I know I’ve mentioned before that I only like to offer Texas Hold’em at my own personal home games, but I am aware that many of you home poker organisers want to have a little more variation available.
Luckily, there is no shortage of fun poker games. Here are two of my favourite draw-based games that can be easily implemented into any home game session.
1. Connect Four
Connect Four is a draw poker game where all fours and the lowest card in your hand are wild. You must have a four in your hand though for your lowest card to also be considered wild, otherwise you must play the round with no wild cards.
To play Connect Four, each player puts out an ante and then receives five cards face down from the dealer. After all the cards have been dealt the first betting round begins, after which the remaining players can discard between 1-3 cards.
This is followed by a second betting round and another opportunity to discard 1-3 cards. A third round of betting and discarding takes place, which is ended with a final round of betting and receiving replacement cards. The remaining players now turn over their hands and the player with the best five card hand wins.
2. Jacks or Better
Jacks or Better is a five card draw game where a player must have at least a pair of Jacks or better in order to open betting. The game starts out with a basic ante, with the dealer providing five cards face down to each player.
If no one at the table has Jacks or better, everyone mucks their hand and another ante and deal begins, only this time someone must have Queens or better in order to open. If once again the minimum hand requirement is not met, all hands are mucked and the round starts back over, with Kings being the minimum hand needed, followed by Aces and back to Jacks or better if betting has still not opened.
Once betting has opened, all remaining players can then draw up to five cards, after which a final round of betting will take place. After the final betting round is over, the player with the best five card poker hand at the showdown wins the pot.
Chris
- Chris Laquinta is a magazine editor, content specialist and poker fanatic with 10+ years writing experience and over 1,500 published articles. Chris is a naitive of Southern California, where he spent his entire life learning gaming concepts and theories from relatives that had been former professional gamblers. He currently resides in Torrance, CA where he works as a professional content writer and part-time SNG professional.
