Poker game variations

I play in a couple of dealer’s choice poker games in my local area. Home games are about  playing poker games for fun. Yes, everybody wants to win, and many think of themselves as serious players. But the social aspects are what keep players coming back week after week to the home games.

One of the aspects that keep the entertainment level high is the crazy games that pop up in dealer’s choice. As the name implies, the next game is the next dealer’s option. We don’t play wild card games, but our players love the community card games.

This article explores poker game variations and provides a long list of games for you to add to your home game.

Community card games involve each player matching their hole cards, typically two to five cards, with a set of cards in the middle of the table that are used by everybody, the community cards.

There are hundreds of variations in how those community cards are laid out and which cards on the board can fit into your hand. Therein lies the challenge, and therein lies the fun. The luck of the cards and the strategic skill that a player can apply to card and bet selection make the game compelling. Changing the game on each deal keeps the night moving.

A new game announcement will often bring a groan from somebody, “I hate that game!”. The dealer generally makes the choice based on their preferences or where they feel they may have an advantage. Sometimes the choice is just meanness, meant to wake up the table or provoke a groan.

Most of the games we play are HiLo games. That is, you can play for the best high hand or the best low hand. One game I play in prefers 8 or better for the low. The best low hand possible is ace to five, commonly called a wheel. Any nine or high can’t be used in your five card low hand. The cards talk or declare the winner.

In another game the house rule is to play any low. Straights and flushes aren’t low. An ace, two, three, four and six is the best low hand possible, but anything can win the low half of the pot. Here you have to declare that you are going low; you might win low with two pair of nobody else goes low!

Often the community cards are named by the number of cards in you hand and the number of cards you can pick from the board to make your five card poker hand. Thus a 3-2 game means you take any three from your hand and two from the board. There are rules about how you can select your board cards. This adds a lot of variety as you make lots of rows and columns arrangements for the board and vary the number of eligible cards in any row. So a 2-2-1 game involves picking 2 cards from your hand and 2 cards from the board in one row or direction and one card from another board row. Sounds confusing at first but once the cards are dealt the choices become clearer.

Each game choice can have options. . For example, in an 8 player game each player can get 5 hole cards to go with the community cards or as it is often called, the board. Put two more players in that game and there aren’t enough cards to go around, so drop the dealer’s hole card set to four cards. This alone cuts down the combinations, and somewhat tightens up the game.

Here are some variations that we play. See how many ring a bell with you. As time permits I’ll create a HubPage for each variation and link to it for a more detailed explanation with pictures. So bookmark or select the RSS feed to be notified of updates. If you have a new variation, I’d love to hear about it.

Criss Cross- Five community cards in a cross formation. (see Criss Cross HubPage for explanation with pictures and a guest appearance by Daniel Negreanu).

Double Cross - Five community cards in a cross formation, plus a sixth spit card in the center. (see Double Cross HubPage for explanation with pictures and a poker tip from Phil Gordon).

Rocky - Five community cards and you you start with five cards but discard cards after the two card flop. (see Rocky HubPagefor explanation with pictures and hear Daniel Negreanu talk about Rocky).

Take Away - An evil game! You get five cards to start with. Then there is a traditional three card flop, a turn and a river card. Now you have ten cards. Then another flop, turn and river of take away cards destroys hands and a winner rises from the rubble.

What the L? - a 3-2 game in the shape of an L.

Bug House - A 3x3 grid, but there are no free cards here. Play 2 from your hand or 5 from your hand. This one gets groans because you often don't know where you stand until the last center card is revealed.

Big Top - There are a six card row and a three card row. Take two from your five card hand, and two from the top row and one from the bottom row.

Spider - One of my favorites to deal. A 3-2 game with nine community cards in an X formation.

2 handed Omaha - Plays like Omaha, but you have one or two hand decisions on each bet.

Good, Bad and Ugly - Five good community cards and five bad community cards, with an ugly decision to make for a sixth card.

Push - Five card stud with your hand built from dealt cards as they move around the table.

Commissary Poker aka Options - Seven card stud where you start with two hole cards and add the next five, one at a time by buying from the board cards dealt up three at a time.

Super Buy - Another buy game where you buy one or both of two available board cards.

7 Card with a spit - Seven card stud with one community card turned at some point.

Piles - You get a five card hand. Five piles of 2 cards each are turned up in order. You play three from your hand with any pile.

River in the Middle - There are three four card rows. Take two from your five card hand, and two from the top or bottom row and one from the middle row row.

Pineapple - then there is Crazy Pineapple and also Lazy Pineapple. All three card Hold'em variations.

Pass the Trash, and it's cousin Push - where you decide to keep a card or pass it along.

Four Corners - A 3x3 grid, where the four corners are exposed at once after the first bet. Usually a 3-2 game.

In researching this article, I found lots of name variations for the poker variations. The game I play as Crazy Pineapple was referred to as Lazy Pineapple in a video. I found that some players refer to Lazy Pineapple as Tahoe Poker. The game I call Criss Cross, is also widely known as Iron Cross. A game I've known for years as Options, turned up as Commissary Poker in a video. The game is about buying cards, so either can fit.

Since these variations are generally home game inventions, it's not surprising that the names might get confused or adjusted as they are passed on. Many of these games were widely and rapidly spread during the first and second world war as bored soldiers took their mind off their situation with a poker game. I don't know for sure, but I'm told that sometimes alcohol is involved when these home games are played, so that could be a factor.

Don't be surprised if you find one of your old favorites masquerading as another game in this article and elsewhere. Leave a comment and let me know of name variations as well as game variations.