Amusing Poker Discussion

Jeff Goldberg has a post (and a follow-up) outlining a dilemma in his home poker game involving high/low seven-stud, which they still play as a declare game (i.e. rather than cards speaking, you have you declare whether you're going after the low half of the pot, the high half or both.)

As I said in my email to him, explaining why he shouldn't have won any part of that pot, "This is why nobody plays declare games any more..."

It's a reminder that poker, just like anything else involving competitive human interaction, evolves over time. Which also reminds me that at some point I should post up the rules to Council Bluffs, the Omaha spin-off someone in one of my regular games developed. (Council Bluffs, if you don't get the joke, is the smaller city in Iowa across the Missouri River from Omaha -- and when I explain the rules you'll understand why 'crosssing the river' is such an important part of the game...)