the player's forehead so he can't see them, and everyone else can.

The psychology of this is fascinating, even though the game is kind of dumb. I once folded a flopped straight to another guy's pair of tens/weak kicker. Another time I got a guy to call me down with 9-high (it turned out I had A-high) simply by overbetting the pot on each street... he was so convinced I was bluffing that he couldn't fold. And we once made my friend Kevin fold pocket kings pre-flop, which was awesome.

- The beyond stupid: high card

We actually played this. Everyone is dealt a card, everyone bets; one guy flips his card over, everyone bets; next guy flips, more betting; etc. until everyone has turned their card. High card wins. I was able to stand about two hands of this. What a dumbass game. For an even dumber variant, try hi-lo high card.

[Alibi]

I'm a big fan of pineapple.

Sometimes we play Irish Omaha, which is dealt 4 cards and drop 2 after the flop.

However, my friends thought you drop 2 preflop, so they played that as Irish Omaha for a while. When I went online and discovered taht you're supposed to drop the two cards after the flop, they realized their error and made teh version where you drop 2 card preflop Scottish Omaha.

We noe play both scottish and irish omaha.

[Theeggman]

When I play 5cs at home games and we make it Js or better to open - if no one has jacks or better it goes to low-ball (aka 5cs hi/low). Otherwise with Js or better we play a progressive pot (everyone antes again and we redeal the same game).

[TylerK]

Try Anaconda 3-2-1. You pass 3 cards, then 2 cards, then 1 card. I won a huge pot straight flush over straight flush.

[Theeggman]

Sorry, I didn't add to your thread any answers to your question.

When not playing HE, the only crazy games we play are the 7cs varieties w/wild cards (baseball - 3s&9s wild, Dr. Pepper 2s, 4s, 10s wild).

We also play what we call "guts". Each player antes, say $.50 and is dealt 2 cards. Highest hand is AA and flushes and str8s don't count. Based upon the strength of your hand you can opt to fold or stay in. Everyone holds their cards face down in the middle and dealer counts down and if you hold your cards after the countdown you're committing to match the pot if you lose and if you drop your cards you're folding. Sometimes pots get to be $50 or $100 when multiple people challenge the pot over and over (last time we put a "random hand" aside that had to be beaten if only one person goes in).

[Les_Worm]

Holdem
Pineapple
7cs
crazy pineapple
kings crap
queens and what follows
omaha(8)

[cantlosefastenough]

Parasite:

It's basically three card guts, but after the showdown a Parasite card is turned up. All the cards of that rank and suit are dead. Best hand wins, regardless of the number of cards.

What I learned playing ( I was drunk at the time so this could be wrong):
Any three suited straight sucks. Three of a kind can be ok. Flushes are the way to go, but if the Parasite card matches your suit you are without a hand at all. There will be times when a single face card wins, so have some if possible.

To nastify any poker game, add the parasite card.

[bencathers]

BLINDMAN'S BLUFF!!!!! (we were thinking, this would of been an awesome game online... no, seriously)

[johnnyawe]

{Moved from Poker Etcetera}

[dalecooper]

Last night we added a few new ones...

- stud hi/lo. Not new to me, but new to the other guys - and I pillaged them. I had two scoop hands, which was great; I had never scooped online in my few hours of play.

- omaha hi/lo. This treated me as well as, or better than, stud hi/lo... on the last hand I made a 3-7 straight for the high and the wheel for the nut low, and a guy went all in with nothing but a worse low than mine. Truly brutal hand.

- 7 card draw with deuces and one eyed jacks wild. This was our usual "OK, it's after midnight, let's get stupid" game. Five of a kind won the pot three times in four hands. I folded a full house once too.

- double flop hold 'em. This is actually an interesting game, if you've never played it. It's just like hold 'em, but there are two flops, turns, and rivers; the best hand on each board wins half the pot. On one hand I flopped a flush on one board and had a pair + a straight draw on the other. I ended up making my straight, the flush held up - on a double-paired board, even - and I won a huge pot. The thing that's fascinating about this game is that it can really sharpen your reading skills. There's more information available but a lot of it can be distracting. People would generally not bet with a piece of one board but not the other (like a lone top pair), but if they made a strong hand on one board or a decent hand on both, they would lead out. It was fun to figure out.

- Psychotic Pineapple. This is the first game my group has invented, and I donate it to the world. It's just a variant of course, but it's interesting. As in Pineapple, you are dealt three cards. Once the flop comes, you can discard one and play the hand normally; or you can pay a premium that matches the pot (before any betting commences) to keep all 3 of your cards. No one else is required to match this, as it's not a bet per se; it's just a fee to keep your draws alive. On the turn you can do this again if you want, for a premium of half the pot. Finally on the river you can again pay half the pot if you want, and actually play all three of your hole cards if they will play. This can be a real pot-building game and it's interesting to see what people will try to hold on to. I found myself occasionally paying to hang on to a draw + a middle pair, or a straight draw + a flush draw.

The only problem we had was figuring out a rule for players going all in before the river. Do they get to play their 3 cards without paying the additional premiums? I'll figure this one out later if we play it again.

[DoGGz]

Black Widow is a pot-building game that is exactly like 7 card stud, but whenever the queen of spades shows up in anyone's face-up cards, the whole hand is scrapped and dealt fresh (with the pot building up - no one rakes it until a hand finishes). With four people this is amusing and occasionally frustrating. With eight people this is the kind of game that pretty much randomly hands everyone's money to one player at the table who gets lucky. If you like pure gambling, this is the game for you.

We have played this before, It is so fun. In my old homegame in highschool it was always dealerschoice. Average buyin was 10-20$ and we played 25cent chips. We generally played .25-2$ spread limit, so it made things interesting. No one was very good.

I was dealer and I called Black Widow. I redealt 9 times.

On the 8th hand I start with T T T. The pot is large at this point, and I bet 1$ all the way. Three players are calling me down. Sixth street comes and the LAST card is the Queen of spades! DAMN! At the start of hand 9 everyone is just getting sick of this. 8 players and the pot is now 18$. I get crap and have to fold and sure enough no queen of spades.

We had 2 side pots by the end. The player who win the main pot only had 50 cents at the start of the hand and was all in on his first 3 cards. He over tripled up in one game.


I love these games for fun, but only at low stakes with a bunch of friends. My friends won't play with me anymore because I'm so much better now :/

[stuck]

My homegames are usually Texas/Omaha/[7CS variants - Chicago, HL, etc]. The way we play 7CS is annoying as all hell though! Ever played NL 7CS low Chicago? I usually just fold unless I get a very good starting hand or the nut-or second-nut (though I'm careful with the second-nut) spade. We've started mixing in some random games though.

Another oddity of my homegames is the way the buyins work. We start out with a buy-in of $10 (with .25/.50 blinds or .25 antes). Obviously, someone busts fairly quickly, and they buy in again. This of course doesn't make for terribly skillful poker outside of hand selection when we start. But after a few hours roll around, there can be a rather large amount of money on the table -- some people having bought in near or over $100 (not $10 at a time, mind you, usually a few $10 buy-ins, then a $20 - $40 or so buy-in).

Obviously, the home games I play tend to be more about having fun than winning boat-loads of money, but that's just fine with me for the casual home games. (though I often do leave up for the night which is a nice plus )

[underminedsk]

We have all kinds of crazy games. We limit our dealers choice to Holdem, Omaha, 7cS, 5cS, Omaha hi-lo 8's, and 7cS hi-lo 8's, plus randomly someone calls holdem hi-lo if we are bored.

Each hour, we also give each person at the table one chance to call out a retarded/crazy game, which is not limited to:

Chicago: 7cs, but highest spade in the hole wins half the pot.

Follow the Queen: 7cS, but queens are wild. Also, if a queen is delt face up on the board, the card delt after the queen becomes wild too. But, if at some later point in the round another queen is delt face up, then that card instead becomes wild and the first card that followed the queen is no longer wild. This game is quite interesting, where some rounds of it are just like normal 7cs, but other rounds get absolutely rediculous, depending on the number of queens delt out.

Modified Guts: To start, Each player antes some amount, say $.050. Then the first round commences. Each player is delt two down cards, then based on the strength of their hand, each player chooses to fold, bet half the pot, or bet the entire pot. After everyone decides, each player still in the hand is delt one more card, and then the hands are flipped, with the best hand winning EXACTLY what he bet (the return on your money is 1:1, nothing more) , and everyone elses money gets put into the pot. The game ends when the pot empties, that is, when one only one player is left after people decide to fold, and he wins the entire pot by beating the top 3 cards off the deck. The hand strength is differnt than 5 card poker. From higest to lowest: Straight flush, trips, straight, flush, pair, high card. This game gets quite rediculous, with the pots getting to be obcene amounts alot of times. When a half pot bet is $40, it really gets people hyped up....and when you go up against the deck, you have to remember that the deck is reguarly a bastard and awesome at screwing you over :P.

Midnight Baseball: each player antes some amount, then is delt 7 cards face down (they dont look at them). Then the first player flips up a card, and a round of betting commences. Then the second player flips up cards until his hand beats the first player's hand, then another round of betting commences. And this continues until everyone left in the hand has all their cards showing, at which point the best hand takes down the pot. 3's and 9's are wild, but you have to pay $0.50 to the pot to activate them, If you flip a 4, you can also buy another card for your hand from the deck for $0.50. Ive found that the best way to beat this game is to fold on the first opportunity you get, because at least 2-3 always lose all their money over the course of a round.

We also play this game called Guacamolie: everyone is delt 3 cards, of which either 1 or 3 will eventually have to be used to make your hand. There is betting, then the flop comes out, and another round of betting. Then the "guac" is delt, a face up card which no one can use in their hand, but it makes the other 3 cards with the same rank as it wild. Then the turn is delt and another round of betting commences. Then the "molie" is delt, another face up card which makes the other 3 cards with the same rank as it dead, i.e. they cannot be used in your poker hand. Then the river and another round of betting commences.

[Eric]

screw your neigbor, anaconda, queen and, elevator, midnight baseball, 3-5-7, 2-22,11-31, roll your own plus others...

[spin_md]

Midnight Baseball: each player antes some amount, then is delt 7 cards face down (they dont look at them). Then the first player flips up a card, and a round of betting commences. Then the second player flips up cards until his hand beats the first player's hand, then another round of betting commences. And this continues until everyone left in the hand has all their cards showing, at which point the best hand takes down the pot. 3's and 9's are wild, but you have to pay $0.50 to the pot to activate them, If you flip a 4, you can also buy another card for your hand from the deck for $0.50. Ive found that the best way to beat this game is to fold on the first opportunity you get, because at least 2-3 always lose all their money over the course of a round.

At our home game, Midnight Baseball is one of our favorites, but we have some different rules that you might find interesting. We play 4s are extra card for free, 9s are wild and free, and 3s are wild but you have to "match pot or fold". It's always interesting to watch someone squirm over a $50+ match with 2 cards to go.

We also play "Follow the cocaine bitch ho through Chicago", which combines Follow the queens and High Chicago. A queen has to show or the hand is redealt to all people who stayed in the pot, as well.

[Motel69]

I play hold em, guts, occasionally omaha, and reserve card hold em.
Heres how we play guts

Each player is dealt three cards down. Since there is only three cards, the highest hand is Three of a Kind, and straights beat flushes.

Players look at their cards, and decide if they wish the play their hand. Each player must declare simultaneously if they are in or out. Traditionally, this is done by holding your cards face down over the table, and dropping them on the table at the dealer's cue (normally by dropping or holding on the count of 3) if youre "dropping" or not playing your hand.

If only one person stays in, he must face the house, in which the dealer deals three cards off the top of the deck face up. If the players hand is better, he wins the pot. If he loses, he matches the pot for the next hand.

If no one stays in, re-ante and the next hand is dealt.

If more than one player stays in, then the players bet and the highest hand takes the pot, and the remaining losing player(s) must each pay into the pot an amount equal or half to what was originally in it ("matching the pot" or "paying the pot"). So, if two players stay in, then the amout of the pot will stay the same. If three stay in, then the pot doubles, etc.

As long as there is money in the pot, the game continues. All players hands are discarded, and new hands are dealt from the remaining deck. If the deck is not large enough the deal everyone three cards, then the entire deck is reshuffled and hands are dealt from the new deck instead.

Wimp Rule
In the case when no player stays in, then all hands are revealed and The player with the highest hand must pay a "wimp" penalty - typically 2x to 4x ante. This can be paid directly into the pot, or into a "side" pot. The winner of a hand would take both the regular and side pots, but losers only have to match the regular pot. When played with the Wimp Rule directly into the pot, the game got expensive FAST.

Reserve card hold em is the same as hold em, but each player is dealt a third card face down that they dont look at. At showdown, the remaining players flip up their reserve card. If it helps them, then it replaces any other card to improve their hand, if not then theyre SOL. Its a great game if youre drinking or arent in the mood for a serious hold em game, lots of bad beats and drawing.

[tdmlb24]

My home game consists of one game, obviously NL Hold'em and that's about it

[a500lbgorilla]

We play Rilla at my home game.

No preflop street.

And if there is a variation of no preflop hold'em not called Rilla, it's called Rilla now.

-'rilla

[bobmarlon]

we play a game where there are two flops and two turns. When you raise or bet or check you also vote on which flop to keep.

[dalecooper]

We decided to combine all our stupidity into one game, which is called Mega Crazy Double Flop Pineapple-ish Omaha 8 or Better. You are dealt 6 cards and discard one, then a round of betting. Then two flops are dealt, each player discards one more card, and another round of betting. Turn, betting, river, betting, showdown. Eventually you're trying to make a high and low hand on two different boards, each one winning a quarter of the pot, and since it's Omaha rules you have to use exactly two of your four remaining hole cards - although it can be a different two for the two boards, and for each board's high and low.

Abominably stupid game. But if you like hands that take 15 minutes, this is for you. We enjoy the always-amusing "I have a hammerlock on the high on that board, I'm going to bet like a maniac" approach which seems to dominate every hand of this game. It may be the only game where you can flop quads and get quartered.

[Miffed22001]

i play with fellow students (some are actually ok players but most are fish) have discovered much to my delight omaha and omaha hi/low so now i make even more. They are still convinced im cheating but how can i when im not allowed to deal???!!!

[Eck979]

Here's a good one. We used to have home games when I was younger that consisted only of this game. You have to have a decent roll to play this one. We call it guts but it's not the same game you think of when you hear that.
Everyone antes 50cents. Each person is dealt 3 cards face down. You can eather go or pass, if you go everyone else has a chance to "check" you if they think they have a better hand or are working towards a big hand. If you are checked, you and that person swap cards to see who has the best hand, then swap back. loser pays winner the total of the pot OUT OF HIS POCKET. If more than one person checks you say 2 people, the worst hand pays the best hand Double the pot, if 3 people check you it's triple. That's where position plays a big part of the game.
If someone says go, and noone checks them they take the pot.
After the first round of 3 cards everyone ante's 25 cents and 2 more cards are dealt to each player making your hand 5 cards, the pass-go stage happens again, if noone takes the pot 25cents is anted and 2 more cards are dealt making it 7 total for each player and pass-go stage happens again. If noone rakes the pot after 7 cards, the pot stays and 50cents is anted and the deal goes to the next person and they deal 3 cards again starting over. You play regular poker hands, ie if you have 3 hearts when the first round starts YOU DO NOT HAVE A FLUSH, but you could check someone for the possibility of picking up a flush later. This is really a big money game, we always played it w/ straight cash, no chips.
You can also vary the Ante's to 1dollar first round and 50cents the next two or any amount, just so that the original ante before 3 cards are dealt is double what you ante for the 5 and 7 card deals.
Feel free to ask questions, I love the game cuz it's a real moneymaker or breaker but it relies on skill and not just dumb luck.

[azureXsmurF]

- The stupid: monkey poker

NOTE: This is a variant named by us that I believe a lot of people call Indian Poker (is that non-PC? I don't know the genesis of that name). We play it just like hold 'em, but both cards are held to the player's forehead so he can't see them, and everyone else can.

The psychology of this is fascinating, even though the game is kind of dumb. I once folded a flopped straight to another guy's pair of tens/weak kicker. Another time I got a guy to call me down with 9-high (it turned out I had A-high) simply by overbetting the pot on each street... he was so convinced I was bluffing that he couldn't fold. And we once made my friend Kevin fold pocket kings pre-flop, which was awesome.

aka "Blind Man's Bluff" :P

[SuperDave9x19]

We have played a variation of TX Holdem thart we call Delaware Holdem.

Deal and bet per TX Holdem.

Basically, You HAVE to use your 2 hole cards and 3 cards from table to make 5 card hand. Sort of like Omaha but with 2 cards down. Otherwise it's the same as TX Holdem.. Pretty tough game.