Faldo Says “Yay” or “Nay” to Common Dealer’s Choice Games – Part VI

There are other poker games besides what is dealt in casinos and tournaments. The casino games are there because of their speed and simplicity in dealing. More hands equals more rake for the house.

But there are some fun, entertaining and exciting poker games you can deal in a home game, which make you have to think outside “the flop” sometimes.

The description of the following games in this series is Faldo’s opinion only. Others may like my take on a game and some will not. That’s fine. It’s all good. Here we go:

High-Low Draw

Draw poker played Hi-Lo. Pretty straight forward. Now, when you bet, you could get raised by someone with a better hand than you, or someone going opposite of you. And your trips for high, could lose the entire pot to a baby straight. You can play it that straights and flushes can’t go low, but you will get more action if you play the wheel (A-2-3-4-5) as the best low.

Faldo says “Yay”. More action and less of a lottery than let’s say “Jacks or Better.”

Hurricane

Because it is a fast game! A high-low game with the players only receiving two cards. The game can be played several ways. One is you get one card, bet, then get your second card and bet.

Two is you receive two cards at once, bet, then you have an exchange round where you throw off your worst card (usually what we call the ‘international buy card’ – a 9) and get a new one, then bet.

You could play with betting on one card, betting the second card, and betting after the exchange(s).

Number of exchanges could be dealer’s choice also.

How about exchanging until no one exchanges any more? Of course, this would not be ‘Hurricane.’ It would be more of a Slow Cold Drizzle.

Do you keep your KK and hope no one gets AA? Do you even play the lock low (A2) when in all probability you will get quartered? Do you keep buying a card until you win, only to actually lose money?

Faldo says “Yay”, only because I have no idea what the optimum strategy is as I write this, having never played it.