So when reading about the
secretary problem, an optimal stopping problem, I stumbled upon a casual poker variant that seems quite unique and interesting,
Poker Chicken.
Quote:
Poker Chicken is a casual, low-effort variant of poker that has no betting. A round of Poker Chicken proceeds as follows:
- A deck of cards is shuffled
- The first five cards are dealt so that all players can see them
- Each player decides (secretly) to keep this hand or wait for a better hand. Once you select a hand the round is over for you
- The hand is advanced by one card — i.e., instead of cards 1–5, the new hand is comprised of cards 2–6 (for a total of 48 hands in the deck)
- The game continues until all hands are dealt or everybody has chosen a hand
- The winner of the round is the player with the best hand
The designer has free Android and iOS apps of this game which allow you to play against AI or friends.
Perhaps it's more interesting as a puzzle than as a viable game, but it's a mechanic I've never seen before in a poker variant. Also, maybe the basic idea could be tweaked a little to make it more fun.