The main question is:


- Does this look interesting ??


Please tell me your first impression on this game concept. Or simply, would you play it ? The more people write here - the happier the author Thanks for any thoughts you share. I think it's a really good one. Hopefully the last and final poker game concept devised by me.

I can see a lot of activity in this sub-forum now, so if any of you guys read this please leave a comment and hit the like button in post #1, thanks.

As the time progresses and I'm analyzing this game with cards, I'm getting more and more convinced that this game is the ultimate new poker. I can't find a single flaw. I'm falling deeply right into this game and it feels so good.


Starting hands strength (780 possible combinations):

A A - suited aces - the best starting hand you can get in this game, super strong

Q Q - suited pair - very strong

K Q - high suited connectors - strong

K K - high pair - good

A J - suited ace - good

A K - ace high - okay

J T - low suited connectors - okay

T T - low pair - weak

Q T or J T or K T or K Q etc. - very weak


The odds seem to work perfectly, too. I'm analyzing the strategy right now. Let's see what I can find there.

Last night I realized that this game is sick to perfection. Here are a couple of my thoughts on particular poker hands and their nature:

High Card - Plays often, that's why it's good to have high ranked cards in your hand even if they're not suited or paired. Of course it's hard to be sure that your opponent has it because there are no requirements to have this hand, except that you must not have anything better. AA in your hand will often win the showdown, so you shouldn't be much worried if you hold an Ace and you completely missed the board. Low hole cards can be very tricky because this hand just often plays.

Double - Plays quite often and it appears on the board a decent amount of times, so get your kickers ready, they will often play. When you flop a Double it's very good. Most of the time you'll flop some draws with it, that's why it's good to have it if you miss your draws. The kickers will matter, but mostly when a Double appeared on the board. Decent hand.

Straight Flush - Plays quite often. Usually you have some draws on the flop for hitting it later. You often hit a double gutshot or double open-ender or stuff like that. Gutshot has only 2 outs, so it won't be that easy to complete one as it may seem. Open-ender is much better. Kickers will rarely matter here but you shouldn't forget about them. It rarely appears on the board. Quite good hand.

Four of a Kind - Plays rarely. But it's very strong so it's good to have a pair in your hand. Flopping a set is very good, you'll have 5 outs to complete. If there are three cards of the same rank on the board and you have it, you should focus on your kicker then because it will often play. If you double paired the flop it's not that bad, you'll have 2 x 6 cards for the runner-runner.

Flush - Plays very rarely. Super strong hand. It's great to flop a flush draw although not that easy to complete, 6 outs only. But this will happen rarely. It's good to have your hole cards suited though. Your opponent should be surprised to see you have one. Runner-runner would be so difficult that it won't matter that much when you flop it. There must be at least 3 suited cards on the board, but this won't happen often either.

Some feedback:

1) Rarity:

Have you calculated how often each hand occurs? I suspect quads occurs more often than a "straight flush" in your game.

Some rough calculations show that more than 2/3 of hands will be "High Card" by the river. So this game is gonna be pretty boring unless you add more made hand categories or more cards.


2) Naming conventions

Made hand types need renaming. Putting "Straight flush" below a regular flush just feels wrong. Call it something else like a suited run or something. Also, naming three-of-a-kind "doubles" is really bad. Just call it by its existing name lol.

Also, your game is similar to shortdeck. Maybe call it "Shorter deck"

Ok, thanks for the post.

1 - Hand rankings were measured both for 5 card stud and 6 card stud manually by shuffling cards many times and counting each hand type. But the results were obvious and can fairly be said to be "confirmed 95%". There's no way that Four of a Kind occurs more often than a Straight Flush, I'm pretty sure of it. The difference between Double and Straight Flush wasn't that big, but I additionally shuffled cards many times to be sure of the results between these two.

2 - I think it's good for the game, because the card ranks will matter more and it's important when you have only 5 card ranks total. This lets categorize better all the hole cards groups.

3 - It's not three of a kind. The third queen I put in the example (illustration 1/1) is just a kicker. I did that intentionally to show that kickers sometimes can be paired, or make a worse hand by themselves, but this just doesn't matter because they are still only kickers. You should focus more on the white rectangles in each example.

4 - The deck is 40 cards, so it's not that short. But of course name of the game can always be changed. I used the first idea that came to my head.

The Double is also not a pair. That's why it's called "Double". The card must be duplicated (same rank, same suit), like this:

T T (+3 kickers)

A A (+3 kickers)

J J (+3 kickers)

When you hold a suited pair in your hole cards, you already have a Double, so that's why this starting hand is very good.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/5.../#post58451135

I've switched up a gear