Oh, weird. Sorry, not sure what happened there. Here is the rest of the post, plus some more stuff that I didn't have time for originally.
It seems best to stay about 6-handed, otherwise things can get a bit sluggish with everyone trying to think about how to strategize things.
If the middle card on the flop matches a player's seat number, they win a prop token. They do not have to be in the hand. They do not have to call out that they see it, the dealer just automatically throws them a chip. If one of the other flop cards matches the middle one in rank, the player receives two prop tokens, or three if the flop is trips. Progressive doubles and triples can sometimes bog things down when changing tables during MTTs, but is often better for a single table.
A player's tokens enter the pot when they are all in, but they are only required to have one chip to retain tokens. Players may have a maximum of ten tokens, to prevent excessive banking towards shorthanded. If a player would win an amount that takes them over 10, either through a pot or a prop, the extra chips are forfeit.
The use of a power must be declared in turn, before a betting action is made. Basic powers are relatively simple, and are ordered by how generally tilting they seem to be.
1 - Force Straddle. A player in any position other than the blinds posts a straddle, and gains last action before the flop. Can target self.
2 - Reveal Hand. The targeted cards are only revealed after the hand is finalized and the pot is awarded, if those cards are folded before that point, the hand is held to the side until it's time. People seem to end up mostly tilting themselves when they use this.
3 - Button Pusher. Determine the position of the button for the rest of the hand, as players have sometimes considered it advantageous to place it somewhere other than in front of themselves. It returns to the correct position afterward. This cannot affect preflop action, because the power can't be used until it is the player's turn to act.
4 - Ocean. There will be a sixth street this hand, which will include an additional round of betting. This used to be 3, but then the backdoor madness was starting to take over the game. Just the threat of having enough chips to use this ability gives valid reasons to float way too many hands.
5 - Delete Card. Muck a card from the board, burn, place a new one, then choose a betting action. Players use this mostly, and play around it has kind of become somewhat of an emerging meta over several games.
Thoughts on the meta so far: I recommend banking up to around 6 in the mid levels, then 8 approaching the bubble. Limpy periods can create extremely high variance, and so most players' motivations will be polarized into trying to see or avoid flops. If you think you have an edge, you should probably try to avoid flops. Note that the gamblers will be defending against this by calling in position more, because there is some sort of unspoken understanding that they can count on each other to call and give them the right implied odds, so it can lead to much larger preflop raises than normal from those attempting to discourage this.
As big stacks start to emerge, they will want to prevent more flops in order to mitigate the equalizing effects of the three stronger powers. They should not let short stacks folding every hand get a prop token by providing them with a flop. There will always be certain players who will never stop trying to see flops though, simply because it kind of goes against the spirit of the tournament, but you will know who they are. Big stacks with many tokens are noticeably more powerful than the regular variety, and will have more incentive to bust players, but if they are stealing a high volume of blinds, they won't be able to replenish their tokens, expect them to horde in this situation, and increase their value of tokens in relation to chips.
Short stack play is more precarious, and needs token considerations. Low token numbers have been mostly forcing straddles on other short stacks, but you should try and save 3 as long as you have a stack that is slightly too big to shove preflop, so that you have the power to take the button. If people are short with a high token count, they tend to get more flop value than normal, having the ability to take the button, threatening additional streets with ocean and delete, and also getting a shot at more tokens for the table at large, which can weaken the position of a lone big stack.
These are just some speculations thus far, not sure how theoretically correct it is.
"Power of the week" seems to be pretty fun. Just simply threw around a bunch of ideas, and then decided by popular vote. Here are some of the more interesting ones.
3 - Cap the Pot. As this action must occur before the player's betting action, it can only be accompanied by a call or a check. Tilt factor varies according to the intensity of any leveling wars that may be associated. This one was very love/hate.
3 - The David Lee Roth. A player must sit out of the game for one hand, if they are in any position other than the blinds. This one got dirty, it was great. The power of this ability shorthanded was strong, but you don't see a lot of flops, so the damage was somewhat mitigated.
2 - Exchange One Hole Card. Most people opt to do this preflop, since you get the card before acting, but some interesting things have happened on other streets.
3 - Crazy Cube. Another reason 6max is good. Roll a die. Whatever seat number comes up, they pay you the value of both blinds. If you roll your own seat, you pay each player the value of the big blind. The value of the SB is the edge you get for using your tokens. You will almost always win if you roll, but I have seen a player bust himself by rolling his own seat, and everyone just chopped up what little he had.
5 - Switch Seats. Force anyone to trade seats with you after both of your hands are completed. Blind exploitation is a foregone conclusion. We allowed table changes as well, so there were times when hands would be paused until the other table's was completed. This tourney ended up running about 30% longer, but everyone seemed to really enjoy it. It brought all the table selection conversations that you normally hear in large poker rooms, and made people feel more in control of their fate.
1 - The Gavin Smith. A player must imbibe a reasonably-strong shot of alcohol, or cup of beer, before one round of play is completed. Otherwise, he or she shall be penalized with the value of all blinds and antes, they will be splashed into the next pot. We had to give the option for couple of players who don't drink, and one who is actually in AA. He's cool with it, I promise.
3 - Calm Down. No powers for the rest of the hand. A couple of people had really been lobbying for this one, but it seemed to end up feeling a bit contradictory to the nature of these things.
4 - Declare War. Freeze all action. Create a head's up side pot with another player who is still in the hand, in which they post a big blind, and you post a small blind. Commence one street of betting, if all bets are called, this pot remains on the side until the hand is completed. Either of the warring players may surrender the side pot to a bet or raise, at which point the play of the hand resumes as normal. After the main pot is awarded, if the war pot is still on the side, the board must be run out and warring hands exposed to determine a winner. If they are folded from the main pot prior to hand completion, they should be set aside until that point. Wordy, I know, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty simple. Definitely not for people who can't handle rabbit hunting or exposing cards.
2 - TAG, you're it. For the rest of the hand, targeted player may check, bet, raise, or fold. They cannot call.
Last edited by space station; 01-31-2018 at 03:26 PM.
