World Tavern Poker invites our Tournament Directors to run Special Events during Weeks 6 and 18 in the regular season as a way to spice things up at your venues.
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TD's are asked to involve their players (hold a vote!) when choosing one of the five WTP-approved options on this page. Running one of these Special Events during Weeks 6 or 18 is optional, but we highly recommend it!
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Players register for Special Event Week games just as they would any other week during the regular season.
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SPECIAL NOTE: In the past, some TD's have run their own "special event" game variants during non-Special Event weeks. TD's are asked not to run any non-listed 'special event' and are also asked not to run these events during any other week.
Running an unsanctioned event at any time can result in a warning or suspension!
CRAZY PINEAPPLE
Get 3 hole cards instead of 2!
Just as in regular No Limit Texas Hold'em, the two players to the left of the dealer post blinds. The dealer begins dealing the cards. Instead of giving each player 2 hole cards, the dealer gives each player 3 hole cards!
After the 3 hole cards are dealt, a round of betting takes place just as it would normally. After the betting is complete, the flop is dealt (one card down, three cards up).
Another round of betting takes place. Once this round of betting is finished, all players still in the hand choose one of their 3 hole cards to discard. Now all remaining players have 2 hole cards left, just as they would normally.
From here (the turn and river), the game is identical to No Limit Texas Hold'em. Once the hand is done, the process repeats for every remaining hand in the tournament.
NO LIMP POKER
You must raise pre-flop!
One of the more interesting games that is increasing in popularity at our Regional Championships is the No Limp Poker tournament. In this game, players can only come into the pot for a 3x raise preflop - no limping allowed!
The play begins as normal - except games should start with a base stack of 15,000 for this game (not including bonus chips!). The player first to act after the cards are dealt has two decisions: they can either enter the pot with a minimum bet of at least 3 times the big blind, or fold their cards.
Once the initial 3 times the big blind raise has been made pre-flop, others yet to act can call, raise, or fold.
ONLY EXCEPTION: Pre-flop, if everyone folds to the players in the blinds, the small blind can make a call and the big blind can check. This is the ONLY exception to the no limping rule!
After pre-flop betting is complete, the flop is revealed and it's normal No Limit Texas Hold'em from there.
WINNER GETS THE DEAL
Win a hand? Win the pot, AND the deal!
The game starts as it normally would. A player aces up for the deal at the start of the tournament, and that player begins the game. The small blind is the first person to the left of the dealer, while the big blind is to the left of the small blind.
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Here's where it gets interesting! The person that wins the hand becomes the dealer for the next hand. The blinds always follow the two people left of the deal.
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Yes - that means if a player wins two or more hands in a row, the blinds do not move! The player to the right of the dealer shuffles, and if the same person wins more than twice, you can feel free to pass the shuffle to the next player on your right.
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Everything else is normal No Limit Texas Hold'em. If a pot is split, meaning more than one person won the hand, the deal simply moves to the left like a regular game.
ALL IN OR FOLD
You have one decision: all-in, or fold?
Made popular at our OPEN and WLPC national events, All In Or Fold is literally one decision: are you all-in, or do you fold?
All players start with 3,000 chips and blinds are 100/200 for the first 30 minutes. Two cards are dealt to each player, and the first player to act, and all subsequent players, can only go all-in or fold their hand when it's their turn.
After all players have acted, anyone who is all in reveals their cards. The dealer deals the flop, turn, and river, and the player with the best hand wins (chopped/split pots are handled just like they normally would be).
After the 30-minute opening blind period, the TD will start a chip-up break. Afterward, blinds are 500/1000 and continue at 10-minute increments per the normal WTP structure. This continues until a winner emerges.
RECOMMENDATION: Run this as the 2nd game with Deep Stack as the first game on Special Event Week, since All In Or Fold will likely end well before a normal game.
DEEP-STACKED POKER
Double your starting stack!
Deep-Stacked tournaments are popular among players because you get to start the event with more chips! We recommend starting with double your normal complement of chips for Deep-Stacked events.
You can run blinds as you normally would, or run them a bit shorter to make sure the games fit to your bar's schedule. Some bars may even run longer than usual blinds!
During Special Events Week, we recommend that bars running Deep-Stacked tournaments run their 2nd game of the day or night as a Turbo or All in or Fold event. This will ensure that these events generally run as long as they would on a normal night.
All other game play and scoring is precisely the same as it would be for a normal tournament.
OMAHA
Make the best poker hand with 4 hole cards!
Perhaps the most enjoyable (and most lively) hold'em variant is Omaha, a Special Event Week option players have been wanting to see return for a long time.
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WTP highly recommends that someone at your bar with experience playing this game instructs the TD or players on how to approach this game. Omaha can take a while to get used to, especially when dealing 4 hole cards to each player!
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Action begins as a normal no-limit hold'em game. The small and big blinds post, and the dealer begins to deal. Each player, however, receives 4 cards instead of the usual 2. Once the deal is complete, betting takes place just like a regular game.
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Once preflop betting completes, a card is burned, and three cards are flipped up just like a regular game. Everything from here until the completion of the hand is the same as a regular game (post-flop betting, turn, betting, river, betting, showdown) - EXCEPT - you MUST use two of your hole cards to make the best 5-card hand possible.
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Yes, Omaha forces you to use 2 hole cards and 3 'community cards'. You cannot use 1 hole card, and you cannot use 3 or 4 hole cards. You also cannot "play the board" - 2 cards in your hand are always used to make the best 5-card hand possible.
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Hand strength varies in Omaha from our regular game as well. Some players may think getting 3 or 4 aces in their hand is a good thing - it's not! That means the odds of pairing that card on the board are slim or none.
In addition, if you hold the ace of spades and three other non-spades, for example, and there are four spades on the board, you do not actually have a flush! Remember, you have to use two hole cards and three community cards to make the best hand possible.
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Pairs and face-card suited connectors are generally considered to be the most desirable cards to have in your starting 4-card hand. Just do a quick 'Google' search for Omaha to find more tips about this game.
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RECOMMENDATION: As Omaha can take longer to play and may have more misdeal potential since players are always dealt 4 cards in a hand, we recommend running Omaha as the first game of the night during Special Event Week. You can run a turbo for your second game if the first one runs long as well.
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RECOMMENDATION #2: TD's, do not choose this Special Event Week option until you have asked your players first. If they choose this option, great! However, for those unfamiliar with this game, it can be confusing. Please involve your players in all Special Event Week decisions!