Pokermagic: Two great tastes that taste great together?
Once in a while when I have more important things to do, I sit around thinking up weird games (and once in a very long while I get people to play one, which is usually a lot easier if I pretend that I did not make it up). This tends to happen when I do something like try to go to bed early at 2 AM and lie awake for two hours.
Here's what I am thinking this time: How about a game of poker where you also hold Magic cards, and your money is also your life total, kind of like Knightmare Chess. I think it could be done. Here are the rules so far:
Start an ordinary game of Texas Hold-em with whatever number of chips you like (all players must start with the same number, however). Divide this number by 20 to find the value of one life point, which will remain constant throughout the game. For example, an easy system would be to start each player with 20 chips, which would mean that one life point is worth one chip.
Each player has a shuffled deck ("library") of Magic cards in front of her. Each player will hold both a poker hand and a Magic hand, which are independent, but no Magic cards are drawn at the start of the game.
The game proceeds according to ordinary poker rules until players have acquired some Magic cards. Magic cards must be earned in the following way: At the end of a hand of poker, after the final betting round after the final (river) card, all players that are still in the pot hold their two poker cards over the table and count to three. On the count of three, each player either drops both cards on the table, holds both, or holds one and drops the other (as in the game 3-5-7). Only the cards that are held can be used to win the pot, so a player that drops both has forfeited any claim on the pot and cannot win it. But, a player is entitled to draw one Magic card for each poker card that is dropped.
If all players drop all their cards, the entire pot is forfeited to a special kitty called the "Bank." Other functions of the Bank will be described below.
Magic "turns" roughly correspond to poker hands. Each player receives an untap phase and upkeep phase before she takes action on the first betting round (pre-flop) of a new hand of poker (even if she folds the poker hand). The draw phase only occurs if it is earned at the end of a hand, as previously described. All players except the next dealer receive a "main" phase during the time between poker hands, after the pot has been decided but before the first betting round begins on the next hand. This is therefore the only time that creatures can attack, lands and sorceries can be played, and so on. Instants or other Magic effects that can be played at any time can still be played at any time, including in the middle of a poker betting round.
Naturally, players are eliminated when they have no more chips. Players whose chips are "all in" the pot are allowed to stay in to the showdown of course, but if they lose, they are immediately eliminated from the game without another chance to play Magic effects.
Obviously, Magic cards can have a dramatic effect on the poker game, so the drawing mechanic stolen from 3-5-7 is intended to make them quite expensive to acquire. Merely drawing the standard Magic starting hand of seven cards would require paying for and probably forfeiting four pots, which could be a crippling expense. The drawing mechanic should also punish players that are too passive at the poker betting, because it is a bad idea to allow your opponents to reach the showdown (and potentially receive two Magic cards) for cheap. A strategy of staying in every hand to the river might emerge among some players, but correct (aggressive) betting should quickly eliminate it.
The conflation of money and life points should make it obvious that good Magic strategy (or luck) can compensate for poor poker strategy, or vice versa. The point of the Bank is to preserve the zero-sum properties of poker (the total amount of money/life in the game remains constant), which helps prevent the game from going on indefinitely.
It would be possible to play Pokermagic with an increasing blind structure like in a poker tournament, but this is probably not necessary because players will acquire more and more disruptive Magic abilities as the game goes on.
As long as there are not too many Magic effects to be played, letting all the players have a vaguely simultaneous "main" phase shouldn't be a problem. If it matters, each player can take a turn in order, starting to the dealer's left and going around. The reason for skipping the dealer's Magic turn is to help keep the poker game from bogging down too much, since the dealer needs to be shuffling and dealing. Also, being the dealer is a substantial advantage in the poker game, so it seems reasonable to simultaneously disadvantage the dealer in the Magic game.
It is quite likely that there are plenty of Magic cards and combos that are horribly broken in this game, although I have tried to define away some obvious ones. Poker cards can't be permanently "removed from the game" because otherwise it would be pretty easy to cripple the poker deck with e.g. Tormod's Crypt. Likewise with the rule against commingling poker cards and Magic cards in graveyards or libraries in unnatural ways. Some cards like Demonic Tutor become just comedically powerful, but then Demonic Tutor is already comedically powerful in plain Magic, which is why it was banned.
So there you go..all I need now is about a thousand hours of playtesting. If anybody else tries it, I'd like to hear how it goes...
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