It’s funny that most of these games were originally limit games.
I’m probably at fault for turning a lot of these into PL at meetups, but I’m not the only one.
I think I brought Archie, Dramaha49, and Dramaha0 out of Resorts World limit.
SOHE came from Abby99. First time I saw it was at BBOTB2 or 3 when she called it and we were hooked. Interesting years later I played it limit at Resorts but they called it “Omaha Holdem”.
Scarney came from Jbutler’s limit game on Wednesday nights in ATL about 5 year ago (where there is a declare for the high, low, or both (shudder)).
The names for the games are funny too.
Derailment was called something else in jbutler’s game too, and they played it limit, but when I called it at sanel54’s game one night they called double board Omaha “Tracks” so logically triple board with a board getting wiped out became derailment when someone got scooped on a 4-4-6 river runout. They bemoaned getting derailed while we all made “choooo-choooo” sounds and the game was reborn. The first time we played it in the Northeast we played it limit but it was weird going PL to FL for one game so it was PL by the second time we played it.
We made bum-bum up one night out of thin air while drunk at ssanel54’s game. Tahoe (Omaha 2-5) was playing tight so I tried to loosen it up. I called the game as “Tahoe hi lo with a draw”, got scooped first hand by Lawyer Bob, and when I told him “feels like someone just stuck it right in me bum bum” he said we should call the game that. Thus it was written.
Tahoe is an entirely different game in Louisville. I can’t remember what it is though. It’s definitely not 2-5 Omaha tho. The regional differences are funny too.
I have no idea where God’s Game came from (both the game and the name). I don’t even hear double board called at meetups anymore. My sense is that it came out of K9’s meetup in FL but that’s just an educated guess.
No idea where the different versions of Scarney came from or where the names emanated from. They’re definitely a PCF meetup phenomenon from what I can tell. If anyone knows where Icelandic and the other variants came from please share.
Shuck came from Leonard (not sure where he got it from). Pitch and Bitch / Pitch and Roll was called by Chippy first time I played it but my sense is that it had been around for a while as a stud variant.
Also feels like Dramaha has been around a long time. I don’t remember when I first saw it played PL.
Interestingly the term “circus game” came from
@JoseRijo about 10 years ago. We used to play a 2-6 rotation in the northeast that was our first toe dip into full circus before the draw games were introduced.
2 - NLHE
3 - NL Crazy Pineapple
4 - Omaha hi
5 - Big O hi/lo
6 - SOHE
Jose lost at SOHE one night when I had 2 tables running and loudly lamented how stupid SOHE and the other games were, and how he considered NLHE the only true poker game.
Everyone argued with him, and when he snapped back “Please….the games are a fucking circus” we all died and the circus game rotation was born.