In your opinion, how does adding a single joker to your deck affect how No Limit Hold 'Em is played? I'll add to this later when I'm not busy playing, but I think it would make for a very interesting game.

Does anyone here think that having two jokers in the deck would ever be playable? I mean, pocket jokers would never lose...

Except to:
two pair,
trips,
straight,
flush,
etc

You know pocket jokers will always make the nuts, right? Jokers are wild, man...

OMG I lol'd so hard! You're funny

dont jokers count as an ace or a card to make a straight/flush

thus they could lose to sets if no straight/flush possible or too boats

Yeah Raven think that one through a little more buddy.

OP, adding a joker would suck badly. It's a lottery card and you're going to see it so often it would become a dominating factor in the game even over things like position. At a 7-handed table someone's going to have it every 4th hand, and then there's all of the times it winds up on the board. You're very rarely going to be drawing completely dead, more pots will be chopped.

Almost all non-joker hands will have a difficult time going very far. Draws will make a lot less sense to pursue, floating stinks, bluffs become harder as you'll have a lot less fold equity versus a joker, and the value of almost all made hands goes way down. Trying to read or outplay a joker hand will generally end badly, and unlike Ax hands it will never be folded preflop so every flop there's always a pretty good possibility it's out there. Factoring that in, how many big pots would you play without a joker? I think this would nitfest the game up badly.

Having even 1 joker would make this game completely unplayable. Hold'em is a game where it is very hard to make a hand, which makes the game more skill based. Having a joker in play basically ensure someone will have at least top pair on every hand. This puts too big of a gap in value of hands. Also the fact that the card can change to whatever it wants after each street, makes it unfair. The only possible way I can see a joker implemented in play, is if it was never dealt in holecards, and only dealt as part of the board.

What about having one single joker in the game (53 cards total), and it must follow two rules:

1. If the Joker comes up in your hand, you automatically have a pocket pair of whatever the other card is, and same color, other suit. (Ex, As/Joker = As/Ac). So now you'd have 3 outs for hitting a set instead of just 2.

2. If the Joker comes on during the five community cards, it is immediately taken out and you just burn and put the next card down.

This might make the game a little more playable I would hope?

Why would you add a joker in the first place?

There are some spots where I fold because the nit has a flopped set 100% of the time. On an unpaired flop there are 3 sets thus 9 total combos. In this game that makes 18 combos of sets. With any flush/straight possibilities it's just going to make there be wayyyy too many combos of nutted hands and it would turn into a game who can figure out if they're getting coolered or coolering the other person rather than balancing value bets with bluffs. Also what would the equity of joker+2 be against AA? Probably hard to do with pokerstove but if joker+2 ended up beating AA that would mean any time the joker was in play they essentially have a hand that they can get in preflop against any hand and profit. Basically it wouldn't be too much fun unless it's just a live game where you want to introduce action from people who aren't going to try to adjust. I think giving a bounty for winning with 72 (or adding other hands like 82/83 if you need more combos of bluffs) is much better for making it more action-packed.

this

I think I would crack up lol'ing if I ever saw 2 jokers on the board

Oh wait, just 1 joker? But every deck of cards comes with 2...that would be more interesting than 1 joker imo

Yeah it's not like Hold'em is broken as is or anything. If you want to get fancy add a 5th suit. IIRC all that changes there is that flushes rank higher than full houses, and 5-of-a-kinds rank between straight flushes and royals.

What's the point of having a joker if you can only make a set, quads or five of a kind with it?

Wouldn't a variation like black mariah or whatever be more interesting as it at least introduces the element of bluffing with chops in a no limit game, leading to lighter calldowns and such? A Joker doesn't really add any element into the game, it seems.

I predict if you try to play this you won't make it through the night before the players revolt in disgust. How can you ever play a hand for your stack w/o nuts or the joker? How'd you like to draw and hit the nut flush just to chop to some donk that slow played Joker-4 of clubs.. I guess it would be better than losing with the nut flush to Joker-Q of clubs

If there was some disadvantage to the Joker, it might be more interesting. Like, if you can't use your other hole card in Hold'em. So you always have TPNK, but can make trips and four card straights/flushes.

I'd be interested in knowing what the equity of Joker/x is against various hands, though. Even post-flop, it would be complicated to calculate.

It would need restrictions like:

you have to use BOTH cards to make your hand

You cant use it as a higher card if you have Q or K?, that way you wont have a pocket pair every time you have a joker

I like this because the nuts is still the nuts (i.e. two cards to set, nut straight, flush, boat), but the Joker is still desirable and if you can soul read someone for the Joker you should be able to bust them.

Only draw high has been played with a joker as far as I know and it wasn't a pure wild card. It would only be used to make a straight or flush, flushes count as ace high flushes. And if no flush or straight is possible then the Joker is an ace.

level?

Yeah, I agree it wouldn't work well if dealt as a holecard but having the possibility of a joker getting dealt as part of the board could be quite interesting.

Juk

I think it would be a fun game to play at home, but not one that could be played for money. The joker is just too powerful. The big winner in the game would be completely dependent on who is dealt a joker the most.

But I agree that it being dealt only on the board would make it playable. But how would you be able to shuffle the deck and ensure that it only comes on the board?

Deal the hole cards, then shuffle it in.