I just recently discovered this website featuring an incredible amount of exotic poker variations. On top of the popular and widely played variations, such as Texas Hold 'em, Omaha and 7-Card Stud, there are many more games that use traditional poker rules in some altered way. Some of them are played almost like poker, while others have almost nothing in common with it.
Personally, I was shocked to find out how many of them actually exist. Most of these games are played at home...
Here goes a partial list of the poker variations I found:
1. Best Flush. A maximum of ten players may take part in this game. Every player receives one hidden and one exposed card. All active players make their moves. Another up card is dealt. Another round of betting takes place. One up card followed by a round of betting continues until each player holds five cards. The final betting round occurs. Now comes the showdown. Only players holding flushes or straight flushes may win the game.
2. Cowboy, Cowgirl, and Cowpatty. The maximum number of 7 players may play this game with the minimum standing at 3. The game features one single round of betting. All the active players receive five cards face down. If a player does not happen to land at least half of the jackpot, he is obligated to match the entire pot. After the betting round, players have three options:
A. Cowboy- a player may discard three cards and receive three cards back.
B. Cowgirl- a player may discard one card and receive one card back.
C. Cowpatty- no card exchange takes place.
Then, players declare high or low or both typically by putting none, one or two chips in a closed fist and putting it on the table. Players who have no chips are trying to make the low hand,players holding one chip are trying to make the high hand, and players holding two chips are trying to make it both ways. Play continues until only two active players remain and they split the pot among them, or just one player stays in and wins the whole pot.
3. Follow the Queen. This game is said to be among San Fransisco's most favorite poker games. Each participating player is dealt two cards face down and one exposed card. The betting structure is pretty much the same as in 7-Card Stud except that all queens and any other higher card on the board is treated as wild. Nevertheless, if the last card dealt on 6th street happens to be a queen, then only queens are wild. The highest hand nabs the pot!
4. Russian Poker. Up to 4 players are allowed to take part. All players build the pot by investing an equal amount of money (typically $1). Each active player receives 13 cards into his pocket and is required to make three hands, a low, a middle, and a high. The bottom hand contains 3 cards, and the other two hands contain 5 cards. Naturally, the middle hand must be stronger than the low hand and the high hand must be stronger than the middle hand.
At show down time all players first reveal their low hand (the highest one takes 25% of the jackpot), than the middle hand (the highest one takes 50% of the pot) and than the high hand (the highest one takes the remaining 25% of the jackpot). Does anyone know why the game is called Russian Poker?
Well, the above are only some of the poker variations I found... If you behave, I'd mention others sometime later...
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