Cardroom Poker is Different from Home Poker

Cardroom Poker is Different from Home Poker
By Michael Wiesenberg

The main difference between cardroom poker and home games is one of formality. One of the main formalities is a strict adherence to the rules.

Home Games

Here is a description of a typical informal, unstructured, friendly home game. Does it remind you of a game you might have at your house on Friday nights? Many home games are not at all like the following; many, though, are.

Slick Joe, the dealer of this hand, puts two dollars in the pot. This represents one ante from each player. In the past, each player would ante a quarter, but it became too much trouble to track down the one player who always seemed to forget to ante.

Joe picks up the battered deck. He has a bit of trouble shuffling the many bent and broken cards. He sets the deck down to his right in front of Tricky Dick, who gives it a Scarne cut, pulling the center third of the deck out with his right hand, setting it atop the remaining cards in his left hand, pulling out the bottom half of the deck with his right, and again setting the cards on top of the remaining cards in his left hand.

Joe flings the first card to each player. Queenie's card slides off the table into her lap. She retrieves the card and sets it in front of her.

"Well," inquires Jill, "what's it to be this time?"

"Five card high-low, two rejects," says Joe, amid a chorus of groans.

Joe deals each player an upcard.

Queenie is high with an ace, and bets a quarter.

Fat Freddy, who is more interested in food than cards, fold well before it his turn to bet, and gets up to make himself a sandwich.

Everyone else calls.

Queenie gets another ace, and bets a dollar. Two players call, and Tricky Dick, showing ace-four, the current low hand, raises a quarter. A few more calls, and Queenie raises back a dollar. The same callers, and Tricky Dick again raises a quarter.

You have a five in the hole, and deuce-four showing, not bad for low, so you are among the callers.

On the next round, Queenie gets a third ace, Tricky Dick gets a three, and you get a six.

Each time Queenie bets a dollar, Dick raises it a quarter. He is obviously trying to suck you in. He must have a terrific low. He knows that even though you are second-best for low, you might fold if the raising is too heavy, but a quarter may entice you. Of course, Queenie raises back a dollar each time, until the maximum bet and four raises are reached.

On the next round, Queenie gets a queen. Someone makes a remark about a "queen for a Queen." Dick gets a deuce. You get a five. Your hand doesn't look bad on the board, but you have just paired, and Dick's hand is terrific. He has ace-two-three-four showing. He has a much better chance for low than you do, and if he either has a five in the whole or catches one on one of the two rejects, he may get the whole pot.

This time when Queenie bets a dollar, Dick quits playing cute. He raises a dollar, perhaps thinking that he's got you hooked with what looks like a good low showing.

You know that not only does your pair of fives put you far behind Dick's low, you also need to catch two perfect cards to make a straight to beat Queenie's high hand.

You fold.

Some of the other players do not have your good sense, and several call the bets and raises from Dick and Queenie that add up to $4.

Jill has run out of chips. "I'm going light." She withdraws from the pot as many chips as represent the last bet she couldn't meet and places them in a pot in front of her, near the pot.

Time for the first reject.

Queenie throws her queen. Other players throw various upcards and downcards. Dick elects not to discard.

How could he have a five in the hole? You had two of them, and another player had a five among his upcards.

You walk around the table and reach over Dick's shoulder to lift up the edge of his hole card and take a peek. It is a five. If Queenie doesn't make a full house or better, it looks like the whole pot belongs to Tricky Dick. Good thing you folded

Queenie catches another queen. That doesn't help her hand, of course, since she just rejected a queen, but she must think Dick will be going low only.

Again Queenie and Dick do all the betting and raising, while the others just call.

On the next reject, Queenie throws the other queen and again Dick does not seek a replacement. Queenie gets a deuce. She could not possibly have made aces full of deuces, because Dick has a deuce showing, as does one of the other players. Dick surely knows you folded a deuce, so all are accounted for.

"Time to declare folks," says Joe.

Each player puts a hand under the table, and brings it up with chips representing which way the hand is to be played.

Queenie of course opens her hand to reveal one chip for high. Two players who look like they have sevens for low and one who probably has a six low have no chips in their hands, this game's convention for declaring low.

Dick has two chips in his hand. "Both ways. I have a wheel for low and a straight for high."

Dick turns over his hole card, the five you peeked at a moment ago. He wins all of a very large pot.

Queenie looks chagrined that her three lovely aces weren't good enough. "Weren't you afraid I might have you beat when you went both ways."

Dick chivalrously does not point out what Queenie should have known--that you folded the only remaining deuce, while he holds the fourth ace. "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady, Queenie."

Big John picks up the cards to deal. "Where's Freddy?" Queenie wants everyone to play the next hand, so she can have a better chance to recoup her money. "Deal him in. He'll get here before the hand starts."

John puts in his $2, and shuffles. He sets the deck down for a cut. Queenie raps on the cards with her knuckles, signifying she does not wish to cut them. John deals five cards face down to everyone, including Fat Freddy's empty seat. "High, one-eyes wild."

When the action gets to Fat Freddy, he still hasn't returned.

"It's a quarter up to you," yells Queenie. "Whaddya do?"

"Put my quarter in. I'll be right there."

Queenie shouldn't have urged that Freddy be dealt in. His five tens beat her full house.

Late in the evening everyone is losing except you and Tricky Dick. Queenie is losing the most. Dick gets up to leave. Queenie frowns. "You can't leave yet. Give us a chance to get even."