12 Poker Games Your Friends Have Never Played

If the river comes red, the hand isn't over. That's Red River, and it's one of 12 poker games your friends have never played. They go from easy enough to explain in one sentence to completely unhinged, and in the last one, five of a kind beats a royal flush. Red River is Texas Hold'em with one change. If the river's black, the hand ends like normal. If it's red, you bet again and flip another card, and it keeps going until a black one shows up. He's got pocket kings, and by the turn, the board's got the king and nine of hearts and another nine, so he's already got a full house. She's got the queen and 10 of hearts, and she just keeps calling. River seven of diamonds, red, so one more. Deuce of hearts, red again, and now she's got a flush, but she's still behind. Jack of hearts, that's a straight flush. Then the five of spades finally ends it, and his full house loses. Game two is second best Hold'em. Everything plays normal until the showdown, and then the best hand loses. The pot goes to the second best. So, if you flop something huge, you're secretly hoping somebody beats you. The board comes two kings and a nine. He's got pocket nines, so that's a full house, and he bets like he can't lose. She's got ace nine for two pair. The full house is the best hand, so it loses, and her two pair takes the pot. Game three, showtime. When you fold, your cards get flipped face up for the whole table. Normally, nobody ever sees a fold. Here, every fold is information. He folds pocket sevens, and they go face up. Then the flop comes two more sevens, so he just folded four of a kind in front of everybody. Now, someone bets big like he's got a seven, but she can count. Two on the board, two in the fold, there's no seven left. She calls with pocket jacks, and his bluff is dead before it started. Game four, Noah's Ark. The cards come two by two. Two on the flop, two on the turn, two on the river. That's six cards on the board, and you play your best five out of eight. He's got pocket aces and flops a set. She's got nine eight, and she's way behind. The turn's a king and a deuce. Then the river brings two at once, a six and a 10. 6 7 8 9 10. She needed both of those on the same street, which can't happen in normal Hold'em, and the set of aces loses. Those four are just Hold'em with one rule changed. The next four change the cards in your hand and two of them we filmed at our own table. Game five, super hold 'em. You get three cards instead of two and you can use one, two, or all three. He's got two aces and a king. The flop brings another ace and the river's a king, so he's got aces full. She's holding the five, six, and seven of hearts and the board has the eight and nine of hearts. In regular hold 'em, that's nothing. Here, she uses all three and that's a straight flush. Aces full loses to a hand that can't even exist in normal hold 'em. Game six is pineapple and this is a real hand from our table. Everybody gets three cards and before the flop, you throw one away. He's holding the ace of clubs, the 10 of diamonds, and the deuce of clubs, so the deuce goes. His buddy keeps pocket nines. The board pairs sixes and the river's an ace, so ace-10 makes two pair, aces up, and beats the nines. Throw the card away after the flop instead and that's crazy pineapple. Game seven, lazy rivers. It's normal hold 'em until the turn and then every player gets their own river that only they can use. The board's a king, a nine, an eight, and a four. He's got pocket fours for a set and he shoves. Another player calls with jack-10 and she calls with king-nine for two pair. Now, the private river is his is a deuce. Nothing. Jack-10 gets a queen and makes a straight. Hers comes last, it's a king. Full house. Three different rivers and the set that was winning finishes last. Game eight, short deck, the other one we play at our table. Every two, three, four, and five comes out of the deck, so you're playing with 36 cards. You hit big hands way more often and because flushes get harder to make, a flush beats a full house. The ace still plays low, too, so ace-6-7-8-9 is a straight. It's the fastest way to make a normal hold 'em night feel brand new. >> [music] >> Now it gets weird. The last four break the rules everybody knows. Game nine, Indian poker. Everybody gets one card and without looking, you stick it on your forehead. You can see every card at the table except your own. Then you bet and the highest card wins. She sees a jack and a three. Unless her own card is tiny, she likes her chances. Then the guy across from her looks at her forehead and starts laughing, so she folds. She peels it off. It's the ace of spades. The whole game is reading faces and lying with yours. >> [music] >> Game 10, Tic-Tac-Toe poker. The board is nine cards in a 3x3 grid. The middle flips last and you play your two cards plus any one line, across, down, or corner to corner. He's got pocket aces and two more aces land in opposite corners. Four aces on the diagonal, so he pushes everything in. She's got the seven and eight of hearts with the four and five of hearts in the other two corners. Everything's flipped except the middle and she needs exactly one card, the six of hearts. It's the six of hearts. Straight flush corner to corner. Game 11, Anaconda, where you build your opponent's hand for them. Everybody gets seven cards, then you pass three to your left, then two, then one. He's chasing a straight, so he dumps three hearts he doesn't need right to her. She already had two hearts. That's a flush and he just built it. He finally picks up the cards for his straight, so he bets big. She calls. Her flush beats his straight made with his own cards. And game 12, the one I promised, Joker Hold'em. There's one Joker in the deck and if it lands on the board, it's wild for everybody and it can be a different card for each player. The flop comes the Joker with the queen and jack of hearts. He's got the ace and king of hearts, so for him, the Joker is the 10. Royal flush. She's got pocket nines, so for her it's a third nine. The turn's a nine. The river's the last nine. He shoves the royal. She calls with four nines plus a Joker that makes the fifth. Five of a kind is the only hand that beats a royal flush. Here's how we actually play these. It's called dealer's choice. Whoever has the button picks the game for that hand and explains it in one sentence. Same chips, same blinds, so nobody has to relearn anything. Start the night with the easy ones and save the weird ones for after everybody's warmed up. >> [music] >> The only problem with dealer's choice is the math at the end. 12 different games and a few rebuys later, nobody remembers who's up. That's why I built home game poker. It tracks every buy-in and rebuy, no matter what you played and at the end it shows who's up and who's down. It doesn't take bets, hold money, or move money. It just keeps score. Download HG Poker on the App Store or Google Play. So, which one is your group trying first? Tell me in the comments, and if you're running a tournament instead, I'll show you exactly how to set it up right here. >> [music]