I’m working on a new game called COVID Poker. It’s a variant of 6 stud high-low. Before any cards are dealt to the players the dealer exposes 2 cards. The first is called Covid, the second is called Vaccine. If both cards are of the same rank, they are returned to the deck, the deck is shuffled and another two cards are drawn until cards of distinct ranks are visible.
The game is dealt as standard 6 stud, one down card, 4 up cards, and the last card dealt face down with a betting round after the up card and each following successive card. If anyone has an up card of the same rank as Covid, the hand is dead, unless they also have a card of the same rank as the Vaccine. If their Vaccine card is face down, the player must turn it over to avoid a dead hand. In addition, all dead hands must now display their down card. The first such card is called the Delta Variant. If any of the remaining players has an up card of the same rank as the Delta Variant, that hand is dead (unless it contains the Vaccine) and the player must expose the hand’s down card. The next down card turned over is called the Omicron Variant. The next death cards are called the Pi, Rho, Sigma, and Tau Variants. In the very odd event that a down card turned over is of the same rank as the Vaccine, Covid or any of the Variants, the down card is ignored.
The remaining cards are dealt in the usual way, three more up cards, followed by a down card. If any up card matches one of the Variants, that player’s hand is dead and its down card is exposed, becoming the next variant.
If a player has a Variant card that is a down card, the hand is Asymptomatic and the hand does not die.
If at any time there is only one player left with a live hand, the player wins the entire pot. If the game proceeds with more than one live player, the usual rules apply. If all hands die, the money in the pot accrues to the next game.
Is this a game for our times, or what!
This may be a complicated game, but COVID has proved to be a complicated problem. You can think of the Covid cards like wild cards, except here wild cards are bad rather than good. They kill your hand, but so does getting a King or pairing up when going low.
You could also play this as a 7 stud game, but the dealer then turns over one of the down cards in dead hands, sight unseen of course.
Here’s an option for those that play wild card games. Before the last down card is dealt, the dealer turns over another card, the Cure. It is a wild card in any hand that contains one of the same rank. If the Cure matches either Covid or the Vaccine, it is ignored. I would not suggest wild cards in high-low games, but Covid poker can be played high only on even lowball. I’m not mad keen on this game, but you might like it.
Here’s an option that I do like. After the betting round following the 6th card, players may return one of their cards for one from the cards remaining in the deck, much like draw poker. If they return an up card, they receive an up card. If they return a down card, they receive a down card. The return costs some small multiple of the ante. You can make a down card cost more than an up card. If the upcard is Covid or a Variant, the hand is dead unless the hand contains the Vaccine.
Thanks to Rocco Casagrande for his idea of Vulture Poker, in which players can swoop down and purchase cards from dead hands. He also wondered if there would be too many games in which all the hands die. My experiments so far indicate otherwise.
Thanks to Alex Belida who got me thinking about the Vaccine card. He also suggested a card for resurrection of dead hands as well as boosters and ventilator. I couldn’t work the latter two in without making the game too complicated and I rejected the resurrection suggestion on theological grounds.
Notes From the Bozosphere 