No-Limit Hold’em Variants
Tired of playing good ol’ no-limit hold’em? Fear not, there are some ways to spice up everyone’s favorite poker game with a few rule changes. Try these games on for size at your next home game to liven things up again:
Pineapple
Also called ‘Crazy Pineapple’, this game deals players three cards instead of two. After the flop, all players remaining in the hand must discard one of their three cards. The remainder of the hand is played out in traditional no-limit hold’em fashion.
Strategy Tip: Stick to your normal no-limit hold’em strategy, but place a little extra value on hands with three consecutive cards (example: Six-Seven-Eight).
Ante Added
Think no-limit hold’em is a crazy poker game? Try adding a mandatory ante to each hand. For example, if your game has $1/$2 blinds, adding a $.25 ante to each hand will really ramp up the action.
Strategy Tip: Raise preflop more since the value of taking down a pot before the flop has increased.
Bounty Hand
A cool no-limit hold’em variation is to have a rule where if a player wins a pot with Seven-Two offsuit (which is the worst starting hand in poker), and shows their hand, they receive one big blind from every player at the table’s stack. Although this is a small rule change, it has a big effect on creating action since people perceive the likelihood that you’re bluffing has increased substantially.
Strategy Tip: Play Seven-Deuce offsuit and rub it in everyone’s face when you win!
Straddle Rules
Another fun rule to implement is a no-limit straddle. A straddle means the player to the left of the big blind (the first player to act before the flop) can place an unlimited amount of money into the pot to serve as a third blind. In doing so, they effectively become the new big blind and the new big blind is whatever amount they originally put in the pot. For example, if the small blind posts $1 and the big blind posts $2, the player in the straddle position can bet anything. So if they put $10 in the pot, it’s essentially a $1/$2/$10 no-limit hold’em game for that hand.
Strategy Tip: Raise preflop with confidence; the straddle money is essentially a bunch of extra dead money in the pot!