Follow the Queen and Lamebrain Pete

A guy IMed me today and asked what my favorite poker games were. He said he was getting tired of Holdem at his weekly home game. So here are my two favorite crazy poker games. Beware, though... they are hustler games.

Follow the Queen

Plays like Seven Card Stud with a slight wildcard variant.

Start the game with 2 to 8 players.
Each player puts in an ante and is dealt two cards down and one card face up.
The first betting round follows, with the low hand bringing it in.
Fourth street, another card is dealt face up to each player.
Betting round, high hand is first to act.
Fifth card dealt face up.
Betting round.
Sixth card dealt face up.
Betting round.
Seventh card dealt face down.
Final betting round.
Showdown.

The variation that makes this card different than your old trusty seven stud is that anytime a queen is dealt, the next card dealt faceup will be wild. So if a player is dealt a queen, and the player to his left is dealt a 4 of diamonds, all fours are going to be wild. If another queen is dealt face up, then the fours are no longer wild and the next card dealt face up is wild. In the event that the last card dealt face up is a queen (or if a queen doesn't come out before seventh street) then no cards will be wild.

Here's the thing to note about this game... it provides the dealer with a distinct advantage. The reason is simple enough, and can be demonstrated best by examining the situation where there are only two players. Since the card FOLLOWING a queen up is wild, the dealer has four chances to catch a wild card, while the other player only has three. The dealer advantage isn't as great if there are a lot of players out there, since with three players you have two who get four shots at the wild card and only one with the one shot disadvantage. Basically the player to the left of the dealer has a disadvantage... and anytime that player folds, the disadvantage is transferred to the next player to his left.

Lamebrain Pete

This is played somewhat like Texas Holdem on steroids (or more accurately a related game called Cincinatti).

Start the game with 2-9 players.
Each player is dealt five holecards.
Betting round.
The first of five community cards is dealt.
Betting round.
Second community card dealt.
Betting round.
Third dealt.
Betting round.
Fourth dealt.
Betting round.
Fifth dealt.
Betting round.
Showdown.

So at the end, each player has five cards in their hand that they can combine with the five community cards to make the best hand possible. Now here's the crazy kicker. The lowest community card is wild. So if the lowest card on the board is the 4 of hearts, all fours will be wild. So the cool thing about this game is that you never know what's going to be wild at the end unless a deuces peels off.

The reason this is such a hustler game is simple. Anytime you add holecards or wildcards, it changes the strength of hands. In Texas Holdem, a full house is HUGE. But in Lamebrain Pete, anything less than four of a kind is complete trash. Players will have four kings and think that it's a huge hand. Bad judgment buddy. The other great thing about this game is that the wild card has the potential to change on every street. So players will chase hoping that the wild card will change to something favorable. And players will almost ALWAYS see the flop. Another big mistake.

It won't take long to realize that royal flushes are pretty common in this game. And five of a kinds are pretty common too. As with any wildcard game, remember that five of a kind beats a royal flush... pretty nice to know, because you'll definitely be in situations where an opponent makes his royal flush and figures it's the absolute best hand you can have... arguments are soon to follow when you turn over five jacks and start to drag the pot.

Hope the descriptions of those two games are easy enough to follow. If you have any questions, just post them.

A Few Thoughts

Here's a few things to keep in mind when you play these crazy home games. First off, players are going to be completely clueless as to the relative strength of their hand. As far as I know, there isn't a book about how to play crazy wild games. There should be, because I bet more people play Follow the Queen than Razz. The only way you'll be able to see how additional cards and wildcards effect hand strengths is through experience. Second, don't be a nit. Even though it's pretty stupid to play a hand like AK987 rainbow in lamebrain pete, you should still call and see that first card just to get people playing loose. The most common mistake novice poker players make is calling too much, and you don't want to turn loose players into tight players. You also don't want anybody to feel like you are taking advantage of them. Home games need to be fun for everybody or else they will dry up.