Poker: The Forgotten Sport

I need the payoff of competition without the physical activity. But what could I do? I searched and I searched. I found some solace in computer games, but beating an electronic opponent just wasn't the same as defeating flesh and blood. I wanted to be able to see the disappointment in my opponents' faces when I destroyed them. I wanted to feel the tension in the air that is present between two arch rivals. Basically, I needed something that would provide the payoff of sports but without all the work.

Then, one Friday evening, I stumbled across the solution to my problem: POKER! With a deck of cards, some chips and a few friends I can experience all of the heart pounding, adrenaline pumping excitement of competition without even breaking a sweat (well, sometimes the action is so intense that I might break a sweat, but there is defiantly no exercise involved). Now, once a week, with no practice or preparation time I can gather with my friends and release my excess anxiety and adrenaline by partaking in friendly competition and sometimes even walk away a few bucks richer.

With this said, I hope I have inspired you to play poker. I feel it is a fine and often forgotten sport. Alas, many people think it is boring and trite. However, they just haven't tried the right variations. I am assuming that almost everyone knows how to play five card stud. However, even I, one of poker's most ardent fans finds that game dull after a while. Therefore, for your competitive enjoyment I have included descriptions of several of my favorite poker games. I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to email me your favorite games!

Seven Card Stud:

Initially all players receive two cards face down and one card face up. Betting begins with the player with the highest face up card and continues clockwise around the table. Players then receive three more cards face up. The final card is dealt "down and dirty" (face down). (That is a total of four face up cards and three face down cards). There is a betting interval (beginning with the player with the highest hand showing) after each card is dealt. Players use the best five of their seven cards to construct a hand.

Seven Card Stud, Hi/Lo:

This game is dealt exactly like traditional seven card stud. However, players may choose to construct a low hand or a high hand. At the end of the game players declare if they wish to go high, low or both (in general, players secretly place a white chip in their hand to signify going low or a red chip in their hand to signify going high. A player may indicate that he/she is going both high and low by placing both chips in their hand. All players display their selected chips at the same time). The player with the best high hand shares the pot with the player with the best low hand. If a player attempts to win both the high hand and the low hand, he/she must win both hands and receives the entire pot. High hands follow the traditional poker hierarchy of hands. Low hands contain nothing. The best low hand is Ace,2,3,4,6 (Ace,2,3,4,5 would be a straight and is therefore a high hand). Ace,2,2,3,5 would be higher than Ace,2,3,4,6 because it contains a pair of twos. In general five cards under 9 with no pairs would be considered a low hand.

Baseball Under the Lights:

Seven cards are dealt face down to each player. No one looks at their cards. The player to the dealer's left turns over his/her top card. He/she may then bet on that card. If he/she does bet, all players must match that bet to remain in the game. However, if he/she does not bet, the betting interval is over (no other player may initiate a bet when someone else turns over a card). Players may, however raise bets at any point in time. After the first betting interval is complete, the second player turns over his/her card and may bet on it. Play continues in this fashion until all players have turned over their seven cards. At the end of the game, the player with the best five card hand wins. However, 3s,4s and 9s have special properties in baseball. To be able to take advantage of these properties, players must pay for them. If a player receives a 3, he/she may pay the pot 7 times the ante amount to turn the 3 into a wild card. If a player receives a 9, he/she may pay the pot half the amount currently in the pot to turn the 9 into a wild card. If a player receives a 4, he/she may pay the pot twice the ante amount to receive an additional card from the deck (in this instance, a player will end up with 8 cards total). If a player chooses not to pay for a card's special property, the card acts just like any normal card.