New Poker Variations

[jducoeur]

Our monthly poker table has a tendency to be... inventive. We typically get one or two new variations each month, often good ones. It occurs to me that there might be some interest in the worthwhile variations, so let's start writing them up as they come in. (These will go into the wiki page soon, but my site seems to be down today. Grr.) Here are this month's.


Johannesburg: High concept came to new_man in a dream. This is a Seven Stud variant. Pairs and straights must be entirely of the same color. (Not suit; color.) Trips (and thus boats) are unnatural, and thus illegal. High hand splits with the high diamond in the hole.

Analysis: A pretty good game -- the consistency of concept makes the complex rules fairly easy to remember. With so many normal hands wiped out of play, hands that would ordinarily be weak become considerably more powerful. A flush should usually win.


Puppetmaster: Invented by me after someone made a crack about wanting to choose somebody else's cards in Bargain Basement. This is a Seven Stud variant. As in Bargain Basement, the up cards do not get dealt out normally; instead, three options are placed on the table to choose from, and a new card is filled into the open slot after one is chosen. The difference here is that, in the first, second and fourth up rounds, you choose the card for the guy to your left. (Also, there is no payment in this game: all cards are free.) In the third up round, you get to break free of control, and choose the card for yourself.

Analysis: Not bad -- worth playing more and experimenting with. Obviously, people are generally choosing crap for each other, so this falls to lowish hands. The third up round is critical, since it is your one chance to make your own decision and exposes some information about your situation.

Variations: Might try reversing who does the picking (that is, the person downstream would pick instead of the one upstream), which could lend a *tiny* bit more tactics, in that it would allow you to knock out one option you *don't* want to have picked for you. Might try Madison Avenue, which would be closer to Bargain Basement, with the puppetmaster having to pay the usual Bargain Basement price for the cards. (Or possibly the puppetmaster *always* has to pay if he wants to pick; if he doesn't, it's a free choice for the victim.)


Let's also toss in one bonus game, which isn't all that new (we've been playing it for several months now), but it has become a particular table favorite, so it's worth promulgating more widely:

Liege Lord: A variation of Sidewinder (which was itself originally a variation of Anaconda); I don't remember offhand who invented this, possibly Fernando. This is a Seven Stud variation with two twists. All cards are dealt face-down, but in the third through seventh rounds, you must pass one card to your left; then (in the third through sixth rounds) roll your own. So far, that is exactly Sidewinder; the difference is that in Liege Lord, the winner splits the pot with the person standing to his right.

Analysis: A great, subtle game. Since you win *either* by having the best hand yourself or by feeding the best hand, there is strong incentive to pass good and consistent cards downstream. A lot of people tend to stay in until the end, on the theory that the person they've been feeding to has a better hand than themselves; a fold can cascade down the line as people realize this isn't so. You have a lot of information, especially if you pay close attention both to what you passed and what the people downstream are showing.

Comments

Commentary

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

Johannesburg was certainly a lot of fun, and led to a good discussion of alternate names, ranging from "Kimberlite" to "Blood Diamond". I wonder how the addition of a single wild (perhaps low diamond?) or limited wild (only within the same color) would change things.

Puppetmaster - I won that one solely on luck, as I got passed a card that matched one of my hole cards, and I got it on two pair. Perhaps a variant where it costs to break free of the Puppetmaster?

Liege Lord - I'll have to give that one another try, as I really misjudged the value of my own hand. I think I'll have to make a chart for myself on the typical winning hand by variant.

Re: Commentary

[new-man.livejournal.com]

Johannesburg was certainly a lot of fun, and led to a good discussion of alternate names

When you invent one, you get to name it. This one is "Johannesburg".

I wonder how the addition of a single wild (perhaps low diamond?) or limited wild (only within the same color) would change things.

Stop with the wild cards. I may be utterly wrong, but the impression I got is that your other table plays a lot of rules-heavy games. I really prefer concept games -- something where a change is on a global level, not one where I have to remember that multiple different cards have multiple different impacts.

Related: Justin, do you want the rules for 'Alaska Hold 'em' somewhere?

Re: Commentary

[jducoeur]

They're in my notepad already. When I get the chance, I'll transcribe them into the wiki page of all our usual variants...

[laurion]

Have a thought or two I'll have to hash out before next time.

[mindways]

I remember Liege Lord. It's a fantastic variant; the psychology involved is complex and a lot of fun, and even if you're just playing the cards, there's a lot to keep track of - and you're trying to pass stuff that will give the person one-downstream a killer hand but be mediocre-or-worse if continued along to the person two-downstream.

(I'd remembered folds as cascading up the line, though...when someone drops, the person feeding them cards then drops, then the person feeding them drops, no? Though once you get down to three, it's awfully tempting to stay in anyhow. This is, of course, a mistake for 33% of those involved. :)

[jducoeur]

I remember Liege Lord. It's a fantastic variant; the psychology involved is complex and a lot of fun, and even if you're just playing the cards, there's a lot to keep track of - and you're trying to pass stuff that will give the person one-downstream a killer hand but be mediocre-or-worse if continued along to the person two-downstream.

Yeah, that was the frustration at this month's hand. The very first thing I did (before the first reveal) was pass the 10 of diamonds to anu3bis. It wasn't until much later that I realized new_man had passed me all the *other* components of a diamond royal flush -- and gyzki (two downstream from me) was showing Queens and 10s, and *hadn't* yet shown the 10 of diamonds. I folded, at which point new_man realized something had gone horribly wrong and did so as well.

I'd remembered folds as cascading up the line, though

Correct -- I was speaking imprecisely...