What is Your Favourite Home Game Besides Poker?

gordan_gecco

I like Hit the Post, which I think is also called "In-Betweens." Basically, the dealer deals two cards to you (the "posts"). You can bet or pass, and the betting is pot maximum. You are betting that the next card up will fall between the two other cards' values (i.e. you get a King and a 4, you are betting the next card will between a 5,6,7,8,9,10, J or Q). If the card is outside (i.e. A, 2, 3), you lose your bet to the pot. If you hit the post by drawing a post card, you have to put double your bet in the pot. Aces can be high or low, and you have to call it either way as soon as you get one. Naturally, the best hand is AA, which would be the highest and lowest...only hitting the post by drawing another ace can hurt you. Once you have finished your turn (or passed), it is the next player's turn.

This game can get outta hand quickly, with people egging each other on to bet the pot. I can't describe how hard I laughed when the same guy got AA two times within ten minutes...only to hit the post both times! It's fun on it's own, or after a night of poker, so long as the winners don't mind playing (we call it the great equalizer since we've seen winner's stacks dwindle down to nothing in minutes).

One last thing I should mention is that it's best to play with multiple decks in a shoe, like blackjack, so you don't have to shuffle every couple of minutes.

I guess that's pretty much it...you should give it a try if you haven't before. What other games do you play?...

ScottyZ

I think my favorite non-poker game is 7-27. My guess is that I like it since it's the only non-poker home game that I know of which is even remotely like poker. 8)

http://www.pagat.com/vying/7-27.html

What *really* drives me crazy at home games is that people typically want to play all the "random" games (Guts, In-betweens, etc.) as pot-limit (often with a *forced* pot bet under certain circumstances), but the real poker games as limit. Imagine the edge good players could get if that was the other way around. 8)

ScottyZ

Unknown

Hmmm... 7-27 is a good one. Scotty, I looked at those rules you linked to and I think I've been playing it wrong. Your link says each player gets *two* cards to start--one face up and one face down. I've always known it to be *one* card to start, face down. Thus, if you're dealt a seven, you're golden. If you're dealt a face card, you can try to represent a seven by 'sticking' until the last possible moment.

It seems to me that if everyone is dealt two cards, more people would be going for 27. Although, we play 'over is bust', so that is likely a conributing factor as well. I don't think 'over is bust' and being dealt two cards to start would work very well. How do you play it?

Regards,
all_aces

ScottyZ

all_aces wrote:

Hmmm... 7-27 is a good one. Scotty, I looked at those rules you linked to and I think I've been playing it wrong. Your link says each player gets *two* cards to start--one face up and one face down. I've always known it to be *one* card to start, face down. Thus, if you're dealt a seven, you're golden. If you're dealt a face card, you can try to represent a seven by 'sticking' until the last possible moment.

It seems to me that if everyone is dealt two cards, more people would be going for 27. Although, we play 'over is bust', so that is likely a conributing factor as well. I don't think 'over is bust' and being dealt two cards to start would work very well. How do you play it?

Regards,
all_aces

Yeah, there are lots of small variations.

I like being dealt only one card to start like you said (so it's easier to spike the nut 7), and I've generally played with the "under wins a tie" rule.

I've even tried moving up to 17-37, and beginning with 2 cards down and 1 card up. That was actually a pretty interesting version too, since there's a lot more hidden information when everyone has 2 hole cards. Certainly not a game for those who get a headache from doing a lot of mental arithmetic. 8)

ScottyZ

DJP

Favorite home game?

I wouldn't be surprised if someone said "spank the monkey." oops lmao

Jay

I like euchre and cribbage.

Bogart

My favorites are cribbage, and asshole. Hit the post sounds like it's gonna be a great drinking game.

Cory

Jay

Oh yeah, I forgot about Asshole. Classic game.

MiamiKeith

Asshole is lots of fun but it's not a good gambling game because the card trading makes it a "rich get richer" kind of game. To play for money, I prefer the chinese game "big deuce" or "big 2" as it's called (depending on the translation, it can have some other names too). It's sort of similar to asshole without the card trading. Also it's has one thing in common with poker which makes it a good gambling game: it looks like a game of luck, but actually it's a game of skill. I would say, less skill than bridge but more than euchre.

The rules can be found here: http://www.pagat.com/climbing/bigtwo.html.

Keith