I’m mostly a Texas Hold’Em player. I’ve been introduced to other games, specifically the ones that make up “HORSE”, but right now I’m concentrating on getting better at Hold’Em over spreading out my poker skills.
But on a whim I made up a Hold’Em variant that I call either “Shrinkage” or “Burnaby Fold’Em”, and the few people I’ve introduced it to have enjoyed it so I’m posting it now to “stake my claim”, and spread the word.
Here’s how it’s played.
The maximum players you can have is 8, but it plays best with 4-5 because of the high card usage.
Blinds and bet limits are handled just like Hold’Em. You can play Limit, Pot-Limit or No-Limit Shrinkage. Like Hold’Em there is a small and big blind.
Each player is dealt five cards. They must immediately “shrink” their hand by choosing and discarding one card from their hand. The order doesn’t really matter as they are discarded face down, but if anyone cares, do it in betting order.
There is then a round of betting, just like Hold’Em.
The dealer “burns” (discards) the top card of the deck and a three-card “flop” is dealt on the table face-up. Just like Hold’Em, these are community cards that everyone can use to build their hand. After the flop, players again “shrink” their hands, and they are now down to three cards each. Again, a round of betting ensues.
The dealer “burns” the top card and a fourth “Turn” card is dealt face-up. Players again “shrink” their hands and they are now down to two cards they would have in Hold’Em. From here on out the game is identical to Hold’Em. A round of betting, followed by a fifth “River” card is dealt face up. There is no “shrinking” on the river card, though there is betting after it is revealed. Hands are built by each player using 0, 1, 2 of their own cards and the remaining cards from the cards that are face-up.
Why “Shrinkage”?
Also, the “Shrink & Drink” drinking-game variant: At any time people are required to “shrink”, the dealer shouts “SHRINK!” and everyone quickly chooses and discards one card face-up in the centre of the table. The person who gets their card down last must take a drink! We haven’t tried it yet, but I’m guessing that eventually you just get slower and slower (unless you’re WKRP’s Dr. Johnny Fever) and your play gets worse and worse, so shrink those cards quickly!
I’m all for some “shrink & drink” this weekend…
My roomie exclaims that this poker variant already exists as one of the extensions of Pineapple. Looking it up, the base form of Pineapple just discards in the first round, but it’s not too hard to imagine continuing that process.
A quick check of Wikipedia shows that Pineapple is similar, though you’re only dealt three cards. Variations have a discarding preflop or postflop, not at all but you can only use 0, 1, 2 of your three, or no discard and you can use any number of your three cards to make a hand.
The fun thing I’ve found about Shrinkage is that you get some tough decisions for what to discard. Do you keep the cards that have a made hand of moderate strength, or throw one of htem away on the chance you might draw to a much stronger hand?