Chernobyl is a game I designed for poker night 'crazy games'. It's fairly simple, allows for up to eight players, and really twists the game around. The game is basically Hold 'Em. The twist starts on the deal when everyone gets five cards. Betting is normal pre-flop.
When the flop comes out everyone discards one card face up, then betting proceeds as normal. The same goes for the turn and the river. At the end you should be left with two cards in your hand and three on the table face up. The three face up cards are discards and cannot be played.
The end result is exactly like Hold 'Em. You have two in your hand and the winner makes the best five card hand with the two in their hand and the five community cards on the table.
We play this game quite a bit during the 'crazy games' portion of the night. What I can say is the fourth street is usually the hardest. It's when you have to decide between going for a straight and going for a full house. It's amazing to see when people make the wrong choice and get stuck.
It's hard to say what a 'great starting Chernobyl hand' is. Having a straight in your hand is actually a bad thing because you have your own outs and you are going to discard some of them. The same goes with three or four of a kind in hand. Having four or five of one suit is also a problem since again you have your own outs and you will be discarding them.
Anyway, give this a shot at your poker game some time and let me know how it goes.
Posted by jherr at May 3, 2007 07:37 AMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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