5 Ways To Make Poker Fun Again

Poker is a great game, but like everything else, it is fundamentally quite repetitive. The dealer button goes round and round the table, the cards are dealt, and the chips change hands. A long time ago the term “grinder” was created to describe someone who spends many hours playing poker. It is actually a positive label, the term acknowledges you probably win at poker but also notes poker can be a grind as you need to play tons of hands to turn your positive hourly rate into cold hard cash. You suffer the inevitable beats along the way and may even go home a loser on many occasions, which is a poor result following the many hours you invested at the table.

Before you log off and head to somewhere quiet for a cry, the intention of this article is not to paint a sorry picture of poker, but to offer five suggestions that that might appear crazy at first but are designed to bring a smile to your face as you imagine the madness that would ensue if these poker games became a reality. Given half the chance, they may even be fun and exciting, even if they remain forever filed under “m” for “maybe” or “o” for “over my dead body”.

WebCams For Final Tables

Using webcams during online poker tournaments has been tried in the past and found to be a distraction to the game itself and complex to manage. Players can easily move out of shot, disguise themselves, or obstruct the view of the camera. It proved impossible to replicate the live poker arena in a way that was fair to all players. The concept is rarely used today, if ever.

Noting the previous problems, I do believe it would be fun if a means of utilising web cams in online poker, in certain final tables to reduce the chance of abuse, could be found. At a final table it would be possible for live moderators to ensure the use of the webcams was done fairly with no manipulation.

As I write this I can see the challenges, but in the context of making poker more exciting and more fun, I think that if they could find a way of making it work it would be worthwhile. Watching a player go on tilt following a bad beat rather than knowing they are breaking things whilst typing “nh” into the chat would be great viewing.

The “Annette_15” Tournament

Annette Obrestad starting playing poker aged 15 and won the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in 2007. She famously admitted that she once won an online poker tournament while hiding her hole cards from view, playing the player and position rather than the cards. She only peeked at her cards on a few occasions when calling risked her tournament life.

My idea would integrate this concept into a poker tournament. For every hand dealt, a random portion (up to 50%) of the playing field would have their hole cards hidden from view for the full duration of the hand. Each time you win a hand when your hand was blind, you would receive more hole cards face up and vice versa: folding a blind hand means you are dealt more of them. I am sure this is achievable for the programmers out there.

You would have no idea which opponents could see their hole cards at any given time. Players could even earn a small cash bonus from the prize pool for being the player that wins the most hands with hidden hole cards. I would add three credits for a “peek” so if you are shoved upon you can take a peek at your hole cards. As a fun tournament concept I think this would be popular and I for one would certainly thoroughly enjoy this structure.

One Hole Card Up Hold’em

The title may need work, but as it suggests, the game is Texas Hold’em but with one of your hole cards dealt face up so all players can see it throughout the hand. This game would work both live and online and variations of it could be that the “up card” is chosen by the player, something which I personally think would be even more fun.

This would add an interesting concept to the game where a made hand could be visible. You know the opponent can see the card, so how do you bet in a way that disguises your true intentions, or do you just play it straight? Also, what would your opponents bet mean if he can see part of your made hand and bets anyway. Are they bluffing you? I would find these additional considerations very interesting and it would make for some tense spots and leave players plenty of room to maneuver.

Hold’em with the River Card Dealt Face Down

A more extreme version of option 3, this concept would see the river card dealt face down. You would need to know your poker math in order to decide what the chances are of hitting your ideal river card is or what the chances are of the hidden card being bad news for you. This game could be combined with option 3 for a really different hold’em experience.

I imagine players might be less in favor of the river card being dealt face down because this makes the game far more risky when the biggest betting decisions are made in a hand. But for the railbird, there is no doubt that adding this concept into a poker tournament structure would make for some really exciting hands and difficult decisions for the poker pros. There would also be some priceless reactions from the players when the dealer revealed the river card.

More Paint Poker

This idea is designed to make poker players think and to increase the strength of winning hands. The concept is to add two more jacks, queens, kings and aces into the deck and go from there! With more paint cards in the deck, all of the math changes. Pocket aces can easily become a set, trips, or quads, and more. and a connected flop of K, Q, A would hit everyone and give players chasing a draw more outs to hit. There would be more big hands, more bad beats, and much more excitement. This game is made for TV if the commentators can keep up and remain positive about the concept. I have no doubt this game fits our criteria of delivering something new and exciting to poker.

I wouldn’t mind giving all these games a go. What about you?