Poker log

Tracking my weekly poker wins and losses, as well as anything interesting that might happen.  At the very bottom is a list of games with a brief description.

Overall money counter:   (starting fresh after 8/13/03)

8/13/03 - We played poker for the second time in about 3 months.  Unlike the previous time, I was the big winner this time, winning $20.  Tom funded us all, as Chris and Matt also won.  Nothing really remarkable, except for the time when we started playing, we were using a pinochle deck by mistake.  As a result, in the first game, two people had full houses, two people had straights.  In the next game, we were all going strong, until I realized there were two Jack of Spades out.  Funny.  Anyway, a fun night away from the home.

11/6/01 - After a long hiatus, the poker log is back.  Not counting today, it has been a mixed bag over the past month, winning in the beginning, but losing the last time out (10/30).  Overall for October I was probably up about $30.

  Today was something of a big losing day.  I ended up losing $29.  I feel I played well, it was just when I had a good hand, someone else always seemed to have a better hand.  The perfect example was when Aiden and I were player Low Chicago, Roll your Own.  I had 4 kings.  He had been betting like he had the ace of spades, which he DID have.  However, he also had the king of spades down, and the ten and jack of spades up.  Meaning he had a royal flush, no matter how the game ended.  As such, my four kings lost, and Aiden got the whole pot.  Well, hopefully my winning for the last few weeks counterbalances the amount that I lost today.  (I won for the past few weeks, but don't recall the amounts)

9/25/01 - I won big today - $39 overall (after deducting my initial $10 buy-in).  It was a loud, rauckus poker night, with a total of 8 people playing (that's right - 8!!).  Bagel came back to play after not playing for at least two years or so, so it was good to see him - and he actually remembered me (I was surprised).  Poker wise, this night was pretty good - I didn't have any killer hands, but I didn't really stay in with a lot of poor hands as well.  I probably did a little more bluffing than I should have, but oh well - it worked.  Didn't play as many games this time, simply because there were so many people - we tried to stick to the basics.

9/18/01 - I ended up winning $13 dollars today, but not till after a rough start when I lost my initial $10 and had to cash in another $10.  That makes it 6 times in the past 7 weeks that I have won $5 or more at the end of the evening.  I probably would have won a little more except I got a little brash at the end which ended up costing me about $5.  I also bluffed a little more than usual, and bluffed rather strongly, thus forcing people out.  I will probably have to go back to conservative style in a little bit, before people start smelling me out.

Nothing really interesting in terms of poker happenings.  Pat showed up, with his usual case of beer.  The most interesting hand was possibly a 5 card red/black game, where after three cards flipped, it was down to Matt and I.  We both then flipped a black 7.  We both ended up going low, and I won (with a 10 low).  It was sort of funny.  No real stellar hands or anything appeared, although there were a few times that I really bluffed strongly, getting a number of people out.

List of games, with brief description 

General definitions and rules

1.  Aces are high or low, unless otherwise notes.,  A note about low hands - you compare hands by first looking at the highest card.  The person with the higher card will lose.  If they are the same, you go to the next highest card, and repeat the process until a winner is found.  In poker, the best low hand is A-2-3-4-6.  Six is the highest cards, followed by a 4.  If a player has A-2-3-4-5, that is a straight.

2.  Games with a high/low split mean that the best hand and the worst hand split the pot.

3.  Games with a declare mean that at the end of the betting, you must "declare" if you are going high or low (or both).  This is done by placing taking three poker chips under the table.  If you are going high (you think you have a hand that will win high, and only want to compete against other "high" players) put two poker chips in your hand.  If you are going low (you have a low hand and want to compete against low) put one poker chip in your hand.  If you are going both (you think you have both a high and a low hand) put three chips in your hand.  When we declare, simply show the number of poker chips you have in your hand.  Declares are used for bluffing.

4.  High spade split - Whichever player has the highest spade card face down in his/her hand wins half the pot.

5.  Kick your grandmother - Of the cards you are dealt, pass two cards to the left, one card to the right.

6.  Games marked with a star are the ones that I brought to the table, or made up.

7 stud variants (not counting red/black games)

Basic 7 card stud - if you don't know how to play this, forget the game

7 card stud, high/low - (high/low) A 7 stud game in which there are two winners, the highest hand, and the lowest hand.  Each winner takes half the pot.  The lowest hand is a A-2-3-4-6, since if you had a 5, it would be a straight.

7 card stud, high/low with a declare - (high/low, declare) Same as the previous game, except cards do not speak, and there is a declare.

* Low Chicago Roll Your Own - (high spade split) A seven stuff variant, with the high hand taken half the pot and whichever player has the highest spade in the hole taking the other half of the pot.  There are two twists - the first is that the lowest card in the hole FOR EACH PLAYER is wild FOR THEM.  So each player will have at least one wild.  In addition, each player has the option of having the last card dealt face up or face down to them.  If it is down, it may be a high spade, or it may change their wild. 

Raz - A lowball 7 stud game.  Lowest hand wins.

Baseball - Wilds galore.  Dealt like seven stud.  Nines and threes are wild.  If you get a 3 dealt to you face up, you must ante the current pot value or be forced to fold.  If you get a four face up, you have the option of buying an extra card ($1 for it to be dealt face down, $.50 for it to be dealt face up).  High hand wins.

Aiden's game (aka Bitch) - (high spade split) Similar to Low Chicago in that the high hand splits with pot with the high spade in the hole.  No wilds, though, and you don't have the option of the last card being up or down.  The other difference is that if the queen of spades is dealt to any place face up, the game collapses, everyone ante's again, and is started over.

* Wacky Aiden - a variant on Aiden's game.  If a natural pair is dealt face up, a new card is flipped.  Whatever suite this new card is becomes the new "magic" suite, replacing spades (for high card in the hole and the special queen).  Each time a pair is dealt, a new card is flipped to determine the magic suite.

Follow the Queens - Basic 7 stud, but queens are wild.  If a queen is dealt face up, the card immediately following that queen is also wild (that number).  If another queen is dealt up, the old number is now normal, and a new additional wild is determined (by the next card dealt up).  If a queen is the last card dealt face up, only queens are wild.

Crazy Jacks - A really strange 7 card stud variant.  It starts off like normal 7 stud.  But if a jack is dealt face up, the dealer pauses, and the holder of the jack can pick ANY 7 stud variant to play.  This happens each time a jack is dealt up.

Control - Basic 7 stud, but after the 4th card is dealt up, and after the round of betting, whoever has the highest hand showing can choose to either collapse the game (starting over) or keep the game.  Highest hand wins.

Roll your own - A 7 stud variant, but all cards are dealt face down.  After each round (except that last) each player choose a card they want to have flipped up from their hand.  If it is played high/low, there is a declare.

Verbal expression - (high/low, declare, kick your grandmother) All 7 cards are dealt out to each person.  Each person choose two cards they want to pass to the player on their left, and one card they want to pass to the player on their right (this is called kicking your grandmother).  Once they get their new three cards (from the other players) they choose which 5 card poker hand they want, which they lay in front of them in a stack.  The cards are flipped, one at a time, with a betting round between each flip (for a total of 4 betting rounds).  The pot is split between the highest hand and the lowest hand.  There is a declare.

* Tek - (high/low, declare) A mixture between kicking your grandmother and roll your own.  Each player is dealt all cards face down.  They then choose one card they want to pass to the player to their left (getting one card from the player on their right).  Of their three cards (one of which is new) they choose which one they want to flip.  This is repeated will the player has 4 card up, and three in the hole (normal 7 stud).  The pot is split between the high hand and the low hand.  There is a declare.

*Crazy Lady - (high/low, declare) another game I made up, in honor of my mother in law (who was staying with me at the time.  It is dealt like 7-card stud, but if a queen is dealt face up, the next card the player gets is dealt face down (after that card, the normal dealing resumes).

*7 card no peek - Each player starts off with 7 cards, dealt face down.  No one can look at their cards, if they do, they automatically fold.  During the betting round, whoever has the highest had showing starts the betting.  The first person to the left of the dealer flips a card (this is now the highest hand).  After the betting round, the next player flips cards until he beats whatever the previous high hand was.  If he can not, he ends up flipping all his cards.  As soon as he has the highest hand showing, he stops flipping cards, and a betting round commences.  If the player does not beat the high hand, a betting round commences, and then the next player in the order would start flipping cards.  If anyone is left in the game, all cards must end up being flipped (that is, if player A has the high hand, and player B stays in the game but has all his cards flipped, player A still must flip his cards).  Each time a player with the high hand flips, if he still has the high hand, a betting round ensues.  (If he doesn't, he has to flip until he gets the high hand).  Now here is the twice.  Anytime someone flips a card the results in a natural pair (including trips), the next card on the deck is dealt face up.  This is now a wild for anyone who has that card (if a 4 is flipped, all 4's are wild).  If another natural pair is flipped, a new deck card is revealed, resulting in a new wild.

*Midnight baseball - Dealt in the same fashion as 7 card no pee, but with Baseball rules.  Thus, 3's and 9's are wild, a 4 will get you an extra card, and if you get a 3, you must match the pot or fold.  Otherwise, it is played the same as 7-card no peek.

8 card games

4-4-4 - (high/low, declare).  This is 8 card stud.  In this game, 3 cards are dealt down, following by 4 cards up (one at a time), followed by the last card down.  4's are wild, and there is a high/low split pot.

6 card games

*Elizabeth - (high only) a game I created in honor of my daughter.  The first card is dealt down, the next 4 are dealt up, and the last card if dealth down.  6's are wild, and if a player gets dealt a 6 face up, the next player gets a free additional down card.

5 card games

Ding-A-Ling - (high/low) Each player is dealt five cards.  The after an initial round of betting, the dealer flips cards face up from the deck in the middle of the table - first three cards (then a round of betting), then two cards (then a round of betting), then one card (then a round of betting), the one more card (then a round of betting).  As cards are flipped up, if any player has that card in their hand, they must discard it.  So in the end, players will have different numbers of cards left in their hand.  It is a high low split pot.  If a player manages to discard ALL of their cards, they automatically win the entire pot (the game ends).  Finally, if the last card flipped up is a repeat of a previously flipped up card, there is no final betting round, but players just declare (as per the declare rules).

Toilet game - (high/low, declare) Each player is dealt a card face down.  The next card in the deck is flipped up.  Then, one by one, each player has the choice of taking either that up card, or the "mystery" card from the deck.  All remaining cards after the initial card are dealt face up, even if it is the card from the deck.  After each dealing round there is a betting round.  After each player has 5 cards, each player has the option of swapping one of their cards for $.50.  It can either be their down card, or one of their up cards, and they can swap it either with the up card from the deck or the down card on the deck (if they swap their down card for the down card on the deck, that card remains down - no one else can see it).  A couple of other notes - There is a declare, and it is a high low split.  Kings are wild BUT ONLY if a player is going high.  If a player is going low, Kings are not wild. 

* Shove - (high/low, declare) This is similar to the toilet game, except for a few things.  It is a high/low split, with a declare.  Unlike the toilet game, kings are not wild.  At the beginning of the first round the up card is actually given to the first player.  He has two options - he can keep it (after which an up card is dealt to the next player), he can pass it to the next player, and get a new card.  This is repeated for each player (with the card possibly being shoved all the way to the end).  If the last player (the dealer) doesn't want the first card he gets (either being dealt to him or being shoved to him) he can shove it to the discard pile and get a new card.  Once a player has more than one card up, he has a third option for shoving - for $.50 he can shove one of his older cards that he got, keeping the new card dealt to him, but still getting a new card dealt to him.  If he "shoves" one of his older up cards, that card is treated as the "shove" card, possibly making it's way around the table.

Red/Black games

Red/Black black games are not a poker based game - they are a point based game.  In this game, all red cards are worth 0 points, and all black cards are worth the values of the card (9 in 9 points, 10 is 10 points, jack is 11 points, etc).  An ace is HIGH ONLY, and worth 14 points.  The game is a split pot game, with the fewest points winning low and the most points winning high.   A declare is required.  It is important to note that 5 red cards, 0 points, is NOT a great low hand.  It is a bluff hand.  0 points does not BEAT anybody - the only way it wins is if that player is the only one going low.

5 Card Red/Black - (high/low declare) 5 cards are dealt to each player - they are ordered in whatever order they like, and will be flipped up what at a time, with a betting round in between each flip.  There is a declare for high/low.

* 7 Stud Red/Black - (high/low, declare) This is dealt like 7 stud, but is played like Red/Black.  There is a declare for high/low.

* Red/Black Kick Your Grandmother - (high/low, declare, kick your grandmother) Dealt the same way as Verbal Expression, but played like Red/Black - there is a high/low split with declare.  This is the original version of red/black.

Lay games

All lay games are a "series" based games.  That is, the game continues until a certain player has a number of "lays", after which he wins the pot and the game is over.  A player gets a "lay" on any given round by declaring he is "in", feeling his hand is good enough to challenge others (or if he is bluffing).  If no one else challenges him, the player gets a lay.  If a player is challenged, they (and only they) compare cards, and whoever loses must pay the winner the amount in the pot.  After each round, people ante again, and new cards are dealt.  The pot is usually capped at about $5.

Regular lay - This is a lay game with 4 segments in each round.  The dealer starts off by dealing 2 cards.  Starting with the player on the left, each player states whether they are "in" or not (as described above).  If they are the only ones in, they get a lay.  If not, the players who are in compare cards to see who wins.  With the first two cards, the lowest hand wins.  Then one more card is dealt (for 3 total) and for that segment the highest two cards are compared (pairs count).  The two more cards are dealt (5 total cards) and the lowest three cards are compared.  Finally, tow more cards are dealt (7 cards total) and it is a normal poker hand.  Thus, the sequence is low-high-low-high.  After the first round, cards are collected, people ante again, and cards are re-dealt in the same pattern as above.  This time, however, the first person to state "in" or "not in" is two to the left of the dealer - it rotates throughout the game.  The first person with 5 lays wins the pot.

Mini-lay - Similar to the Regular lay game, except that a) hands compared are always high, b) there are wilds, and c) the pattern of dealing is different.  The deal starts off with 2 cards, then deals 3 mores for 5 total, and then deals 2 more for 7 total.  The number of cards you have in your hand is wild.  Thus, in the first segment, 2's are wild.  In the second segment, 5's are wild, and in the third segement, 7's are wild.  With two cards, you compare the high 2.  With 5 cards, you compare all 5 (5 card poker hands), and with 7 cards, you make the best 5 card poker hand.  Again, if you get 5 lays, you win the pot.  

Pain lay - This is dealt one card at a time per segment, until a total of 5 cards are dealt.  Each segment you must use ALL the cards that are dealt to you.  The progression of hands is as follows - 1st card - high, 2 cards - low, 3 cards - high, 4 cards - low, and 5 cards - high (poker).  The first person to  5 lays wins the pot.

Triple pot five card draw - This is a five card draw type of lay game.  It starts off with everyone anteing.  Then, you deal five card draw (with betting).  The difference is as follows - After all the betting is done (with people folding), whoever is left compare hands.  Whoever wins gets HALF the pot, and a lay.  Then, cards are reshuffled, people ante again, and the deal starts over.  When someone gets their third lay, the win the whole pot and the game is over.

Community Card games

Texas Hold'Em - This is a shared card game.  Each player gets two cards.  There end up being five cards dealt up in the middle of the table, which each player can use to create their best 5 card poker hand.  The deal starts by dealing each player their two cards, followed by a round of betting.  Three cards are then dealt up in the middle, with another round of betting.  One more card in the middle, followed by a round of betting, and then the last card dealt up in the middle, followed by a round of betting.  High poker hand wins the game.

Omaha Hold'Em - (high/low) This is similar in some ways to Texas hold'em.  However, each player gets 4 cards in their hand, and THEY MUST USE TWO CARDS FROM THEIR HAND for their poker hand.  This is the most commonly forgotten rule, so it bears repeating.  EACH PLAYER MUST USE TWO, AND ONLY TWO, CARDS FROM THEIR HAND.  Otherwise it is dealt like Texas Hold'em.  First the four cards in the hand, then three on the table, one more on the table, and the last one on the table.  EAch round is followed by a betting round.  Here  is the other twist.  The game is a high/low split, but the low can only be to 8.  That is, if you have a low hand, the highest card you can have for the low is an 8.  The worst low you can have is 8-7-6-5-3.  Thus, if there are not three cards face up on the table that are lower than 8 (and not equal to each other) then there is no low possible.

Misc (coming soon)

Anaconda, Lay-Chong

Please email me and let me know if I am missing any games.