New England Hold'Em
If you're a variant lover and always thought it would be cool if there were better hands than a Straight Flush, you might be interested in trying one that my play group came up with. It's called New England Hold'Em (NEHE) and uses all 7 cards, not just 5. That not only makes it harder for two players to chop by adding more kickers, but it also adds new hands like a Long Straight (6-card straight) and a Villa (three of a kind + two pair). Every hand can improve on every street, so going all-in before the river is a little more risky than before.
Another interesting thing about it is the betting structure, where being the last to raise makes you first to act in the next betting round. This makes it so that your position at the table at the start of the hand is less important than it is in Texas Hold'Em, and you won't feel so bullied if you start from out of position (or so dominant if you start in position). Betting is slightly nerfed and calling is slightly buffed with these rules. Therefore, pots will typically get a little less big, but you'll get your bets called and hands will show down a little more often than Hold'Em.
Let me know if you try it out in your home game / card room and what your experience with it was! Thanks. Here's the link to the rules:
2 Replies
The biggest part about playing this game is reprogramming your brain as to how strong you should think your hand is. As a general rule, if the best hand you can make is only using 1 of your hole cards, you should not be feeling that good about your situation when a lot of money is going in. Then, you have to reset your mind on what's the best hands possible on each of these river boards (in each, we're assuming there's no straights or flushes to worry about):
Single-Paired Boards
- Quads (mega rare)
- Three Pair
- Full House
Double-Paired Boards, Trips Boards
- Mansion (mega rare)
- Hotel (rare)
- Villa
Full House Boards
- Palace (mega rare)
- Mansion (rare)
- Hotel
- Villa
Quads Boards
- Palace (rare)
- Mansion
And, the easiest thing to forget IMO: you can't get your two pair counterfeited anymore! You should be playing two pair stronger in most spots since you have outs to beat full houses with three pair.
Interesting variant, though having three pair beat a full house seems like it might introduce situations which seem very wrong when people are used to regular holdem.
I also don't like the idea of having kickers play along with a straight or flush.
