[shadesofgrey]

Yeltzen made a point in another thread about playing 7stud & games other than hold'em. I am almost embarrassed to say this, but one house I play in has some really oddball games.

By far the wackiest is what they call Tic-Tac-Tomaha - basically its a variation of omaha where everyone get 4 cards - the board is layed out like this:

X X X
X X X
X X X

1st flop is corners, 2nd flop are middles, 3rd flop is center. High/Low chop. You can play any column, row, or diagonal... and you must play 2 cards from your hand.

One of the guys in the group actually played this at the elks club - so others apparently play it too.

A "cool" game we play is kick your forth. Five card draw - you arrange your cards in the order you want to flop them. on forth street you can opt to get a kicker. Your last card remains down. High/low declare - this is a "great" bluffing game.

Definitely never seen those in the casino - not that i would play them outside of the home...

Any other wacky games you guys play?

[Captn_All_In]

We have a ton of them. I was in touch with Ten about setting up an article of some sort where we could all keep adding these on!

I would have to say our craziest is Cowboys and Indians.

Every player dealt 5 cards.

Set up Board like this

X X X X X
X X X X X

Top Row Cowboys play into your hand

Bottom Row, Indians remove cards from your hand, and the row of cowboys (i.e. Flip over top row to show a K, and you have a K in your hand and you have a pair of K, if next card flipped in Indian row is a K then you have to discard K and the cowboy K is replacedwith another card. You don't get another one!)

Betting occurs after every Cowboy is flipped. All cards are flipped randonmly

[hachkc]

We play a game called Scoop. I'm not a huge fan of it but some folks like it. Its a declare hi/low split pot game where you add up the total value of your cards (KQJ=10, A=1 or 11) to determine your hand.

1. Everyone gets 4 cards face down.

2. The dealer flips a card up and everyone discards that card from their hand. If a card was already flipped, you draw a new one and then everyone discards that card.

3. A round of betting.

4. Ultimately, you will flip 6 cards but before you flip the last card up, everyone declares hi/low/both; because Aces are 1 or 11, AAAA=4 (good low) and AAAA=44 (nut high).

5. If you get rid of all your cards, you automatically Scoop the whole pot.

[Phaetos]

Why do these all sound like games made up in Cell Block D in some state prison?

[OnTheButton]

In our pre NLHE days when the dealer chose the game, my favorite "money mover" was 2 card GUTS.

It starts with an ante from all players.

This is where every player is dealt 2 cards face down. Much like Hold Em, the best hand is an AA and worst hand is a 2 3. These are the only cards in play.

Then everyone looks at their cards and on the count of 1 2 3 GUTS, you drop your cards (fold) or hold them.

If you are the only one holding you win the pot. ANY hesitation on dropping your cards is considered "in."

If more than one person is holding, they are shown, the winner takes the pot and any losers MATCH the pot (sometimes we'd set a limit, like $20.00 max when the pot got huge, but most often not) everyone else ante's and it goes again.

There can be some SICK pots when the cards run hot. I think once it got to around $120 (this was 25 cent ante poker folks) and the guy who lost had to write a check to the winner, lol.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Originally Posted by OnTheButton

In our pre NLHE days when the dealer chose the game, my favorite "money mover" was 2 card GUTS.

It starts with an ante from all players.

This is where every player is dealt 2 cards face down. Much like Hold Em, the best hand is an AA and worst hand is a 2 3. These are the only cards in play.

Then everyone looks at their cards and on the count of 1 2 3 GUTS, you drop your cards (fold) or hold them.

If you are the only one holding you win the pot. ANY hesitation on dropping your cards is considered "in."

If more than one person is holding, they are shown, the winner takes the pot and any losers MATCH the pot (sometimes we'd set a limit, like $20.00 max when the pot got huge, but most often not) everyone else ante's and it goes again.

There can be some SICK pots when the cards run hot. I think once it got to around $120 (this was 25 cent ante poker folks) and the guy who lost had to write a check to the winner, lol.

I love this game although we played a little differently. If you stayed, you got a 3rd card. Like you said, some huge pots. We used to cap the pot to keep things sane early in the night. Last game of the night was always Guts with the sky as the limit. Quarter ante, I ran hot and waled away with over $80 and lost about a $45 pot along the way.

We called 2-3 The Hand From Hell and it was an unspoken rule that you HAD to stay with it. Funny thing was, it seemed to catch second 2 or 3 and win on many occasions.

[KYBill]

Originally Posted by Phaetos

Why do these all sound like games made up in Cell Block D in some state prison?

LOL

[shadesofgrey]

Thats funny we play a very similar game, but we call it buck'em or paycheck.

We gave up with the 1-2-3 drop the cards, and instead put a chip in our hands to avoid the hesitation issues. You cant mistakeningly hold a chip

We also do a progressive pay out (pay up the ladder) - so if you lose to two other people - your paying them both. If you beat 4 other you're in the money.

[TheMightyJim2k]

definitely played guts before, but we called it 2,4 drop. (two cards count to 4 and the drop). I tried to stay away from it because it can get out of control.

Several huge pots have occurred on the back of the bus with teammates when we are travelling. Definitely saw a 240 dollar pot have to be matched. At that point the kid who was losing was keeping every hand trying to win back his money, which he eventually got back a decent chunk of it.

I like to stick to the HORSE games where I can lose money because of my own mistakes and not because somebody just drew their third wild card, or the board shifted.

[TheMightyJim2k]

also, another great game that is less luck based and really fun bluffing game is Montana.

its a hi-lo split game.

each player dealt 7 cards face down. Must pick four to keep and then pass 3 to the left or right (dealers choice).

Once you have your new 7 card hand you make a 5 card hand which you arrange in front of you.

X X X X X

its important to plan your arrangement because everyone will be flipping up one card each round going from left to right. So first card on left flipped and then a round of betting. Second card on left flipped and then a round of betting etc...

once 4 cards are up there is a round of betting and then a declare (2 chips going both ways, 1 chip high, 0 chips low)

to win both the high and low you have to win both outright. Thus if you have the nut straight low (A 2 3 4 5) and go for both but someone has a flush to beat your high, then you also lose the low to the second best low hand.

with a table of 4 or more the bluffing gets hilarious as people try to represent really lows with a fifth card that is a J or Q or something. or someone with a flush has to make a really tough call with someone who has two pair showing and might have a full house.

if you make it pot limit the betting and decision making are unbelievable and tells are a huge factor. give it a try at your next home game and you wont regret it.