To recap the last post - there are lots of “traditional” poker games, and they are all members of a larger class of betting games, called “vying games”. Until I learned that term I used to call them “poker-like” games, which I still like to use. These games retain the salient features of poker that we love, but are less constrained. A hand can be basically anything in a vying game, as long as you can always tell which one is best in a showdown. Sports Poker has great examples of hands that have nothing to do with cards.
Let’s start with an example of a Sports Poker game that is based on Daily Fantasy Football Contests. We call the game “Draft Poker”. Warning: it takes a whole day (or more) to play a Hand of Draft Poker! That might seems strange, but it’s still a great example to start with. I think you will see why in a minute. Most Sports Poker varieties have Hands that don’t last nearly that long! I’ll get to them soon.
So we all have the same picture in our heads, let’s suppose the Daily Fantasy Football Contest is for the Sunday games. On Sunday morning before the games start, you and (say) five or ten other players (your opponents at a “table”) ante, and then draft a fantasy team as you would at Fan Duel or Draft Kings (with a salary cap, etc.). That will be your hand!! The team you draft is the hand you play, so obviously you keep it secret from the other players.
Wait, what? Your fantasy team is your hand? Yes! And that’s not the strangest part. You chose your fantasy team yourself. It wasn’t “dealt” to you. Players choose their own hands in Draft Poker! What?!!! How can you possibly pick your own hand in a poker game? Can you imagine what would happen in a traditional poker game if players could pick their own hands? I will explain all this in the next post. For now, just note that there is something strange and different about Sports Poker.
So, what does it mean to play poker with your fantasy team? In Sports Poker games, players can bet whenever they want. There is no “script” for the betting rounds as there is for every traditional poker game, e.g., pre-flop, flop, turn, and river in Texas Hold’em. As you probably guessed, if your team (your hand) is doing well you might want to bet. Perhaps right after one of your players makes a big play. This way you can try to get more chips in the pot. Of course, when someone bets it could be a bluff. (Sports Poker is a vying game, after all!) Maybe their team is actually doing terribly, and they’re hoping you fold.
When a player bets, it starts a betting round. In Sports Poker games, players independently and simultaneously decide if they want to call the bet or not. Again, this is not traditional poker! The decisions are not made sequentially, they are made concurrently. A lot of poker players are initially surprised by this rule. I want to put that discussion off for a little while. For now, I’ll just say that there are some very good reasons for that rule. Also, it’s very easy to get used to. You don’t have to worry about table positions, so it’s easier than traditional poker in that sense.
Here’s how betting rounds work in Sports Poker games. When someone bets, the dealer starts the “countdown clock”. Depending on the variety of Sports Poker, the countdown clock could have just a few seconds on it, or it could have several minutes, or more. Draft Poker is a leisurely game since it goes on all day, so the countdown clock might have 15 minutes on it. Anyway, you need to call the bet before the clock ticks down or you automatically fold. If you want to raise a bet, you first call, and then when the clock ticks down you make a bet to start a new betting round. Your new bet is the raise. Not the same as traditional poker, but there are very good reasons for doing it that way, and it’s very easy to get used to.
Like I said, Draft Poker is a leisurely game. How would you actually play? You would probably use a phone app to play Draft Poker. (This app does not exist yet!) The app allows you to ante and draft your team in the morning, and will take care of all the betting rounds. If you want to bet, there’s a BET button. When someone else bets, your phone beeps to let you know, and a clock on your screen starts ticking down. To call, you hit the CALL button. 15 minutes to decide is plenty of time! You can check out how your team is doing, check out other stats, go get coffee, and then decide if you want to call the bet. If you do nothing, you automatically fold. Easy! When you play Draft Poker you obviously don’t want to be sitting around a table all day! You need to have your phone on you wherever you are, and you need to be following the football games enough so you know when to bet and what to do if someone else bets.
When the last Sunday game is done, the scores for each fantasy team (the values of the hands) can be determined with certainty. Some of the original players may have folded at some point during the day, but the remaining players have a showdown, and the winner (team with most fantasy points) gets the pot! The pot will be the sum of the antes and the wagers from the betting rounds. Since players initiate betting rounds, not rigid rules, the number of betting rounds is different every time. Since you are playing against five or ten opponents (not thousands as in some Daily Fantasy Sports contests), you don’t need a perfect team to win!
You hopefully have a good idea of how Draft Poker works now! I didn’t give all the details, but that’s basically it. I will describe some other Sports Poker varieties next. As I said, most varieties are much faster than Draft Poker, and some varieties do use “cards”. But every variety has the same core rules for betting rounds, as they were described here.