Brought to you by Matt (raise or fold) and Adam and the rest of the game night brain trust, here is a game that was a huge hit this week.

First of all, for extra style points, say the following: "This is a game that my father taught me, and his father taught him. It goes by two names: between the sheets, or in between."

Second of all, everybody that is playing pays an ante. This becomes the pot. The dealer shuffles one deck of cards and deals two cards face up on the table, with space in between for a third card. Suppose that they are a 3 and a 9. (Suit does not matter.) The person to the dealer's left goes first, so he now chooses one of the following:

• He can pass, which means that he pays one additional ante into the pot, and his turn ends.
• He can bet any amount between twice the ante and the size of the pot.

If the player bets, the next card from the deck is turned face up between the first two. Now one of three things happens:

• The third card is between the first two (say a 7 in this example). The player wins the amount of his bet, which he takes out of the pot. If he bet the whole amount (which you call "potting it") then the pot is now empty, and the round ends, and you start over with the next dealer.
• The third card is not between the first two (such as a K). The player loses his bet, which is added to the pot.
• The third card goes "off the post," which means it pairs with one of the first two cards (say a 3). The player loses TWICE the amount of his bet, which is added to the pot. The clever reader will observe that if you bet the pot and post it, you have tripled the size of the pot.

That's it. The round continues with each player taking a turn until somebody bets the pot and wins it all. When there are five cards left undealt, you pick up all of the face-up cards except for the ones that are currently playing, reshuffle, and keep going.

Now there are a few points you'll notice when you start playing:

• You have to decide before you start whether aces are high or low. They can't be both. We played aces are high.
• It's not at all unusual to get dealt two cards that are adjacent, like an 8 or a 9, which means that it's impossible to bet and win. When that happens, you are just screwed. But you CAN still bet and lose if you want to.
• There is always the risk of posting on any bet, which means that you can only bet half of the chips you have at any time, so that you will be able to pay twice your bet if you have to. Unless your credit with the house is good, then you can do what you want. According to legend, people lose televisions this way.

That's the basic game that we started with, but we added lots of variations. Any or all of these extended-edition rules can be applied at the same time, which is what we did.

The Own Goal

When the first two cards pair before you have even seen the third card, you have automatically posted, and you have to pay 2 times the current "pass" price.

When you auto-post immediately after somebody that auto-posted, you have to pay 2 times what that person had to pay. Rinse, repeat..

The Dice Bonus Multiplier

It's a scientific fact that any game is 50% more awesome with dice, so we tried a few variations, and here is the best way to get dice involved.

On your turn, as the dealer is dealing your two cards, you also roll a die. For this turn, the price of passing is (size of ante times roll), and the minimum bet is always twice the price of passing. So you always want to roll small numbers for maximum choice, but you are frequently screwed with a crappy spread and a big roll.

NB: If the pot is smaller than the minimum bet, you can only bet the pot, of course. Therefore when there is a small pot and a big roll, you might have higher expected value by making a guaranteed-loser pot-size bet. This is one of the many awesome things that happen to you in this game.

The Joker Whammy

Shuffle in one or two jokers. If one comes up on your first two cards, you have auto-posted and you pay the penalty as defined in Own Goal, including the doubling of any subsequent auto-post. If a joker comes up as your third card, that's just an ordinary post and you pay twice your bet.

Exception: If your first two cards are both jokers, you win the pot immediately.

The Surrender

We learned pretty fast that if you are going to play with dice, and jokers, and own goals, you can rack up some really hefty penalties. So if you want most people to stay in the game, you have to give them the ability to limit their risk. First, declare that the maximum possible penalty, no matter what die roll or bonus multipliers are in effect, is twice the size of the pot (which is what happens when you pot-post in the basic game anyway).

Now, before each player's turn, without seeing any cards or rolling the dice, that player has the option of surrendering the round. Then you don't take a turn at all, and you can't come back in until the next round, no matter how big or small the pot gets. If there are only two people left and one surrenders, the other wins the pot.

The photograph has nothing to do with the game at all, but blog entries are 50% more awesome with photographs.

14 Jul 2006 01:12 PT - persistent link - trackback - 1 comment

Re: This is a game that goes by two names. Jenna wrote on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:10

I have a short attention span. I can't read all this. If Shana hasn't mentioned this about me, I can be mean-funny. Here is why: Why is your wallpaper so flowery? You must like potpourri and therefore you are now going to be known as gay Michael from California who uses fake ages and writes too much. I can type fast so this is not a big issue for me. I probably won't be able to remember it though, touching back on the attention span issue. Happy Summer 1 month anniversary! Reply