Scarney - Icelandic or not? (1 Viewer)

What is the nut low in Scarney?

  • An Ace - Icelandic

    Votes: 21 63.6%
  • No Cards at all - "Normal"?

    Votes: 12 36.4%

  • Total voters
    33
Oh sure, let's hate on Scarney but next orbit play derailment where I can flop quads on one board, and a royal flush on the other. But the river brings a double 2 and both boards magically disappear and @NitB wins the only remaining board with a 4 hi flush.

Edit: I had pizza for dinner.
 
Look at this way.

You’re at a meetup. You have $1500 behind after a long day. It’s $1100 to call into a huge pot on the turn and you’re holding a single 2 with no 2 on the board. Everyone else has 4 cards (3-way action).

If this is any other game, you can call and fade and get half or maybe scoop. You can call and suck out if you’re behind somehow. You can bluff on the river with chips behind.

You have all of the standard poker options available.

Now we play this version of Scarney.

Ace hits the river.

It’s the only poker game you’re ever going to play where your hand is dead. You have no options, no hope, nothing. You played the hand correctly, violated no rules, but your hand is literally dead.

You pretty much just described Derailment.

Do everything right and BOOM ! Then chances of 'bluffing' after your hand gets demolished on a whim of a river card are almost zero in that game. So its pretty much dead.

Take your licks. you had a lone Ace till the river and over played it. You stuck $1500 in on the turn and now you are dead.

You could have checked. But ohhhh no you had to jam.

And now you are in the sunken place.

edit: just re read your post.. you had a 2 and the river was an ace and youre dead because?
 
You pretty much just described Derailment.

Do everything right and BOOM ! Then chances of 'bluffing' after your hand gets demolished on a whim of a river card are almost zero in that game. So its pretty much dead.

Take your licks. you had a lone Ace till the river and over played it. You stuck $1500 in on the turn and now you are dead.

You could have checked. But ohhhh no you had to jam.

And now you are in the sunken place.
It’s different though.

As a matter of strategy in derailment I should have draws at multiple hands so I should’ve had something going into the last street.

And I can still bluff, suck out, fade outs, etc.
I can still play poker.

Scarney, if I discard my last card, I’m literally booted unceremoniously and against my will out of the hand, and I just sit there with my dick in one hand and an empty margarita glass in the other until it’s time to start checking flights home on southwest.com.
 
It’s different though.

As a matter of strategy in derailment I should have draws at multiple hands so I should’ve had something going into the last street.

And I can still bluff, suck out, fade outs, etc.
I can still play poker.

Scarney, if I discard my last card, I’m literally booted unceremoniously and against my will out of the hand, and I just sit there with my dick in one hand and an empty margarita glass in the other until it’s time to start checking flights home on southwest.com.

Yes. but we can have a ceremony if you wish. In fact I will hire a bagpiper for that

edit: 100% im queuing up bagpiper music now for your bust outs
 
Oh sure, let's hate on Scarney but next orbit play derailment where I can flop quads on one board, and a royal flush on the other. But the river brings a double 2 and both boards magically disappear and @NitB wins the only remaining board with a 4 hi flush.

Edit: I had pizza for dinner.
Those boards are dead, but your hand isn’t.

Versus Scarney where I’m forced to discard on river and my hand is dead, but the other 2 players can share playing the board for the high and one of them wins the low with a 18.

The more I think about it, Scarney is sort of just asking for problems at a meetup with a lot of drinking and players that don’t know each other. Of all the games we play it’s the least likely to ever see the inside of a casino.

Also, it’s got the most lethal of all starting hands in any games we play. AAAA is going to scoop the vast majority of the time (as is AAA). Not the case at Omaha or similar games.

I’m definitely souring on Scarney. I never really got excited for it or played a big pot at DiD….weirdly didn’t miss it either.
 
Those boards are dead, but your hand isn't.

This crystallized for me why I don't like Icelandic. In other games the board can screw you, but you can still choose to bluff or potentially it screwed everyone else and you drag a pot with a crappy hand. In scarney you are just eliminated. That doesn't happen in any other common variants I don't think.
 
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I was gonna introduce my regular group to Scarney on Friday but now I’m not so sure…
 
Basic Scarney is fun as hell. The variants start to make it a bit weird. I think the AZ crowd enjoys the basic version as well (but they looooove derailment).
 
Basic Scarney is fun as hell. The variants start to make it a bit weird. I think the AZ crowd enjoys the basic version as well (but they looooove derailment).
To confirm, basic is 6 hole cards, discarding all cards means you’re out (but not as likely for that to happen due to the extra card in hand)?
 
To confirm, basic is 6 hole cards, discarding all cards means you’re out (but not as likely for that to happen due to the extra card in hand)?
Discarding all your cards means lock low in the basic version and you’re free to bet whatever you want.

It’s not fundamentally different from having a wheel in the mitt playing Tahoe hi/lo - you’ve got part of the pot immutably locked up - but at least in Scarney, everyone knows it versus Tahoe where it can sneaky as hell.
 
Since my introduction to the game earlier this year I've pretty exclusively played the game as standard 6-card (and probably a few singular times 7-handed/5-card) and to my recollection we've never once had someone hit down to zero cards. One card, sure, several times, but zero seems pretty infrequent/unlikely to be a major issue. I honestly don't know that we've even established what our rule would be in the case of a 100% discard, though my instinct is "so sorry, better luck next time" - though I can see bergs point about that being kind of shit.

But I dunno, the game is wild degeneracy run amok anyway, I don't think I mind the risk of getting the boot at zero cards given the whole thing is such high variance to begin with. Or maybe that's just me responding to how my group plays the game, which is fucking wildly, and I don't mind the idea of people getting punished by being too brazen with their shoves (so long as it doesn't break the game, I guess lol)
 
Playing split pot games to win only 1/2 the pot is a great way to lose your money. Playing hands that have scoop potential in a split pot game is how the game is meant to be played.

Lots of players just don't get this.

People don't goto the bar to order a water.

You don't play Scarney to scoop, you play it because you're a degenerate gambler with nothing better to do than listen to @MatB give a speech and show you his horseshoe, its gold plated btw.
 
People don't goto the bar to order a water.

You don't play Scarney to scoop, you play it because you're a degenerate gambler with nothing better to do than listen to @MatB give a speech and show you his horseshoe, its gold plated btw.


FACT.
 
Going for a high is not a guaranteed win, having zero cards and still in the hand is a guaranteed win. I have seen a 1 card hand win the high completing a flush or straight to scoop. I have seen a 1 card hand make a full house to scoop (top board double paired). I have seen 3 card hands scoop vs a 1 card hand. Playing split pot games to win only 1/2 the pot is a great way to lose your money. Playing hands that have scoop potential in a split pot game is how the game is meant to be played.

Whelp ! There goes my edge.

Any other tid bits you’d like to share?
 
You just described EVERY game except hold em

No. They call it limit because it limits how much pain you can exact on villain.
It Limits how much degen tingles you get when someone check raises you when you have the nuts
 
No. They call it limit because it limits how much pain you can exact on villain.
It Limits how much degen tingles you get when someone check raises you when you have the nuts
respect.

At least you didnt say "you can't protect your hand!"
 
respect.

At least you didnt say "you can't protect your hand!"


Yeah that gets too close to ‘strategy talk’

We don’t do that
 
If the point of the game is to lose cards then losing your last card should not kill your hand.
QFMFT. Scarney is like Uno - the goal of the game is to minimize points in hand, and zero cards is the nuts. I personally rank them:

Normal >>> Canadian >>>>>>>>> Icelandic.

That said, as a practical matter I prefer Canadian rules. I think it's a reasonable compromise between #TeamNoCardsNuts and #TeamDeadHand, and the ultimate goal here is for the whole table to have fun.

How can you tell who has no cards vs who has folded then?
By the person with no cards constantly shouting, "I HAVE ZERO POINTS BITCHES!" until the hand is over.
 
New rule proposal: a player without cards but still live in the band (normal and Canadian Scarney) must continually sing “Money for Nothing” so as to openly communicate their presence in said hand until the hand concludes and the pot is adjudicated.

“This ain’t workin’
No idea how you do it,
Look at Mat,
That guy is dumb”…
 
New rule proposal: a player without cards but still live in the band (normal and Canadian Scarney) must continually sing “Money for Nothing” so as to openly communicate their presence in said hand until the hand concludes and the pot is adjudicated.

“This ain’t workin’
No idea how you do it,
Look at Mat,
That guy is dumb”…

Ok.
Second proposal:

you discard all your cards. Youre still in the hand. But now you have to go sit at another table and say to everyone. "no no, its ok...im in a hand. I have no cards. but trust me..Im in. a hand. I think I might raise.. Do you trust me?"
 
Ok

3rd proposal:

You fault all your cards. You have the nut low.
you now have to drink a pint of Leonard Ritas' before showdown or you are in default and are OUT.
 

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