Chinese Poker is for nits -- learn Taiwanese Poker
I learned this game about 3 months ago. Since then it has started growing in popularity in Florida. I've heard a high stakes $100/pt game was being spread at the Hollywood HR. Taiwanese can be played heads up, or multi-way just like Chinese. Here's how to play:
Every player gets dealt 7 cards. You then set up a 1 card hand, a hold'em hand and an Omaha hand. Everybody then sets up their hands and puts them face down. A 5 card community board is then put out and everybody reveals their hands.
Scoring:
I played with the guy who invented the game during the WSOPc Palm Beach. He said he invented the scoring as 1-1-1, but I said we were doing the scoring as 1-2-3. He agreed that doing 1-2-3 is better. Otherwise the Omaha hand is basically worthless. So whoever wins the 1-card hand gets 1 point from everybody. Whoever wins the hold'em hand gets 2 points from everybody. And whoever wins the Omaha hand gets 3 points from each person. So if you're playing with 4 other people and you win your Hold'em hand, but lose the other two hands you would be at +4 (+8 for the hold'em hand and -3 and -1 for the other 2 hands). You have to sweep everybody to win that hand. So if you're playing 3 ways with Mark and Bob and you have an Ace as your 1-card hand and Mark has a 8 and Bob has a 4 and the board runs out 238JQ, Mark gets 2 points and you and Bob get -1 points.
Variations:
To speed up the game we usually play where two or three community boards are run out. If you do this, I recommend doing the scoring 1 board at a time or it'll get confusing. I've also played where if you sweep you get double points. So if you're playing 3-ways and you sweep all 3 hands, you'd get 24 points, instead of 12. Burning/turning is also optional. I usually don't burn cards.
The game is easy to learn/teach and is pretty addicting. I think optimal strategy is to put a lot of emphasis on the hold'em hand. I've played for as high as $50/pt before I realized that 50+ point swings are pretty easy to come by. I'm pretty sure this game is going to become very popular in the future as far as "side games" go.
