In a previous post I described Draft Poker, which is a Sports Poker variety based on Daily Fantasy Sports Contests. Draft Poker is a nice example because it illustrates a few of the ways Sports Poker can be very different from traditional poker, while also highlighting the similarities. Now I will describe Football Poker, which is the version of Sports Poker we have the most experience with. The description here will be brief – just enough to contrast it with Draft Poker and to explain the basic Sports Poker betting rules one more time. We have lots more written on Football Poker here.
Football Poker uses a special deck of cards (available at SportsPoker.com) and hands of 5 cards are dealt randomly from the deck, so in that sense Football Poker is much closer to what poker players are used to than Draft Poker. The time it takes to play a Hand of Football Poker(the length of a drive) is also much more like what poker players are used to than for Draft Poker (which literally takes all day!). But as you will see, the basic rules of Football Poker and Draft Poker are the same.
Football Poker is played during a live football game that the players at a “table” are watching together. The players can be sitting around a physical table (as long as they can all see the game), but it’s also usually okay if players sit on living room chairs and couches. There are no table positions, so it doesn’t matter where you are. The Football Poker experience is watching a game with your friends, with poker going on at the same time. Theoretically, players at a table could be geographically dispersed. But for now, players need to be together watching the same TV, due to latency issues. Latency issues will be a topic for later. For now, to play Football Poker you watch the game on TV with your friends like would anyway, and play Football Poker (for money!) instead of just trash talking, or whatever you usually do while you watch.
There is a Hand of Football Poker for every drive in the game. A typical football game has 20-25 drives, so (unlike Draft Poker, where a Hand takes all day) a length of a Hand in Football Poker is measured in minutes. This is much closer to what traditional poker players are used to.
But in other respects, Football Poker is like Draft Poker and all other Sports Poker varieties. Before each drive begins (e.g., during the commercial break) the players ante and are dealt 5 cards from the deck. Take a look at the Football Poker (drive) deck. Each card has a value, which depends on what happens during the drive. The value of your hand is the sum of the values of the 5 cards. Of course, you can’t know for sure how good your hand is until the drive is done, but football fans can tell (with varying degrees of skill) what is likely to happen in the drive as it unfolds, and therefore gauge how good their hand is. This is very much like a Texas Hold’em player gauging his hand based on his hole cards, and then again after the communal cards (flop, turn, river) are seen. Players can draw up to three cards during the drive, so Football Poker is superficially like Draw Poker.
Aside from the special deck used in Football Poker, the biggest difference between Football Poker and traditional poker is the way betting rounds work. They are exactly like the betting rounds in Draft Poker, except the countdown clock has much less time since it’s a much faster game. We currently recommend 30 seconds on the countdown clock. So, when a player bets the dealer starts the countdown clock, and the remaining players need to call the bet before it ticks down or they automatically fold.
Everything you need to know about Football Poker is in the primer, so I won’t repeat it here. We have considerable experience with Football Poker now, as we have been playing in both the home and sports bar environments, and there is a demo app that works (but only for one table at a time) so the online experience is available too. If you are interested in playing, let me know and we will figure out how to make it happen!