The Poker Best Home Game Variants and Alternatives

Are your regular poker nights getting a bit stale? Want to mix things up?

With a few simple tweaks, you can liven up your poker home games a ton. Here are some of the most entertaining and unique variants that we’ve encountered.

Stand Up

This is a really fun set of rules that you can apply to any poker variant. Things can get pretty crazy when there are only a few players left, trying to avoid being the last one standing:

1. The game begins with everyone standing up.
2. When you win a pot, you sit down.
3. The last player standing has to pay a predetermined amount to each player.

Bomb Pots

Bomb pots were originally created as a fun way to end a home game – but, you can mix them into any session at any time. It’s a great way to create action in a game.

You can even have a separate button just for the Bomb Pot, allowing each player the chance to be in position for it. When the Bomb Pot and the Dealer Button are in the same position, players call this “an eclipse”.

1. Before the hand begins, every player agrees to put a certain amount of money into the pot.
2. No other better is permitted before the flop.
3. The flop is dealt.
4. Play resumes as usual.

Tic-Tac-Toe

This is one of the most interesting twists on poker that we’ve seen, and it really mixes things up. This combines poker and, of course, the classic game of tic-tac-toe.

1. Each player is dealt four cards
2. Three rows of three cards are placed on the board.
3. Players must create the best possible hand using their two hole cards using one of the:
   1. Three horizontal rows
   2. Three vertical rows
   3. Two diagonal rows

Any Wild Poker Game

Changing any card into a wild can really shake things up. So, this is a quick and easy way to bring new life to your home game.

All you do is declare which card is wild at the start of the game. For a little extra chaos, have multiple wilds or change the wild every hand.

A Mixed-Game

This is one that I would only suggest if everyone at your table is very familiar with poker. If you mix up the variant every hand, it can be a ton of fun – but, only if there aren’t any players that need to get to grips with any of them. The most common variants that get included in mixed games are:

• 5 Card Draw
• 5 Card Stud
• 7 Card Stud
• Crazy Pineapple
• Omaha
• Pineapple

Greek Hold’em

In Greek Hold’em, one new rule is added to a standard game of Texas Hold’em – but it changes everything in terms of gameplay.  The main difference is that you have to use both of your hole cards.

Dramaha

This is a split-pot game that burst onto the poker scene in about 2019, which combines elements of Draw Poker and Omaha. There are many different variations – but the basic rules are the same:

• All players are dealt five cards, and a betting round occurs
• A three-card Omaha flop is dealt, and another betting round occurs
• Players can then discard and replace cards
• A turn is dealt, and there is a betting round
• A river is dealt, and there is a final betting round
• The pot is split between the best high hand for Omaha, and the best overall hand

There are all sorts of ways to play Dramaha. In all of these variants, the best high Omaha hand wins, and the other winning hand is what changes:

• 2-7 Dramaha: the player with the worst poker hand wins
• Dramaha High: the player with the best five-card hand wins
• Dramadugi: the player with the lowest four-card Badugi hand wins

This is another pretty complex example – but, I’d say its easy than a mixed game, if you just stick with one of the Dramaha variants.

Swap Hold’Em

A really simple twist on a classic. All you do is give all players the chance to swap one per hand.

Bloody River

This is another super easy way to make your home games exciting. It’s even more fun if someone shouts “bloody river” just before the last card is placed on the board.

If the river is red, then you deal another river. If that card is red, you deal another one. You keep doing this until the card is black.

2 and 22

This is one of my favourites, as you can get anyone involved – even players with no previous knowledge of poker. It’s more of a blackjack game, but you compete with the other players at the table to split the pot with the highest and lowest hands:

• Everyone is dealt one face-up card and one face-down card
• A betting round occurs and each player can choose to hit or stay
• Even if you stay one round, you can hit the end
• Another betting round occurs.
• This continues until there is a round where no one hits
• All players add up their points according to this paytable:
  • 10s – 10 points
  • Facecards – .5 point
  • All other cards have the same value as they would in blackjack – with Aces either being high or low
• The winner of the high pot is the one who scores closest to 22
• The winner of the low half is the player who scores closest to 2

Any Suggestions?

What are your favorite ways to spice up a home game? Leave us a comment and share your best poker variant!