I played in a Springfield, MA homegame last year dealers choice. Some people would choose a game with 3 cards face down per player. Then before betting begins dealer would burn one and turn one faceup community card. Action starts left of the BB (or straddle). Normally in our other games like omaha and big O etc. etc. you can only use 2 in your hole with 3 on board but in this game players can use all 3 cards in their hand + 5 on board to make best 5 card hand.

So yes, you can essentially "preflop quads." You can also have a flush with only 2 of one suit on board (which by the river always happens) and can have fullhouse or quads on non-paired boards and straight flush on a board with only 2 cards from the straight flush.

In my opinion it's a very action game but most players thought it reduced action because people would tread so lightly every hand since quads is always available. In that home game we only played it a few times and it kind of got phased out.

Now I play locally in a game many many miles away from Springfield, MA with different players. Yesterday I introduced them to that form of poker (and many other forms of poker...e.g. badacey, archie, mizrachi, 2-7 triple draw, 2-7 single draw, badugi, razz, razzdugi) and they seem to like it so I decided to call it "Springfield."

My question is: is this even a real game? I don't really want to lose a ton of $ playing some horse **** game that's not even real. I asked my friend from Springfield the name of the game today but he never answered. Does anyone from here know of this game and if so if it has a real name?

The guy who runs the game has said a few times he doesn't like playing games that "aren't real" so I want to check to see if this game exists in Casinos and if so what the name of it is so I can show him.

Three card hold em where you can play zero to three hole cards is a game I've heard of, sometimes called GUTS (some GUTS variants compensate for the three hole cards by having a two card flop, four total community cards). I've never heard of a variant of hold em with a spit card (that's the technical term for a community card dealt preflop) other than Courchevel, which is a variant of five card Omaha. With that said, Courchevel does provide some percedent for spit cards.

Remember at the end of the day that all games are made up and ultimately arbitrary. Play whatever you think is fun. If you aren't enjoying a game, try experimenting with the rules, or just stop playing it.

Yeah it's like Courchevel. But I don't know what this part means: Courchevel does provide some percedent for spit cards.

Spit cards? Huh?

Anyways I agree with what you said about just play if it's fun and everyone agrees but the guy who organizes these games is kind of a rules nit so I want to clarify this game before we proceed on and he tries to say no. I'll look into GUTS. Never heard of it. Anybody got a link or two with info? Thanks.

I've played in homegames where you can use 3 or 5 cards from your hand. It was, called a plus here in philly.... Never seen it in a casino.

In courchevel, he's calling the preflop community card a spit. I played courchevel, in Paris but it was just use 2 of 5 and if there was a name/term for the first board card I didn't catch it.

https://www.pokerschoolonline.com/ar...urchevel-Poker

"You're dealt five hole cards face-down, but before the first round of betting, one Community card is dealt face up. This is known as the 'spit' card."

By the way, there's no need to burn before dealing the spit card. Many people forget this point or are unaware of it, but the reason for burn cards is so in case the top card on the deck is marked in some way, people in the hand don't know what card is coming next. Since there is no betting between when the hole cards are dealt and when the first flop card is dealt, there's no way for an advantage to be gleaned from a marked card, so don't burn before dealing the spit card. Do burn before dealing the rest of the flop, though.

We simply call this "reverse omaha" where you must play 3 cards out of your hand.
We generally deal 5 or 6 cards out, depending on the number of players.

In one version, we will deal 2 community cards face up pre-flop. You can then use 2 cards out of your hand with ONE of the 2 face up cards to make the best hand with 2 out of the 5 board cards. (You may not use both, but you don't have to use either of them, you can still play 3 out of your hand)

We always play this high/low and sometimes with a flush/7 qualifier

This game is awful.

Only play it low stakes, and NEVER PL or NL... only for fun fixed limit..

The only time I've played it, it was referred to as Tahoe, and had no spit card.
3 cards down, can use 0-3, flop/turn/river dealt just like hold'em.
However, the internet tells me that Tahoe is supposed to only use up to two of your hole cards. This is also called "Lazy Pineapple."

Super Hold'Em would be the closest variant, same rules but no spit.
http://www.crazypineapplepoker.org/c...hoe-pineapple/

We play Tahoe too but we call it "broken window theory" because there's no window. Same game tho. We use all 3 because that's more degen.

Super Hold Em is very similar to the game described but as pointed out there is no "spit card." Note also that unlike in the description of the Tahoe game above, with Super Hold Em it is not possible to play the board, i.e. the player must use 1-3 cards from their hand to make the best possible hand.

Courchevel is the only widely known game I have seen where a spit card is used.

We play both in our home game. We also are willing to play any variant that a person wants to introduce.

From experience, super hold em has lost popularity because as pointed out the players tend to be very cautious because strong hands are easily made and the board is not easy to read for them. So the pots tend to stay very small.

Courchevel is very popular and the action can be great. Both high and hilo versions.

Personally I think Courchevel is less action (and therefore less fun) than 5 card Omaha (hi or hilo) without a spit card. Courchevel requires players to play much tighter than in other Omaha variants as their otherwise medium-strong hand can turn into a medium-weak hand because it doesn't align with the spit card (and same with a medium-weak turning into a weak). Courchevel is a great game for the regs who understand this principle as they can shark the players who don't adjust to the spit card. But as happened on Pokerstars, it was wildly popular for awhile but then died out at all but the micros.