New Circus Games Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

At the Austin meetup a few days ago, @Breich introduced me to Sassy, and it was a lot of fun. It's a variant of Tahoe Pitch & Roll / 7 card stud, and here's how it works:
  1. Deal 4 cards to each player, dealer antes for the table. All players must discard one, and (at the same time) flip one card face up.
  2. Low card brings it in (places a forced bet) and there is a round of betting.
  3. (4th street) Dealer gives each player one card face up, followed by a round of betting that starts with the best visible hand.
  4. Repeat twice for 5th and 6th streets. There is no 7th street.
  5. Starting with the best visible hand, players declare Sassy or Pat.
    1. Sassy players get to discard two cards and draw replacements. Up cards are up, down cards are down.
    2. Pat players do nothing.
    3. All players must declare before draws are dealt.
  6. One final round of betting, and the pot is split between best high hand and best low hand (8 or lower to qualify).
I'm not a huge fan of stud, but I find Sassy to be a lot more fun because of the draw element.

EDIT: If you play pot limit, deal 4th and 5th street together.

Sassy is a ton of fun (and that’s coming from someone who is definitely down lifetime in this game). Strongly recommend giving it a try for folks looking for something new in their rotation, I really liked the combination of stud and drawing mechanics.
 
How many people here play Guts? And what variants do you typically play?
Most of our Guts games and Variations

2 card high
3 card high, no Straights or Flushes
3 card low (A23 best hand but paired Aces are the highest pair)
3 card high with a draw, no S or F
3 card low with a draw

“Rat” – 3 card high with a draw, 2’s and 3’s are wild – best hand is all wilds (“Rat”), 2nd best hand is 3 natural non-wilds, 3rd best is 3 Aces with one or more wild, no straights or flushes, more natural wins (e.g. 3 Kings with 1 wild beats 3 Kings with 2 wilds – however, any “Rat” ties with any other “Rat”)

“Tony’s game” – 5 card low (A-5 best) with a draw, highest card after the draw is wild (Aces are low except when paired), more natural beats less natural (number of wilds first, then position of wilds if same number)

“Tony’s revenge” – 4 card low (A-4 best) with a Mandatory draw (if IN, must draw at least 1 card), 7’s are wild

“Choose Your Game, Larry* Wilbur**” – 5 card high (5 Aces best) with a draw – Dealer starts dealing one card to each player, after one completed round of cards (after each player has 1 card, including the dealer) anyone playing can call out “Larry”. As soon as “Larry” is called, the dealer flips the card being dealt (or the very next card if a card has just left his/her hand) face up into center of the area where a flop would normally go. The completed deal will give everyone 4 hole cards and the up card in the middle is everyone’s 5th card. If Larry isn’t called during the deal, then the card at the end of the deal is flipped up (after everyone has 4). The card that gets flipped up will determine the game being played.

Flipped card:
Ace or 2 – Acey Deucey – Aces and Deuces are wild
Three or Nine – Baseball – 3’s and 9’s are wild
Four – 4’s only
Five or Ten – Five and Dime – 5’s and 10’s are wild but ONLY if you have at least one of each in your hand (so if the center card is a 5, you would need at least one 10 in your hand for both to be wild)
Six – Sixty Nine “Excellent” – 6’s and 9’s are wild
Seven – 7’s only
Eight – 8’s only (or Crazy 8’s – every card of the same suit as the flipped up 8 is wild)
Jack – Jacks & Low – Jacks are wild Plus lowest card in your hand After the draw round is wild (but you have to declare your wild Before drawing – AND, if you draw under your designated wild, you lose all wilds except Jacks, Aces are high)
Queen – Queens and Follow – Queens are wild Plus any card each player designates to be their individual follow, declare before the draw (you can’t lose your wild(s))
King – Kingsey Low – Kings are wild as well as lowest card in your hand after the draw, no need to declare before drawing

Draws are optional, all draws are after deciding whether to be IN or Out.

* If “Larry” is called after any guts game name, there is a ghost hand that plays only when 1 person says they’re IN. Larry gets dealt (and draws if player gets to draw) after the player finishes all his/her actions. If Larry beats the player, the player has to double the pot (which can be capped depending on house rules/stakes).

** If “Wilbur” is called after any guts game name, there is an additional ghost hand that always plays, no matter how many people are IN. Like Larry, Wilbur goes after all the other players go. If Wilbur beats everyone IN, then everyone matches the pot (if Wilbur isn’t the highest hand, then the highest hand takes the pot and everyone else puts in/matches like normal).

If Larry and Wilbur are both active (1 player IN), then Wilbur acts before Larry (so, for a Larry/Wilbur game, you always have to beat 2 extra hands). If Larry beats the player but doesn’t beat Wilbur, the player still has to double the pot. If both Larry and Wilbur beat the player, it’s just double for the Larry.

Finally, in a Larry or Wilbur or Larry/Wilbur game, if only 1 person is in and there is a draw, we put the discards for that one player separate from the muck. When deciding what Larry and/or Wilbur would like to draw, the rest of the table is allowed to go through/expose all the muck (not the deck/undealt cards) except for the one player’s discards, to help maximize Larry/Wilbur’s chances. The player with the most money in the pot at the time gets final say on how to play Larry and/or Wilbur.

For our group, Larry/Wilbur are added every time we play Guts Choose Your Game. They are usually added for the other guts games but not every time.
 
Heads-up, no-limit/pot-limit, triple board, 4 game, hi-lo.

14 cards each divided preflop to hold’em, super hold’em, Omaha, and scrotum (can also do 15 cards with 1 discard to mix it up a bit more)

3 flops, 3 turns and 3 rivers.
 
If we’re talking 7 card stud, these are the games and variants we learned 20 years ago. Brought them back recently. I forgot how much fun these are after playing Hold’em/Omaha variants for 20 years.

7 Card Stud
No Peek
Baseball
Midnight Baseball (No Peek Baseball)
Follow the Queen
Black Bitch (The Bitch, Black Mariah)
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Chicago (High Chicago, Low Chicago)
Roll Your Own
Super Stud (4 hole cards + 1 up, discard 2)
Pitch & Role (4 hole cards, discard 1, expose 1)
Criss Cross (Iron Cross)
Pass the Trash (only 1 pass of 3 cards)
Anaconda (2 additional passes)
 
Would anyone here consider variations on NLH to be Circus games? For example: the stand up game, 7-2 game, small blind progressive pot, etc. Or would these just fall under the NLH umbrella?
Not really. Those are just fun ways to make NLHE more gambly, not a whole new game.
 
Question about drawing games, do you have to cap the number of players, or do you shuffle discards to reuse?
Often it end up being a little of both.

For example, Sassy can only be played five-handed if you want to ensure that you will never run out of cards (assuming that all players will go to 6th Street and draw two).

However, we had no problem playing six- and even seven-handed. Players fold, players stand pat, and if you run out of cards you just shuffle the muck before the draw.

Sure, it might give a stud pro a slight advantage (as they have seen and may remember some of the cards in the muck), but anybody that good probably isn't playing for peanuts at a meetup.
 
Pro stud mini?
Screenshot_20230124-144007.png
 
Has anyone played Points before? It’s basically a mix between 5 card stud and guts. Cards are dealt one at a time, and every street changes the dynamic of the game.

1st card = 1 card high
2nd card = 2 card low
3rd card = 3 card high (no straights or flushes)
4th card = 4 card low
5th card = 5 card high

Each player antes at the start of the game, and declares their intention in a “1, 2, 3, drop…” countdown on every street. If you drop, you’re playing, if you hold, then you’re out.

If multiple players drop, they exchange hands to see who had the winner for that round. No information is revealed except for who won. Loser(s) pay the winner the total of the pot. If only one player drops, that player is given a point.

Any player who holds on a given Street must pay an ante to the pot for the next street, so it is progressive.

The game ends when one person gets 7 total points, and they collect the pot from the middle.
 
Its funny. Reading through this I realize that when I say "I'll play anything," I'm full of crap. Truthfully, I'll play anything they'd play at the WSOP, plus a few of the tamer omaha varients like double board or maybe drawmaha.
But when I read some of the things you guys are playing here, I'm definitely that homer simpson gif fading back into the bushes.
 
I introduced what I’d consider a “gateway” game, may not even be considered truly “circus”. I guess it would be SHEHE, deal each player 4 cards, they have to separate into two HE hands preflop. Only one winner, not split pot. So basically you have two chances per hand and you have some agency to split the cards how you want.

Both circus and HE-only players enjoyed the game!
 
3 hand bandit / The devil's finger

3 hand Hold'em but your neighbor chooses your discards.

Ironically this variant was "invented" 2 separate nights by different people that weren't at the other game, hence the two names. I always prefer devil's finger being called for the inappropriate jokes that follow.
 
A game I play in has players who routinely call shuffle holdem for dealer’s choice as a way to ease into mixed games. I started calling shuffle Omaha variants like shuffle derailment, criss cross 8, God’s game. Haven’t called shuffle Scarney yet but the shuffle element adds a new layer to these Omaha variants.

Example: shuffle God’s game- 7 handed, deal 7 cards pre. Players muck 2 cards each before action begins. Those 14 cards are shuffled and will make up the boards after normal betting action.
 
Yes, you can either use 2 from your hand to make an Omaha hand, or all 5. We play it Hi/Lo.

There is a flop, draw, turn, draw, river, draw.
What if no one folds until the river? Where do you draw from? Max draw number?
 
What if no one folds until the river? Where do you draw from? Max draw number?
Max 2. We play 7MAX most nights, sometimes with an awkward 8th.

With a full table the dealer usually will pre-place the turn and river so if we run out of cards, the last to act gets shuffled discards.

We don't burn in circus games.
 
Derailment Scarney
Bottom board is standard discard - low pips get a portion of the pot
Top 3 boards play as derailment, must use two cards per remaining board(s)
View attachment 1285679
Any special rules if you discard all cards? What if you only have 1 card left, can you not play the Omaha part of the pot?

Pot is split half low half high (which is then further chopped between the boards) or if two boards then 1/3 each?
 
Any special rules if you discard all cards? What if you only have 1 card left, can you not play the Omaha part of the pot?

Pot is split half low half high (which is then further chopped between the boards) or if two boards then 1/3 each?
Depends if you’re playing Canadian or Icelandic. If one card then you can play 4 on the board. Although we didn’t get to the situation where one card plays higher than a two card hand on one of the derailment boards.

Split between low and remaining high board(s).
 
Double hand double board Omaha 8
5 max

8 cards pre to each player
Separate into two 4 card Omaha 8 hands.
On flop action discard one hand. Play through to river
Ultimate hi ultimate lo

@BEANO52

:love: YES, Chris introduced this at SQM when we were short handed and it was a lot of fun.
As I am also a BIG O8 fan, highly recommend.
 
@Hornet introduced me to an Archie variant called Veronica.

It's regular Archie but with a single face up community card that only plays towards your high hand, cannot be used in your low.

It's fantastic. It increases the action and vastly increases the scoopability.
 
@Hornet introduced me to an Archie variant called Veronica.

It's regular Archie but with a single face up community card that only plays towards your high hand, cannot be used in your low.

It's fantastic. It increases the action and vastly increases the scoopability.

When is the community card visible? After the initial deal?
 

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