Pyramid!

We had our regular NLHE game last night, this time with the addition of two old friends who had been away from the table for far too long. To celebrate their return, we decided to play one hand of a dealer's choice game that was very popular in the early years of our regular poker game. That game was pyramid, and it always made for an exciting time and usually a huge pot. Last night was no exception.

The game begins by players anteing, and each is dealt 5 cards. Then 9 cards are placed face down on the table, arranged in a pyramid shape. The first card in the bottom row of four is turned over, and is is auctioned off to the highest bidding player. The winner of the card then discards one, and the discard is then auctioned off. When there are no bidders on the discard, the next card in the row is turned over, and play continues in the same manner until the final card in the row goes unsold. After a betting round, the middle row of three cards are revealed at once, and these will represent the wild cards. If you hold them in your hand they may be used for any other card in the deck, but you may not use any cards on the table (only the five in your hand). After another betting round, the final 2 cards in the pyramid are turned over. These two cards represent null cards, and effectively remove them from your hand. You cannot use them. After a final betting round, there is a showdown, and the highest hand is the winner.

The real pleasure in this game comes from the auctioning of the other cards. Driving the price up on a card you know your opponent wants can be entertaining for the whole table. It also creates very large pots, considering most players build either four of a kind or a full house before the wild cards are exposed. It's definitely not strict poker, but there does lie some strategy in this game. There is also plenty of information available on what your opponents hold. Still, the only way to win this game is to get lucky and hit your wild cards, no matter how good your reads are. For us, Dane's 4 kings was good for an $83 pot. Not a bad haul for one hands worth of work.