New Poker Variant

While at work on Saturday night, I think I have come up with a new poker variant. Does anyone know of a complete or at least comprehensive list of poker variants so I could check and see that it doesnt already exist.

The Wiki page is a good starting off point. The links to the game types (draw, stud, community) each have their own lists. This one probably has fewer, but they're all on one page, and has some not in Wikipedia. This one has a bunch, but it seems to focus on draw and stud.

What did you come up with, if I may be so bold?

Ill let you know when I have done the research.

After research, and trying (and failing) to overcome both the mathematical and procedural problems in trying to develop the concept into a money making idea, despite the best attempts and efforts of DjTeddybear (which I greatly appreciate), I present the poker variation that I may (or may not if someone else thought of it before) have invented.

I present to you

Fold'em Hold'em.

Play starts with the normal set up for a 6-max hold'em game, with the button, small blind and big blind. Every player is dealt 5 cards.

If you fold, you fold all 5 cards. If you call or raise you must discard one card pre-flop.

A standard flop is dealt.

Again the options are fold, call or raise and if you stay in the hand again one card must be discarded.

The turn is dealt.

Same options, same decisions, Same discard one.

The river is dealt. Last betting and the best 5 card hand using normal holdem rules takes the pot.


It might not develop further, but is a hell of a lot of fun to play with a few friends. Give it a shot at your next dealers choice home games.

It's similar-ish to crazy pineapple hold em' you get three hole cards, and you muck one after the flop. But I will give this a go next poker night. You should try royal hold em, using just 20 cards, tens to aces. Max 6 players, but you overvalue your hand a lot.

I also came up with a betting game for people who bust out, take a whole deck, and deal 22 two card starting hands face up on the table (a big poker table!) then take turns putting a bet on which of the 22 hands will be the best 5 card poker hand after a flop, turn and river. There will be 3 burn cards, so it's not as easy as you think. Pocket aces might look nice, but if the other two aces are visible, forget it.

Yeah its very much like crazy pineapple... it sounds like a game that would only take place in home / dealers choice games and thats if your lucky. If your looking for money for it, no chance. Just perfect your play at it before you tell your friends and play a few home games. It's way too mental to take off globally though.

@WizardofEngland: gotta love that betting game... next time i have a home game i'm using that!

Me and my friends once came up with what we called Super Sick Stud. Basic rules are 7 card stud. You are dealt 5 cards face down to begin with. You discard 2 and turn one face up to create the normal Stud hand. Betting proceeds as normal until the 6th street. Anyone with a red card (also known as river of blood) is dealt cards face up until a black card and drawn. Then the game ends as norml with the best 5 card hand winning out of ALL up cards and the 3 down cards. Creates some amazing games when you have a couple of gamblers. Also 2's are wild.

We call it "Reverse Hold 'Em" in my home game. We also play a variant known as "Reverse Omaha" where each player starts with seven cards pre-flop, and discards one prior to the flop, turn and river. It works both as High/8-Low or strictly high. I'm not sure how you could get the house to make money, except for pot rakes. But the high number of starting cards lowers the maximum number of players. Also, tracking discards could be troublesome. We play that if you have too many cards after board cards are turned, your hand is dead.

Quote: Croupier

After research, and trying (and failing) to overcome both the mathematical and procedural problems in trying to develop the concept into a money making idea, despite the best attempts and efforts of DjTeddybear (which I greatly appreciate)....

I don't know how you'd turn a player-banked game into a moneymaker. The model in the house-banked table game industry is to charge a lease fee per table per month on the basis that the house win will increase relative to a (lease-free) blackjack table. Certain very successful games, such as Three Card Poker, can command in excess of $1000/month, but that's because they win a *lot* more than blackjack tables do. If your game is "just another poker-room game", it's not obvious to me how the casino would make incremental revenue and therefore justify giving you any of it.

I admittedly don't focus on card-room games for this reason, but short of charging more rake or extra time-charge, etc., I don't see how your player-banked game would make the casino more money than a hold'em table. Perhaps if you created a game that generated more gambling action (like Derek Webb's bi-directional poker game was claiming to do at G2E this year), you could generate more rake. But even then, if the rake is capped then there's not much room for improvement.

Now, if you had turned it into a house-banked game, that's a different story. But house-banked games with discards are fraught with peril...

Quote: WizardofEngland

It's similar-ish to crazy pineapple hold em' you get three hole cards, and you muck one after the flop. But I will give this a go next poker night. You should try royal hold em, using just 20 cards, tens to aces. Max 6 players, but you overvalue your hand a lot.

I also came up with a betting game for people who bust out, take a whole deck, and deal 22 two card starting hands face up on the table (a big poker table!) then take turns putting a bet on which of the 22 hands will be the best 5 card poker hand after a flop, turn and river. There will be 3 burn cards, so it's not as easy as you think. Pocket aces might look nice, but if the other two aces are visible, forget it.

I agree, sounds like Pineapple..well sorta.

Bodog has a new poker wagering game that is similar to what you describe here, except it's 9 handed. It updates odds based on revealed cards, etc.

Quote: Croupier

After research, and trying (and failing) to overcome both the mathematical and procedural problems in trying to develop the concept into a money making idea, despite the best attempts and efforts of DjTeddybear (which I greatly appreciate), I present the poker variation that I may (or may not if someone else thought of it before) have invented.

I present to you

Fold'em Hold'em.

Play starts with the normal set up for a 6-max hold'em game, with the button, small blind and big blind. Every player is dealt 5 cards.

If you fold, you fold all 5 cards. If you call or raise you must discard one card pre-flop.

A standard flop is dealt.

Again the options are fold, call or raise and if you stay in the hand again one card must be discarded.

The turn is dealt.

Same options, same decisions, Same discard one.

The river is dealt. Last betting and the best 5 card hand using normal holdem rules takes the pot.


It might not develop further, but is a hell of a lot of fun to play with a few friends. Give it a shot at your next dealers choice home games.

What if it was set up as an electronic game, with players on touch screens playing against a house hand, or just a VP paytable of qualifying hands? The discards wouldn't need to be physcally accounted for, and the hand evaluations would be fast and accurate. I could see this being a successful VP variant, but working out the paytable with three cards being discarded might be very tricky.

Quote: Ayecarumba

What if it was set up as an electronic game, with players on touch screens playing against a house hand, or just a VP paytable of qualifying hands? The discards wouldn't need to be physcally accounted for, and the hand evaluations would be fast and accurate. I could see this being a successful VP variant, but working out the paytable with three cards being discarded might be very tricky.

It is something I had considered. But the maths is just beyond me. I am still looking into it, but cannot afford proffesional mathematical evaluations, and didnt want to impose it on the community here and try and wangle a freebie.

As a table game it is fraught with too many procedural problems to work. But thanks for all your responses.

Quote: MathExtremist

I don't know how you'd turn a player-banked game into a moneymaker. The model in the house-banked table game industry is to charge a lease fee per table per month on the basis that the house win will increase relative to a (lease-free) blackjack table. Certain very successful games, such as Three Card Poker, can command in excess of $1000/month, but that's because they win a *lot* more than blackjack tables do. If your game is "just another poker-room game", it's not obvious to me how the casino would make incremental revenue and therefore justify giving you any of it.

I admittedly don't focus on card-room games for this reason, but short of charging more rake or extra time-charge, etc., I don't see how your player-banked game would make the casino more money than a hold'em table. Perhaps if you created a game that generated more gambling action (like Derek Webb's bi-directional poker game was claiming to do at G2E this year), you could generate more rake. But even then, if the rake is capped then there's not much room for improvement.

Now, if you had turned it into a house-banked game, that's a different story. But house-banked games with discards are fraught with peril...

The drop on house backed poker games here in Colorado is lower than Bj tables or plaer backed poker tables. The only poker based game here is 3 card poker. So i wonder if the $1,00 is to attract additional revenue versus higher drop than BJ?
Can you state a site when I can verify this either way ?