Greg and Scott hosted a very fun poker game last night. Unlike the game I played in with my brother a few months ago that was just Texas Hold ’em played tournament-style, this game was more free-form. The deal rotated around the table, and each dealer chose the game to play. Ante was a dime, maximum raise was fifty cents.

I was down a few bucks pretty quickly, and bought another $5 worth of chips after only 45 minutes or so – things weren’t looking so good. I held on to my money (but didn’t make any back) for a while, and then it was Scott’s turn to deal. The game was the house variant of baseball.

Their version is a 7-card stud game, with the following provisions:

• any 9’s are wild
• any player who is dealt a face-up 4 gets an extra face-down card on the spot
• any time a 3 is dealt face-up, the player either has to fold, or match the pot to stay in the game. If they stay in, their 3 is a wild card

So, I’ve gotten two face down cards, two face up cards (including an ace), and the next face up card I get is a three. The pot is $5 (a fair amount of money, for this game), and I’d just bought my second round of chips a few minutes prior. I had to choose whether to fold or buy the 3 as a wild card for $5. I shocked everyone by buying in, knowing I had two more aces in my hand (for a total of four). I won about $5 on that single hand, and came out a few bucks up on the evening. Not bad at all…