I played an interesting hand of poker the other day. My foe in the coup was none other than Black Belt C.E.O. himself, Warren Wooldridge. The game in question was Pot Limit Pips and Flushes Six-Card Replace with a Declare. This is a split pot variant where half the pot goes to the highest pip count and the other half goes to the longest flush. Picture cards are worth zero; aces are worth one; and all the other cards are the pips they represent. Hopefully by now you will have worked out that if you are playing pips the nuts is 49 (4 tens and a 9).
The best flush is A-K-Q-J-T – note that this is not counted as a royal flush, just the highest possible flush. Remember this isn’t normal poker; in Pips and Flushes, Ad-8d-5d-4d-2d would beat Ks-Qs-Js-10s-9s. In other words, straight flushes are irrelevant; it’s the highest card in your flush that is important.
You play your best five cards, so having a six-card flush makes no difference. That also means, say, if you end up declaring pips with Q-J-10-10-10, you still win if no other player going pips can beat your pip count of 30 regardless of whether they play four or five cards out of their hand (for instance, another player’s hand is K-2-9-9-9 giving them 29). This business about playing your best five cards is crucial, as you will see in the following hand where I make a massive schoolboy error, which, funnily enough, no one else in the game spotted either even though there was the usual two-hour long post-mortem once the cards were seen.
Each player is dealt five down-cards and after the first round of betting, players discard two cards and turn one up and then the game proceeds like a Seven-Card Stud hand. Unlike Seven-Card, however, after the betting round on sixth street, players now nominate whether they want to stand pat or change. If they wish to change they must change two cards (it can be both down-cards or their up cards or one of each, it doesn’t matter). After the change there is a final round of betting and then the declare. This is done by placing none, one, or two chips in your hand and then simultaneously revealing which way you are going with whoever is left in the hand with you. No chips for a flush, one chip for pips and two chips if you are going both ways.
A word or two about the villain in this coup, Warren: it just so happens that Pips and Flushes Six-Card Replace is Warren’s favourite variant of poker. His already LAG [loose-aggressive] tendencies are somewhat amplified when this game is being played and it would not be exaggerating to say he plays 99 percent of hands that are dealt to him. If it hasn’t been raised by the time the action gets to him, then it’s completely standard for him to put in a little pot-pumper. In fact, if he ever limps in, it’s with a terrible starting hand, one that pretty much all other players, be they nitty or loose, would fold, because in his words, “It’s so long until the next hand,” and he cannot bear to be out of action when it is Pips and Flushes Six-Card Replace.
The game was at Vicky Coren’s flat and the blinds were £0.25/0.25. Effective stacks were £170 (680 big blinds) which was what I was playing as Warren had me covered. I started off in the big blind with (10-9) 9, not a bad starting hand I think you’ll agree. Vicky limped and Warren made it £1.25 to play. The small blind called, I called and so did Vicky.
Why not three-bet with my premium hand I hear you muttering; I’m up against a LAG who could have anything and is nailed on to call, but part of the skill in a game where the majority of pots are split is to build a pot and try to trap players in the middle, especially when you have a hand like mine which was very much only going in one direction. A hand with two-way potential like 10-9-8 suited is obviously a much better candidate for three-betting.
On fourth street, Warren hit an 8 to go with his door-card 10, I hit a 9 (giving me three 9s and a 10 for 37, sweet) and Vicky hit a suited card. I led out three quarters of the pot, Vicky called and Warren called. On fifth, I bricked, Warren hit an A and Vicky bricked. With one pip more than me the action was now on Warren as first to bet which he duly did so, betting a tenner into a £17 pot. Both Vicky and I called. Vicky, by the way, was all in now and looked very much like she was playing for the flush – the pip count of her overlay being something like 7 or 8.
All three of us bricked on sixth street and now Warren bet £20, about half of the pot. Hmmm, I thought; for him to bet into me when it seems pretty obvious that I’m going pips too he must have at least another 10 in the hole, probably with an 8 or maybe even the case 9. Obviously, I’m never folding 37 when I can draw two cards.
I called and all three of us elected to change two of our up-cards. Warren threw away his ace and a picture card and hit the 2s and the 10s, showing 31 in his overlay. I hit a brick and a 6 showing a pip count of 25, but giving me a total of 43 (three 9s, a 10 and a 6). Vicky appeared to make no improvement when she hit what looked like two bricks.
Warren now bet £65, about two thirds of the pot – a meaningful and sizeable bet in this game. Argh, FML, what the hell has he got? Jeez, he seems so confident too. He’s showing 31 so he only has to have 13 in the hole to beat me. And it’s obvious that Vicky is declaring flush so her hand is basically irrelevant. He must have another 10 in the box. Maybe he’s got two 8s, that would have me beat. Or he started with 8-7 suited, which would also have me crushed. Wow, can I really fold my hand?
Then again, my overlay looks pretty unimpressive with just 25 showing and I’ve basically check-called most of this hand and Warren loves to pounce on weakness. Of course, having said that, he’s also fully aware that he is the action player in this school and being the player who usually has the betting initiative he is often trapped by bushwhackers slow-playing their big hands. Couple that with the fact that his nickname for me at this venue is “Rocky” (hmmm, wonder why he calls me that?), but here I am still in the hand; he knows for sure that I have a decent pip count so therefore he must have a monster. So…. I fold. Ugh, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Warren and Vicky now reveal which way they’re going. Vicky shows no chips in her hand indicating flush so no surprise there; let’s chop the pot up and get on with the next hand. Hold on, Warren hasn’t got a chip in his hand either – he’s going flush! WTF?! Sure enough, he turns his hole cards over to reveal As-Qs giving him a higher four-flush than Vicky and scoops the pot. OMG, I’m an idiot, half that pot was mine....
Not even for a second did I ever consider that Warren was flushing. He had such a “Mysteron” holding that I know I would have instantaneously dismissed the idea, but it was still a mistake not to think about that possibility. Also, the fact that his door-card, the card he elected to turn over at the beginning, was a 10 should have made me think there was a chance that he was flushing. Usually players keep the key cards in the hole in this game; for instance, with a starting hand of 7-10-10, most players would keep both tens in the hole.
I’m sure most of you have spotted the schoolboy error I referred to earlier on; that is, I was so busy thinking about the 31 Warren was showing on his overlay that I forgot you only use your best 5 cards, so therefore I should mentally discard the lowest card he had showing on his board. In this case it was a deuce, which meant that he would have had to have a total of 15 in the box to beat me. It’s only two pips more, but that’s definitely more of an ask and makes my total of 43 an obvious call.
The funny thing was that, earlier, Warren had been joking around saying that 43 was the “borderline” pip count – in fact, anytime you have 40 or more in this game you should just call or bet and go pips; if you’re beat, you’re beat, that’s poker, so the more I think about it the more I realise that I just completely levelled myself out of a totally standard call. I mean, I was only six pips off the nuts, what the f*ck was I waiting for?
For those of you who think that Pips and Flushes is some sort of Mickey Mouse variation, you are wrong, there is a lot of skill in the game, as much as No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. For a start, it’s Stud, so you have to keep track of the cards, which is not as easy as it sounds. The next sentence I type is actually going to make me feel physically ill: Warren played his hand really well. He had both his opponents flummoxed and he also put himself in a position where he could never really lose much if I did end up calling him on the end, regardless of whether he hit his draw or not. Let’s say I called and he completely bricked on the change; he still declares flush as it’s pretty obvious that I’m going pips and he gets his last two bets back.
What about if I fold (as I did) and he bricks? He simply declares pips as it’s also pretty clear that Vicky is going for the flush. If he hits two big pip cards, then I’m even more likely to fold the way the hand played out. Basically, he was on pretty much a freeroll where the worst scenario is what I just described above: me calling and him losing the main pot but splitting the side-pot with me for a small loss, but, in terms of the meta-game, a brilliant boost to his already crazy loose-goose image.
It’s the ‘replace’ element in this game that makes it so compelling (the changing two cards or none after sixth street) and we often play it Straights and Badugis, Flushes and Badugis (probably one of the sickest games on Earth) or straight High-Low (no Eight or Better qualifier). It can be played ‘cards speak’ too, but declaring is best if you want to experience the total head-fuck/mind-meld spaz out that only poker can invoke.
By the way, I know for a fact that Jon Shoreman has made up a plaque for Six-Card High-Low Replace for the £75/150 Mix game at the Vic. In the meantime, Warren is busy working up a proposal to get Pips and Flushes into the WSOP. I wouldn’t be surprised if he succeeded, so get playing, as there’s no doubt in my mind that a Pips and Flushes Six-Card Replace bracelet would enter the elite alongside the No Limit Deuce, $50K H.O.R.S.E. and $25K Heads-Up.