Dealer's choice! What is and isn't allowed (1 Viewer)

Oh sorry, it's just to mean random (officially stands for Random Number Generator). So for example, we could play a game where if a 10 Hearts shows up, everyone puts in $1 to the pot. Or swap hands with the person to the left. Or have the person to the left steal a card.

Mayhem.
We have voluntary props that are a little like this.

For example, if a 3 lands on the river, everyone in on props pays me 2. If it's a 7, we all pay the guy who claimed 7s. We have a few standing props of this sort.

Swapping complete hands would be a little much for me, but if it makes your players happy, go for it!
 
I'm just seeing your latest book, I'll have to pick that up just to leave on my coffee table!
 
Basically, it's your home game, and you can dictate the reg game and any circus games that are allowed. I would suggest to get a concensus of the games that your reg players like.
At my game, we decided as a group of my regular players for 2 card Texas Hold'em, with the 7-2 game, 3 card Pineapple, discarding one card after the flop, or 4 card Omaha. Simple, everyone understands the rules of each game. We've tried other circus games in the past, but not everyone was on board. Some would just muck the hand preflop, maybe not even look at their hole cards, and just fold. That doesn't make it fun for everyone involved at the table.
 
We have voluntary props that are a little like this.

For example, if a 3 lands on the river, everyone in on props pays me 2. If it's a 7, we all pay the guy who claimed 7s. We have a few standing props of this sort.

Swapping complete hands would be a little much for me, but if it makes your players happy, go for it!
I’ve seen this played where you had a choice, if you were going to use it then you had to pay. But if you didn’t pay you couldn’t use it. Couple more ways to add strategy there. You could pay as a red herring for example, to distract from the strength of your hand even if you weren’t using it.
 
I can't believe no one has said @Angie99 or @Machine cards... if it's in the cards... it's allowed!
I mentioned only playing games on the cards in my comment.
Plus anything that @bergs or @k9dr think up after being drunk!

For example I was told "Derailment" was outlawed long ago at meet ups. Rob introduces that shit to us in Florida and the past 2 years everyone is playing it!

Also Dramaha zero or 49 might not be in the cards but they should... drawmaha 21 should only be played with experienced players because it is confusing and if only 1 or 2 know the rules... you will have to explain them again every single hand!

99% of the time no wilds in any games... but @DarkHelmet55 always allows a few orbits of "Follow the Queen" I grew up playing stud with wilds so I don't mind... but absolutely NOT in any type of Omaha variant games.

In my personal opinion... Scrotum8 should be outlawed... you think.Derailment can get expensive and tricky... Scrotum8 is the devil!!
I both love and hate derailment. :cool

Good to see you posting Ben. I have missed you.
 
Because there are a couple of players at my table who are really good friends but poor poker players that REALLY can't afford to lose significant sums of money, I don't allow the games that can get silly with the betting. We stick to Hold Em, Omaha, pineapple and variants of pineapple for the most part. No wild card games. No guts, no double board games.
 
I disagree that most of the games you listed are any more prone to the betting getting silly than Hold'em or Omaha. That's more a feature of NL/PL betting in general than any specific game.

However, I agree wholeheartedly about this:

Also no 3-5-7 or any other game where someone has to match the pot in perpetuity until there's a final winner.

These games have too much potential to make a huge mess that will leave basically everyone unhappy.
 
You call it we play it

Now original buy is is $100 per player

We play hold em, Omaha hi/lo, follow the bitch, screw your neighbor, 3 card gut, 4's, OmaJack, 10 bust 30, 7.5&27.5
usally end the night with a game of inbetween, but we cap the amount of the biggest lose you can have is $50 and the biggest win you can have is $50, that way you cant try to win $300 and only have a lose of $50

they do not know most circus games, I will get @CraigT78 over to the house one of these days for a game so he teach us,

but it is just a fun night
any game that has blinds we play a full orbit
most other games are one hand then off to the next game
 
I disagree that most of the games you listed are any more prone to the betting getting silly than Hold'em or Omaha. That's more a feature of NL/PL betting in general than any specific game.

However, I agree wholeheartedly about this:


Also no 3-5-7 or any other game where someone has to match the pot in perpetuity until there's a final winner.

These games have too much potential to make a huge mess that will leave basically everyone unhappy.

It aint exactly poker, but we killed a limit night by playing Acey-Deucey. For those unfamiliar everyone antes and gets two cards. Starting with a player, you can wager up to the pot that the next card on top of the deck is between your two cards, or pass to the next player. If you're right you win your wager, if you're wrong your wager goes in the pot.

Only problem is we got a string of very bad luck, and suddenly the pot was larger than anyone but my stack. I managed to win it, but if I had lost then things would've gotten weird as no one would have enough chips to match the pot. I felt bad because I essentially won just because I chose to buy in the deepest, assuming it didn't matter for mixed limit games.

I feel like we must've been playing wrong, because if everyone's chips ended up in the middle I would've had no idea how to handle it. Was seriously considering just refunding everyone's buy ins lol.
 
It aint exactly poker, but we killed a limit night by playing Acey-Deucey. For those unfamiliar everyone antes and gets two cards. Starting with a player, you can wager up to the pot that the next card on top of the deck is between your two cards, or pass to the next player. If you're right you win your wager, if you're wrong your wager goes in the pot.

Only problem is we got a string of very bad luck, and suddenly the pot was larger than anyone but my stack. I managed to win it, but if I had lost then things would've gotten weird as no one would have enough chips to match the pot. I felt bad because I essentially won just because I chose to buy in the deepest, assuming it didn't matter for mixed limit games.

I feel like we must've been playing wrong, because if everyone's chips ended up in the middle I would've had no idea how to handle it. Was seriously considering just refunding everyone's buy ins lol.
Sounds like you’re playing it right, or at least how I was taught. Must have been really bad luck. But did no one want to add on? Since you control your own action, it doesn’t have to be table stakes. I can see allowing adding only when it’s not your turn, but otherwise I’d think it’d be okay to put more money on the table to win some back from the pot if you run out.
 
Sounds like you’re playing it right, or at least how I was taught. Must have been really bad luck. But did no one want to add on? Since you control your own action, it doesn’t have to be table stakes. I can see allowing adding only when it’s not your turn, but otherwise I’d think it’d be okay to put more money on the table to win some back from the pot if you run out.
We had no rule against adding on as much as you want, just for a low stakes limit game no one wanted to drop $40+ to try to scoop the pot.
 
I disagree that most of the games you listed are any more prone to the betting getting silly than Hold'em or Omaha. That's more a feature of NL/PL betting in general than any specific game.

However, I agree wholeheartedly about this:


Also no 3-5-7 or any other game where someone has to match the pot in perpetuity until there's a final winner.

These games have too much potential to make a huge mess that will leave basically everyone unhappy.
When another player in my group hosts, we play the double board games as well as guts and I have found that the double board games generate significantly larger pots, but it may just be our players. He also allows three card guts, which has been brutal on occasion.
 
The following games are banned from my place:
-Between the sheets
One night during my old Thursday night league (I was not the host that night), this game was called. It grew from the original $10-$12 pot, to over 2K. One member ended up over $1,200 in the hole. It took him months to pay it back. I consider people that come to my place friends. I want them to be comfortable with their potential losses. It’s one thing to lose a couple hundred, but I don’t want anyone losing a mortgage payment.
-GUTZ
I just don’t like it
-Any wild card games
Maybe once a year, I’ll host an “old skool poker night”. Dealer’s choice, game changes on every deal. Just like the games I played in college and right after (before the Hold’em Boom). On those nights, I lift the restrictions on GUTZ and wildcard games. Only BTS stays on the banned list.
I’ve also done “No Hold’em Night”, too. Those nights the tourney is PLO, and NLHE joins the other games on the banned list.
 
I have questions...

The following games are banned from my place:
-Between the sheets
One night during my old Thursday night league (I was not the host that night), this game was called. It grew from the original $10-$12 pot, to over 2K. One member ended up over $1,200 in the hole.
Didn't he have to already have the chips on the table in order to lose them?

It took him months to pay it back. I consider people that come to my place friends.
Letting someone play with that much, on credit? That's a recipe for potentially losing a friend. And it really has nothing to do with what game is being played. Give a player this much credit and they could just as easily lose it all playing hold'em.

I want them to be comfortable with their potential losses. It’s one thing to lose a couple hundred, but I don’t want anyone losing a mortgage payment.
-GUTZ
I just don’t like it
-Any wild card games
Maybe once a year, I’ll host an “old skool poker night”. Dealer’s choice, game changes on every deal. Just like the games I played in college and right after (before the Hold’em Boom). On those nights, I lift the restrictions on GUTZ and wildcard games. Only BTS stays on the banned list.
I’ve also done “No Hold’em Night”, too. Those nights the tourney is PLO, and NLHE joins the other games on the banned list.
 
I have questions...


Didn't he have to already have the chips on the table in order to lose them?


Letting someone play with that much, on credit? That's a recipe for potentially losing a friend. And it really has nothing to do with what game is being played. Give a player this much credit and they could just as easily lose it all playing hold'em.

Definitely agree, letting people play big with chips they haven't bought is a recipe for disaster, for everyone involved. You as the host/banker, because now you have to pay out someone from your own pocket and have another player indebted to you. Them as players, because it's much easier for them to get in way over their head betting with money they don't have.
 
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I have questions...


Didn't he have to already have the chips on the table in order to lose them?


Letting someone play with that much, on credit? That's a recipe for potentially losing a friend. And it really has nothing to do with what game is being played. Give a player this much credit and they could just as easily lose it all playing hold'em.
I was still playing in the weekly tournament for our league. The cash game started on another table, so I didn’t have all the details on what happened, and why they continued to let him play on credit. I just heard about it after it happened. Again, I was not the host, and it was not my game.
I would never let anyone play on credit at my place.
 
Agreed. I’ve been on the wrong end of matching the pot in a game like this. I see no point in it as it’s not poker in my mind.

Also no 3-5-7 or any other game where someone has to match the pot in perpetuity until there's a final winner.
 
I'm surprised at the amount of people that commented no to guts. It's an easy fast game. I don't get why it would be banned?
All the dealers choice games we play there are limit betting.
Typically 25c with 25c raises 3 raise max.
If a natural pair is on thd board it jumps to 50c. Last round of betting is $1
Players frequently use up the 3 max raise by betting 25c instead of 50c or $1 to keep whoever most likely has the nuts from getting the full amount possible.
In between is about the only game questionable that may be on the chopping block. For the most part my guys are anything goes.

There's a fun one a guy made up. His last name is fish so he calls it fish in the fish bowl.
Everyone gets 5 cards. Bet
Discard 3 cards must be 3 to the fishbowl and dealer washes them in a pile on the table. Everybody draws 3 cards from fish bowl followed by betting.
Then everybody discards 2 cards must be 2. Dealer washes. Players pick 2. Bet
1 card to fish bowl and back out.

What really sucked is last time I played I was dealt quad 10s from the start. Had to discard 3 cards so I folded. No way I was gonna win unless I could get lucky picking my cards back up. Not likely.
 
I would explain that 'Indian' poker is 'stereotyping' and rude, further more I would have no part of that kind of BS at my game!

How ever if he called 'Blind Man's Bluff' I'd have to allow it...
Our Indian friend calls the game every.single.time.

And it cracks us up every.single.time.
 
I'm surprised at the amount of people that commented no to guts. It's an easy fast game. I don't get why it would be banned?
Because it's similar to what we consider poker, but not exactly. Honestly I'm not sure what the exact definition of poker is, but no poker game takes multiple deal of the cards to find out the winner of the pot (okay as I'm typing this, maybe Draw Jacks or better)
 
Because it's similar to what we consider poker, but not exactly. Honestly I'm not sure what the exact definition of poker is, but no poker game takes multiple deal of the cards to find out the winner of the pot (okay as I'm typing this, maybe Draw Jacks or better)
It's hard to say exactly where poker begins and a game like Guts or Acey-Deucey begins. They all fall under the umbrella of pot-based community betting games. But it's clear that the idea of poker is broader than a 52-card deck and that list of hand ranks we all know.
 
For us, mainly because back in college we had people writing blank checks and dropping them into the pot, it got so out of hand.

The game's a freaking blast, though.
 
I played in a dealers choice game (dealer button chose the game) but it was kind of like a spread limit game ($1-$5 bets), max 4 bets per round.

There was also some strategy that if people wanted a "cheaper" run out, they would just bet $1 instead of checking to limit the number of bets.
(Ex: A bets $5, B raises to $10, C and D raise $1 each to cap the betting to $12 and not allowing A and B to cap it to $20).

It wasn't a big game but it was probably the most fun I had playing poker if you just want to play some cards
 
I played in a dealers choice game (dealer button chose the game) but it was kind of like a spread limit game ($1-$5 bets), max 4 bets per round.

There was also some strategy that if people wanted a "cheaper" run out, they would just bet $1 instead of checking to limit the number of bets.
(Ex: A bets $5, B raises to $10, C and D raise $1 each to cap the betting to $12 and not allowing A and B to cap it to $20).

It wasn't a big game but it was probably the most fun I had playing poker if you just want to play some cards

In spread limit, doesn't the last raise still set the minimum? If you reverse the ordering it works though. A bets $1, B raises $1, C and D raise by $5 you get a capped $12 pot.
 
In spread limit, doesn't the last raise still set the minimum? If you reverse the ordering it works though. A bets $1, B raises $1, C and D raise by $5 you get a capped $12 pot.
I've played a version of spread limit where your raise isn't pegged to the last increment, so a player who wants to limit the action can raise just $1 to make it go $5, $10, $11, $12 (or whatever).

Not my favorite betting structure, but I've played it a few times.
 

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