Submitted by Mike on 2005-04-12

Rules

1. Each player antes.
2. Each player is dealt 5 cards face down.
3. One single round of betting occurs. Players can fold, call or raise.
4. Showdown. The highest hand wins.

This is the simplest form of poker there is.

All cards are dealt face down.
No discarding and replacing cards allowed.
Only one single round of betting is done.

This is a game of pure psychology.
The skill and intrigue in the game lies soley in the betting.
"Should I raise? Should I fold? Should I bluff?"

I know what some of you are thinking:
"Jeeeze...how boring can you get?"

Well, if it's so boring then, YOU try to master it.
Besides, NO game is boring if there is some skill in it and you are playing for money!

In fact, you don't even need cards to play a game like this.
For example, you can give each player a random number between 0 and 999 that they keep secret. They each bet that they have the highest number value. Then the numbers are shown and compared and the player with the highest number wins.(In fact, you can give each player a single dice they role underneath a cup and they can compare those values. Instead of using 0-999 your using only numbers 1-6.)

A ridiculously stupid and simple game...or is it?
Try to come up with a flawless unbeatable betting strategy based only on guessing if you have a higher numeric value then your opponent(s).

I believe a game like this has some mathematical merit.
It's a problem that is easy to state but hard to solve.
It can represent critical business and negotiation problems and decision making delemnas that happen in real life.

A fundamental concept that has some history in it.

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