Casino Joker

Poker Freakpots

In Poker, a Freakpot offers a variety of Draw Poker which is quite different from any other.

The 'freaks' are the four two's, which are, in effect, Jokers: each of them can represent any other card.

And in one type of hand--- 'Fives'--- a freak can represent a non-existent card, since a hand consisting of, say, 8 8 8 8 2 can be declared as 'Five Eights.'

What suit the Freak belongs to is anybody's guess!

It is obvious that, with four Jokers in the pack, every type of hand above the two-pair level can occur much more frequently in a Freakpot than in 'straight' poker, in Jackpots, or in Acepots.

Again, for comparison, the distribution of the many hands that can ordinarily be dealt 'pat', and the corresponding number of hands of each type that can be dealt 'pat' in a Freakpot.

The figures that has been made for Poker players (the various hands upon dealing Freakpots) are not intended for memorization.

They are merely made to show how much more frequent high hands--- Fours or better--- are in Freakpots than in Straight Poker.

The odds are only about 80 to one against one's being dealt such a hand 'pat', whereas in Straight Poker they are approximately 4,000 to one.

And the number of hands susceptible of producing Fours or better if one buys only one card is, pro rata, equally impressive.

As in Jackpots and Acepots, each player contributes two chips to the pot before the deal. A player can open on any hand, and can exchange as many cards as he likes.

It is very unusual for a Freakpot not to be opened, for the odds against no player being dealt a Freak are about 113 to one.

The only hands on which one should open if one has not been dealt a Freak are three Queens or better, and one should not open the first three platers to speak.

For it is more likely than not that someone else will open, and one can then decide what to do.

If one holds, say, three Queens (With no Freak) and passes, and the pot is subsequently opened and doubled, it will generally pay to throw the hand in.

If, however, one is one of the last three players to speak, and the pot has not been opened, one can open on any threes: there is a good chance that one will draw a Freak and so finish with Fours, or one may draw a natural pair, which would give one a natural Full House.

Hands counting one or more Freaks are in no sense inferior to 'natural' hands. Thus, if, in the showdown, one player holds K K K 8 5 and another holds K 2 2 9 3, the latter hand would win because each player has three Kings but the next card--- a 9--- is superior to the other player's 8.

Hence, normally no pot should be opened by a hand which has no Freak in it. Some players will open on one Freak only, and nothing else of value in the hand, but this is not, in my judgment, sound policy if you are one of the first four players to speak.

Holding one Freak, and nothing else of value, you should play in any pot which has been opened, and the more players there are in it, the better, since this will probably mean that no one has more than one Freak.