Wrinkle from our home game: You must beat "Chuck" to win the pot (15 Viewers)

[Dunc]

A long time ago in an old home game with close friends we'd play a degen variation of Guts with a ghost hand we called 44 Guts.

Everyone playing puts in an ante(usually 2bb for whatever blinds are in hold 'em that night).
Everyone is dealt 4 cards, ghost gets dealt 5 cards, 4s are wild.
Everyone looks at their hand, then grabs a chip and holds their hand out, dealer counts down "3-2-1-drop". Anyone who thinks their hand is good drops the chip at the end of the countdown and shows their 4 cards.
If more than 1 human drops a chip, then the best human hand wins the pot and each loser has to match the pot; leading to the pot becoming multiplied when multiple humans drop their chip.
All cards dealt to humans are gathered, shuffled, and redealt for another round while the ghost keeps their original 5 dealt cards.
If only 1 human drops, then they have to beat the ghost's 5 cards to win the pot. If they lose they match the pot and the next round the ghost would get a new hand with everyone else. We also would reveal each of the ghost's cards for dramatic effect as described above by others lol.
Game ends win someone beats the ghost hand.

We'd play a more tamed variation with no wilds where humans get 2 cards and ghost gets 3 cards, but 44 Guts was a long time favorite with some very memorable nights/pots.

 

[Labrat]

I'll never forget playing Guts in college in the 80s. The pot got so high kids were writing blank checks to the pot.

Acey-ducey was even worse.

 

[ChipTalker]

I am toying with this idea in the spirit of Halloween week and need some degen feedback,.
First off my game has an optional High Hand. So for instance if the HH entry was 10 dollars then whomever wants to participate can do so and the highest hand (full house or better) at midnight gets the money. Since 1 time per round we play a circus game we only post HHs on the holdem games and if you run it multiple times you can only post on the 1st run.

So my Idea this week is to skip our once per round circus games until HH is over at midnight and have a ghost on every holdem hand.
Would go something like this.

HH mandatory entry so level playing field.

Ghost hand on all Holdem games and will be all holdem until midnight.

This just round numbers for example and scale up or down to your stakes.
Ghost can only win max 50% of the pot up to $100 whichever is less.
Example 1: $100 in pot u go all in on combo draw and whiff so ghost wins.
You pull your non called bet back as usual and ghost gets $50 and you get $50
Example 2: $300 in pot u go all in on combo draw and whiff so ghost wins.
You pull your non called bet back as usual and ghost gets $100 and you get $200

The 50% and max amount rules are specifically designed to not take bluffing out of the equation. If they did not exists the pain would be too harsh and why ever bluff when the ghost may beat you but with them you are guaranteed to at least break even but most of the time make money even on a bluff especially if started multiway.

Ghost winnings go towards HH and total will be unknown until counted at end of night.

Again this part made up and adjust to your stakes
If HH pot is < 400 then 1 winner
> 400 but < 600 2 winners 60/40
> 600 3 winners 50/30/20

The same person can win multiple HHs so if you post the best HH and the 3rd best HH and the ghost pot is 700 then you win 350 1st and 140 3rd, if you run hot you run hot.

Starts at 8PM and If you are later than 9:30pm you are not eligible for 1st place but still can win other places unless you pay double entry of $20 instead of $10. It is your penalty for not contributing to ghost pots that first 90 min.


This could be the stupidest thing ever and not sure I am really doing it and still tweaking rules but putting it out there for feedback.
OK roast away.

 

[snooptodd]

Definitely worth giving it a shot, in my opinion. Though I would say it changes the nature of the game. Part of the value of Chuck is that it goes in the next pot creating an overlay. If there’s already $50 in the pot, there’s so much added value in playing the next hand. This just creates value for making high ranking hands, which a player doesn’t have much control over.

 

[Sparkynutz]

A long time ago in an old home game with close friends we'd play a degen variation of Guts with a ghost hand we called 44 Guts.

Everyone playing puts in an ante(usually 2bb for whatever blinds are in hold 'em that night).
Everyone is dealt 4 cards, ghost gets dealt 5 cards, 4s are wild.
Everyone looks at their hand, then grabs a chip and holds their hand out, dealer counts down "3-2-1-drop". Anyone who thinks their hand is good drops the chip at the end of the countdown and shows their 4 cards.
If more than 1 human drops a chip, then the best human hand wins the pot and each loser has to match the pot; leading to the pot becoming multiplied when multiple humans drop their chip.
All cards dealt to humans are gathered, shuffled, and redealt for another round while the ghost keeps their original 5 dealt cards.
If only 1 human drops, then they have to beat the ghost's 5 cards to win the pot. If they lose they match the pot and the next round the ghost would get a new hand with everyone else. We also would reveal each of the ghost's cards for dramatic effect as described above by others lol.
Game ends win someone beats the ghost hand.

We'd play a more tamed variation with no wilds where humans get 2 cards and ghost gets 3 cards, but 44 Guts was a long time favorite with some very memorable nights/pots.

This is exactly what I've played, just wasn't named and extra hand didn't have a name. Seeing this thread makes me wanna play this again and variants of it.

 

[bergs]

Aaron needs to play clips of Barkley going “awwwww that’s turrrble” whenever Chuck wins a hand. A Charles Barkley soundboard would be amazing.

 

[snooptodd]

Aaron needs to play clips of Barkley going “awwwww that’s turrrble” whenever Chuck wins a hand. A Charles Barkley soundboard would be amazing.

Onhhhh … that’s definitely getting added to the next game. Incredible idea.

 

[GeeOhVee]

We used to do this with specific games when we played dealer's choice, and it was beat the ghost hand to win the pot/end the game.