List of miscellaneous poker game variants

Some poker games just don't fit neatly into the categories of draw poker games, stud poker games or community poker card poker games, and some have features of more than one of these categories.

Contents

1 Stud Horse poker games

2 Oxford stud

3 Billabong (and Shanghai)

4 Guts

5 Blind Man's Bluff

Stud Horse poker game

Stud Horse poker game is mentioned in the California law books as one of the gambling poker games prohibited in California's poker card rooms. There is no definition for it under the law, however. It appears not to be Stud poker game, which is not prohibited and is offered in several variations in California card rooms.

Oxford stud

Though called "stud", this is a combination stud/community card poker game that was popular at MIT in the 1960s, in which players of poker games receive individual down poker cards, individual up poker cards, and community poker cards. Many variations on this are possible by changing what kinds of poker cards and how many are dealt in various rounds. One difficulty with such a combination is deciding the betting order: in stud poker games, the player with the best up poker cards showing bets first in each round (except sometimes the first, where the worst up card is forced to begin the betting with a Bring-in). In community poker games, each betting of poker game begins with the same player (because there generally are no up poker cards), making it more positional. Oxford stud chooses to use the players' individual up poker cards for determining order, which makes it play more like stud.

First, each player is dealt two down poker cards and one up poker card as in seven-poker card stud, followed by a first betting round of the poker game. Like stud, the poker game is usually played with a Bring-in, the lowest up poker card being forced to pay it, and betting follows after that. After the first round is complete, two community poker cards are dealt to the table, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the highest- ranking incomplete poker game hand (as in stud) made from his up poker card plus the two community poker cards. For example, if one player has a K up poker card, and a second player has a 7 up poker card, and the community poker cards are T-7 (T = 10), the second player bets first (since he has a pair of 7s, and the other player only has K-high). Then a second up poker card is dealt to each player of the poker game, followed by a third betting round, again beginning with the player who can make the best partial hand with his two up poker cards and the board. Finally, a third community poker card is dealt to table, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown of the poker game. Note that as with Mississippi stud, each player has five poker cards of his hand exposed at this point (two of his own plus three on the board), so it is possible for a flush or straight to be the high hand for the purpose of first bet. At showdown each player makes the best five-poker card hand he can from the four poker cards he is dealt plus the three community poker cards, in any combination. This poker game is usually played High-low split.

Billabong (and Shanghai)

Just as Oxford stud is a mixed stud/community poker card version of Texas hold'em, Billabong is a mixed version of Manila. Each player is dealt two down poker cards and one up poker card. Low up poker card starts the betting with a Bring-in if you are playing with one, otherwise high poker card starts the betting of the poker game. Next, two community poker cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the best exposed partial poker game hand (counting the community poker cards, as in Oxford stud). Then a third community poker card is dealt, followed by a third betting round. Finally a fourth community poker card and fourth betting round and showdown of the poker game. Each player plays the best five-poker card hand he can make from the three in his hand plus the four on the board in any combination.

Shanghai is the same poker game with an extra hole poker card, but no more than two hole poker cards play. That is, the poker game begins with each player being dealt three down poker cards and one up poker card; each player must dispoker card one of his hole poker cards at some point during the poker game as determined ahead of time. The most common variation is to dispoker card immediately as in Pineapple; the second most common is to dispoker card just before showdown as in Tahoe.

Guts

Guts is quite different from most other poker game  games (in fact classifying it as a poker game at all is somewhat questionable). Rather than the customary rounds of betting followed by a single showdown, guts features multiple rounds, each of which consist of the decision to be "in" or "out", and each of which contains a showdown. Only the players who stay "in" participate in the showdown of the poker game. In the most common version, the player who stays in with the best hand receives the current pot, while all other players who stayed in must match the pot. (For example, if the pot is $5 and three people stay in, then one player will receive the $5 pot and two players will be forced to add $5 each to the pot, thus doubling it.) Then the hand is re-dealt, and all players (even those who were "out" in the last round) can participate again. The poker game ends when only a single player has the guts to stay "in", and thus the pot is taken without replenishment. Each player's hand usually consists of a reduced poker game hand of either 2 or 3 poker cards. The poker cards are ranked as in regular 5-poker card poker game, but in some variations straights and flushes count and in some they do not.

Another variation of the poker game is for three-poker card guts. The hands are ranked as follows: Three of a kind, straight flush, straight, flush, pair. Each player receives two poker cards face down. In turn, each player declares whether they're in or out. If they're in, they receive their third poker card face up. The dealer declares last; if no other player has stayed in, then the dealer must have a pair or better to win the pot. Another variation is for the other players to have another chance to declare and challenge the dealer. With this variation, there is no requirement for the dealer's hand; if no one challenges him, the dealer wins.

Declaring "in" or "out" is similar to declaring high or low in high-low poker games. Each player takes a poker chip, places their hands under the table, and either places the chip in one fist or not. Each poker player then holds their closed fist above the table, and the players of the poker game simultaneously open their hands to reveal their decision (a chip represents "in", an empty hand represents "out").

Because the pot can double (or more) each round, the stakes can grow exponentially, and pots of 50 or 100 times the original ante are not unheard of. There are many variations. Sometimes only the single player with the worst hand (who stayed in) must add to the pot, but they must double the pot rather than match it. In an especially vicious variation, nobody wins the pot unless nobody else stays in. This can degenerate quickly, when one player must add a large amount to the pot, and decides to stay in until he wins it back. Thus the poker game continues indefinitely, with one player continually adding larger and larger amounts to the pot. The pot may grow so big that no player has enough cash to match it, leading to arguments about how to end the poker game. (This variation is not recommended when playing among friends. Often this variation is abandoned after the first really big pot leads to conflict.)

One solution to the exponentially growing pots is to cap them at 50x or 100x the ante. That is, if there are 5 players with an ante of $1, the pot started at $5. If there were 3 doublings, the pot is now at $40. Suppose the "cap the pot at $50" rule were in force of the poker game. Then, if another doubling occurred, each loser would pay $40, but the pot would now be at $50 and the extra $30 would be set aside as the ante once there's a hand with a winner and no loser.

Blind Man's Bluff

Blind Man's Bluff is a version of poker game in which a player sees the poker cards that would generally be visible to the other players, but does not see his own. It can be played with just one poker card ("Indian Poker game"), as a community poker card poker game, or as five-poker card stud.