Are circus game players the kinky swingers of the poker world? (1 Viewer)

[upNdown]

Is that what it is? Normal poker games no longer excite you, so you have to play freaky games with crazy names and crazier rules?

I guess it’s possible I’m the one who’s missing out, because I’ve never been dealt a hand of bum-bum or scrotum. But then again, I don’t need to boink the neighbor’s wife wearing a bunny costume, to know it’s not for me.

 

[Labrat]

Kind of a strange take, but ok.

 

[Parrothedd]

The neighbor:

 

[doublebooyah85]

No they are just the real poker players lol the rest of you clowns are playing Texas Holdem like a bar league!

 

[TheRealTeddyKGB]

The neighbor:

View attachment 1690100

His neighbor in reality

 

[Old State]

Not swingers ….Circus game players are the dungeon and dragons/ Pokémon crowd to me


For me my poker journey was the opposite…..I didn’t like poker UNTIL I started playing regular straight poker.

Circus games are all anyone played when I was a kid through college. I hated how the game always changed and seemed completely random. I didn’t get addicted to poker until my buddies great uncle invited us to play in their 7 card stud game in the late 90s that had been going on for 50 years and was played for most of those years in the back room of a bar. In hindsight old those guys were not great card players but at the time they seemed very cool to me

I don’t understand how anyone gets bored of holdem. I’ve hosted a game for 20+ years on and off (off when my kids were little). My game has picked up big time in the last 3 years again with full tables and sometimes a small wait list.

All we play is holdem…often in 6-8 hour sessions once every 3-4 weeks. Everyone has a blast and no one ever asks to play another game….ever.

 

[Gunnar]

Well no use in playing Shuffle Derailment unless Im wearing my gimp uniform and ready to be fucked...

 

[doublebooyah85]

I think mixed games and circus games are very similar. Usually a night of circus games it’s, for us atleast, is 3/4 mixed games you could nearly find at a WSOP event 1/4 true circus games.

Mixed games
Drawmaha
Any Badugi version
Big O
SOHE
Archie
Double boards

Circus is more maybe…
Derailment
Scarney
Random games w extra draws maybe

But even so they all have strategy. And I would consider most of these games “mixed” and not “circus”

 

[BarrieJ3]

I really enjoy deck building games (seasons, ascension, dominion). Love resource strategy games like Catan and Lords of Waterdeep. Give me anything with meeples and I’m happy. Spades, cribbage, hearts, I’m in!

What I’m not playing is Chess or Hold ‘em or Checkers for hours on end every time I have the opportunity to play a game.

Why?

1. I enjoy changing, evolving strategy. On a completely solved game that “leveling” is only happening after large amounts of time spent playing with the same people. The other games I have listed (and mixed and circus) play much more akin to a real time strategy where shifts (individually and table wise) are going to be earlier and more frequent.

2. I have very limited time. I’m not going to choose to play a game where I’m not playing the majority of the time. I don’t need to be splashy or lose/win house payments, i don’t even need to play for cash. But whatever we’re playing for at whatever stakes, I’m usually going to have a VPIP north of 70/80/90%.

There’s more reasons, but these two are the bulk of it.

I’m also more than happy to play hold em.

I think the sweet spot is a set rotation RxRxRxR with however many games.

 

[toothpic]

NLHE is like a cheese pizza. It's still good and I'd still eat it, but why limit yourself when there's so many other varieties and toppings to explore?

Dessert pizza, hell yes.
BBQ Chicken pizza, hell yes.
Ultimate pepperoni pizza, hell yes.
Supreme pizza, hell yes.

I haven't even gotten to different variety of pizza crusts yet.

 

[BarrieJ3]

I’d add that 3) the type of players you encounter is often diff as well.

Once you move past recreational local players, the player pool suddenly gets very…boring. Walk into any cardroom in Vegas and it looks like Pergatory. I mean, even tables at meetups can look like everyone just lost their dog/wife/house.

Just for me personally, poker is for fun, like going to the movies or an amusement park. I’m going to have fun every time at every table no matter what I’m playing or who I’m playing with. But if I can avoid sitting at a table of grumps or badgering players or super nits or a table of locker room talk or people belittling players or or or or, then of course I would. And it’s not the standard for every player of course, I just think you’ll find more of that at hold em and more folks looking for fun at mixed/circus.

 

[toothpic]

Same here. Poker is a release for me and is mostly for enjoyment, hence all the drinking that takes place while playing.

 

[BarrieJ3]

Lastly, I just 4) don’t see those epic moments as much in hold em.

Realistically, all in pre river and then hitting a 1 outer is really the only crazy moment. Sure, heads-up someone making a hero call for a lot and it working can be a fun table moment, but that’s about it.

In mixed/circus, there’s ton of table explosion moments where the whole table “woooooaaaahhhhhhh!”s.

The moments of throwing cash bundles everywhere and doing the truffle shuffle, someone phoning a friend for help and then saying I just called you to let you know I’m winning, the guy stoically standing up from the table and walking straight into the pool, grabbing the money counter and money guns and shooting them everywhere, standing up on the chairs and proclaiming King Kong ain’t got shit or who do you think you are I am, the guy that had a prepacked whipcream pie and got someone’s face - lol none of these happened or are happening at a hold em table.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either. They’re very different games and styles, they both have a place in poker, and dependent on what you’re looking for you may gravitate towards one or the other.

I’m just looking for max fun.

 

[RadicusScout]

Is that what it is? Normal poker games no longer excite you, so you have to play freaky games with crazy names and crazier rules?

 

[BarrieJ3]

Same here. Poker is a release for me and is mostly for enjoyment, hence all the drinking that takes place while playing.

100%. My bar here is the EXACT same as it was after the last game however many months ago.

I don’t drink. I don’t really gambol or smoke or any of it. Poker is that perfect event/social gathering where the rules are a bit looser, lines a touch fuzzier, and degeneracy has a place.

(But I respect the opinion of others who have a different view of, need for, and treatment of poker)

 

[toothpic]

I have my normal mixed game crew that I play with and I also go play with a group that does NLHE with bomb pots and I enjoy both quite a bit. The NLHE game is fun because there's a good mix of players where some are wild, some are standard but there's lots of action. That's also a game were at least half the table is drinking, but not as much fun drinking or fun as our mixed game crew.

Some poker is better than no poker.

 

[BarrieJ3]

All poker good. Players matter most, much more than game.

I was at a meetup where 1 table was inside - full bar, warm, great lighting.

The other 3+ tables? Outside. Absolute freezing cold, blustery and windy, iffy lighting once sun went down, etc.

Outside? Everyone’s laughing, having a great time.

Inside? Pcfers kept coming outside announcing they were looking for additional players, asking all the tables if anyone wanted to come in.

For the entire night, not one person went in. 2 or 3 locals that simply weren’t fun to be around or play with.

Like I regularly remind my kids, be someone people want to play with.

 

[Rhodeman77]

Full circus at a meetup can be mentally draining. Especially playing at stakes higher than 25/50c $100 buy-in. I prefer a mixed game with a set rotation of 3-5 games. Players get comfortable with the same games. Not a ton of explaining and rules changes to learn/remember. Maybe that is circus lite, but my players enjoy it that way.

 

[upNdown]

No they are just the real poker players lol the rest of you clowns are playing Texas Holdem like a bar league!

To be fair to me, I’m happy to play any of the 20 or so games allowed in the WSOP dealers choice games. So I’m all for the mixed games. But the circus games (like drawmaha and beyond) are a bit much.
And fwiw, I love SOHE, and the 5-card variant sounds fun, but why do we have to call it bisexual?

 

[doublebooyah85]

To be fair to me, I’m happy to play any of the 20 or so games allowed in the WSOP dealers choice games. So I’m all for the mixed games. But the circus games (like drawmaha and beyond) are a bit much.
And fwiw, I love SOHE, and the 5-card variant sounds fun, but why do we have to call it bisexual?

Do we really think Drawmaha is circus? It’s Omaha mixed with basic 2 card draw poker.

 

[upNdown]

Do we really think Drawmaha is circus? It’s Omaha mixed with basic 2 card draw poker.

You have to draw the line somewhere, so that’s where I’m drawing it. But yes, it’s totally subjective.
I use the WSOP 20 dealer choice games as the line. But of course that isn’t perfect either, because 5-card stud and pineapple aren’t on that list and I wouldnt call them circus games.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Yeah idk. Standard Drawmaha isn’t circus at all imho.

Sure…Drawmaha 49. But not standard Drawmaha.

 

[upNdown]

Kind of a strange take, but ok.

Lately it feels like we’ve exhausted all topics here. So all we’re left with is strange takes.

 

[Cratty]

**I enjoy all, and am sure the above is inaccurate.

 

[doublebooyah85]

View attachment 1690147

**I enjoy all, and am sure the above is inaccurate.

H game ?

 

[Cratty]

H game ?

Can't recall fully, think @Machine and @Ben8257 taught it at the Ohio meetup. Actually really enjoyed it, but was a bit of a mind-fuck for a while. Cards flop out in an "H" formation, in odd orders, and I think you can play diagonals.

Board looks something like this in the end, hence the name.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Can't recall fully, think @Machine and @Ben8257 taught it at the Ohio meetup. Actually really enjoyed it, but was a bit of a mind-fuck for a while. Cards flop out in an "H" formation, in odd orders, and I think you can play diagonals.

Sounds like bingo. Flop is the 4 outside cards. River is in the middle card. You can take any 2 from the outside plus everyone must use the middle card. (Only 2 streets of betting. Sometimes you can add a draw at the end to make it a 3 street game lol)

It’s a mind fuck when you try to make it into lines and diagonals but the way I explained it is easier for me.

If it’s the same game etc. bingo is more of an “X” than “H”.

“H” could also be elevator. Fuck that game. Elevator is tough.

 

[ekricket]

Can't recall fully, think @Machine and @Ben8257 taught it at the Ohio meetup. Actually really enjoyed it, but was a bit of a mind-fuck for a while. Cards flop out in an "H" formation, in odd orders, and I think you can play diagonals.

It’s similar to the one where you give everyone five cards and then just throw the rest of the deck face up on the table and you can use any five cards anywhere, in your hand or on the board.

 

[inca911]

H game was “Elevator”

 

[Kain8]

Don't kink shame me!