Bank-draw Poker

Here's a slightly odd-ball variant I came up with. It tends to result in extreme hands, and it's mainly for beginners to the game and young players. It simplifies a lot of the calculations people have to make. It's a spin-off of community card games like Texas, Omaha, etc.

You deal out hands of:

7 cards, if 3-5 players. (This is "7/2" bank-draw.)
6 cards, if 6-10 players. (This is "6/1" bank-draw.)

Then each person puts 2 cards (if 3-5 players) or 1 card (if 6-10) into a central location, the "kitty". Even players intending to fold do this.

Round 1 of betting, "Closed-bank".

These are shuffled (to hide who discarded them) and eight are drawn. If there are fewer (6 or 7) then draw a couple more from the pack to make 8. So, you expose 8 cards to the players, these are "the bank". Two cards will be drawn, as communal, from the bank. So if a player needs two specific cards out of said bank, her odds are 1/28. (Since 7C2 = 28.) If that player needs one of those cards, her odds are 1/4. If none of those cards will help make a hand, then that player should probably fold.

Round 2 of betting, "Open-bank".

Shuffle the 8-card bank, then draw two cards as communal. Each player's hand is the best 5-card hand that can be made out of his/her 5 cards plus the communal 2.

Round 3 of betting, Final round. Then, possibly, showdown.

There's also a Texas Hold 'Em variant in the bank-draw spirit. I'll explain the 10-player version; with smaller numbers, either draw from the bank or give people more cards to start with.

It has 5 betting rounds so it probably shouldn't be played at no-limit. For NL, take out the first betting round.

Each person gets 3 cards, and discards one into the "kitty".

Betting round 1: Closed-bank. Players don't know what's in the bank, aside from their own contributions.

This yields a 10-card bank. The bank is shuffled, then exposed to all players.

Betting round 2: Open-bank. Players now see the possibilities. Each exposed card has a 1/2 (5/10) chance of being drawn.

Then burn one card from the bank, but in this case, burned cards are shown to the players. By "burn" I mean that it will never be redrawn again: it's out of the bank, and not communal either. Then draw three cards as communal.

Betting round 3: "Flop". Cards remaning in the bank (not again exposed, because then it would have to be reshuffled) now have a 1/3 (2/6) card of being drawn.

Then burn the top card, expose the next, which is communal.

Betting round 4: "Turn". Cards remaining in the bank (of which there are 4) now have a 1/4 chance of being drawn.

Then burn the top card, expose the next, which is communal.

Betting round 5: "River"; players now have complete knowledge of their hands, and the rest is just like Texas.

One downside of these variants is that they involve shuffling small numbers of cards, which can be rigged.

However, there are some interesting properties of bank-draw that, as far as I know, aren't in other poker games. Mainly, there's an incentive to hold certain cards (low cards, mainly) that one normally wouldn't. What's going to be in the bank? Low cards... so it might be better to hold a pair of 4s instead of a pair of kings, the former might make a set. On the other hand, some players (particularly those intending to fold) might throw kings into the bank for the hell of it.

I don't expect bank-draw to supplant Texas or 7-card stud, but I think it's probably a great game on which to teach complete beginners, who aren't used to the combinatorial gymnastics seasoned players do.

Feel free to comment/criticize.

-Mike Church
http://ambition-game.blogspot.com

its an interesting variation that looks like it could be lots of fun

wow,you have certainly given that some thought.would like to see it played for real as i am to lazy to do it myself could someone give it a try and tell me if it works.

i like the consept of the game ,but i would have play before i could make adecision