CrazyEddie
Full House
Hello, all! I've read a number of (great!) threads about setting blinds and antes for mixed stud and flop games (HORSE, etc). But I haven't seen a good suggestion for how to do what I think I'll want to do when I start my microstakes game, and would welcome your thoughts.
I intend the game to be very not-serious, and will play Dealer's Choice - including dumb stuff like wild cards, Follow the Lady, Night Baseball of the Living Dead, and so forth. Anything the dealer can call in under ten seconds is fair game. I expect to see draw, stud, and flop games and am trying to figure out how best to structure the betting rounds. I'll be using denominated currency-less chips (see here) where the unit chip will be nickels at first, dimes after a while, and maybe quarters eventually (that is to say: after months of running the game, not all in one night!).
The common wisdom on PCF is something like this: 2/4 units small bet/big bet for limit games, 1/2 units small blind/big blind for flop games, and 2 unit dealer ante with a 1 unit bring-in for stud games. That sounds great to me! Here's the thing, though - this advice usually assumes that there's a full orbit for each game, so that the blinds and the antes are fairly distributed between the players.
I could do that easily enough for my game, but I'm not sure I want to. For the audience I'm inviting, I think it would be more fun if everyone got to call whatever game they like each time they deal, rather than having to wait multiple orbits before they get to call their favorite game (even though that would also mean they'd get to play it for a full orbit). I know, not having full orbits means that the dealer's advantage (or disadvantage) isn't evenly distributed - Bob the Clever Player will always call Omaha, and Joe Who Loves Pot Doubling Games is shooting himself in the foot when nobody but him ever calls them. But honestly, with the players I'm expecting, I don't think that's gonna be a problem.
What I do think would be a problem is if the forced bets aren't distributed evenly. The players would probably notice that, and even if they don't, I would. And I would not be happy about it.
Is there a good way to make sure that everyone pays their fair share of antes and blinds when a flop game might be followed by two different stud games and then another flop game and a draw game?
I intend the game to be very not-serious, and will play Dealer's Choice - including dumb stuff like wild cards, Follow the Lady, Night Baseball of the Living Dead, and so forth. Anything the dealer can call in under ten seconds is fair game. I expect to see draw, stud, and flop games and am trying to figure out how best to structure the betting rounds. I'll be using denominated currency-less chips (see here) where the unit chip will be nickels at first, dimes after a while, and maybe quarters eventually (that is to say: after months of running the game, not all in one night!).
The common wisdom on PCF is something like this: 2/4 units small bet/big bet for limit games, 1/2 units small blind/big blind for flop games, and 2 unit dealer ante with a 1 unit bring-in for stud games. That sounds great to me! Here's the thing, though - this advice usually assumes that there's a full orbit for each game, so that the blinds and the antes are fairly distributed between the players.
I could do that easily enough for my game, but I'm not sure I want to. For the audience I'm inviting, I think it would be more fun if everyone got to call whatever game they like each time they deal, rather than having to wait multiple orbits before they get to call their favorite game (even though that would also mean they'd get to play it for a full orbit). I know, not having full orbits means that the dealer's advantage (or disadvantage) isn't evenly distributed - Bob the Clever Player will always call Omaha, and Joe Who Loves Pot Doubling Games is shooting himself in the foot when nobody but him ever calls them. But honestly, with the players I'm expecting, I don't think that's gonna be a problem.
What I do think would be a problem is if the forced bets aren't distributed evenly. The players would probably notice that, and even if they don't, I would. And I would not be happy about it.
Is there a good way to make sure that everyone pays their fair share of antes and blinds when a flop game might be followed by two different stud games and then another flop game and a draw game?