There are lots of traditional poker games - Texas hold’em, seven-card stud, and draw poker, to name just a few. Although there are important differences between traditional games, there are core rules that are common to them all. For example, they all use the same standard deck of cards, and classify hands as pairs, straights, full houses, and so on. Additionally, the betting rounds for every variety follow the same logic - players make their betting decisions sequentially around the table, with basic choices: check, bet, call, raise, and fold.
Likewise for Sports Poker. Every sport yields a different version of Sports Poker, so there are lots of different Sports Poker games. They differ from each other significantly since (for example) every sport uses a different deck of cards. Furthermore, every sport has its own tempo and rhythm, and the poker games follow them closely. However, all Sports Poker games have certain salient features in common.
In subsequent posts I will talk about the decks of cards associated with each sport, and other unique features of each variety, but this post is about the things all Sports Poker games have in common.
1. Find a live sporting event
Every Sports Poker game is connected to a live sporting event. Find a game on TV you want to watch, gather your friends, get out the right deck, and start playing. Players can sit around a poker table (as long as everyone has a good view of the TV) but since there are no “table positions” in Sports Poker (see item 6 below) players can sit on living room chairs and couches as they would normally.
Not all Sports Poker varieties are associated with single games on TV. For example, some are associated with tournaments. Since players can’t all be at the same place for an entire tournament, these varieties require a Sports Poker mobile app to play. But even in those cases the core rules are the same. More on this in future posts.
2. Rounds of Sports Poker
A round (or hand) of Sports Poker is the activity that starts when players ante, and ends when the pot is won, as in other poker games. Rounds of Sports Poker take place during things like drives in football, half innings in baseball, and sets in tennis. In other words, the rounds divide the sporting event into pieces, and there is one hand played per round. Every Sports Poker variety divides the game into rounds in its own way. The cards in a given deck correspond to things that may or may not happen during the rounds. More on that in future posts.
Within a round of Sports Poker there are betting rounds, as in traditional poker. However, in Sports Poker the betting rounds are player-initiated, as described in item 5 below. In some varieties of Sports Poker, rounds last just a few minutes (“fast” games), while in other varieties they can last all day or longer (“slow” games). Fast or slow, the core rules are the same.
3. Ante and Get Your Hand
In Sports Poker games, players ante and then are dealt (or sometimes choose) the hands they will play. Every variety of Sports Poker has its own kind of hand. Many varieties of Sports Poker have hands that are dealt from a deck of cards, as in traditional poker. Those decks are specific to the sport you are watching, and can be quite different from each other and from a standard deck of cards.
Hands in Sports Poker are not like the hands in traditional poker games. There are no straights or full houses. Some Sports Poker varieties have hands that do not involve cards at all! In some varieties you can choose your own hands! Hands chosen by the players themselves, are called Fantasy Hands. But (again!) no matter where the hands come from, the core rules of the game are the same. More on “cardless” hands and Fantasy Hands in future posts.
4. The value of your hand
The value of your hand cannot be known with certainty when a round of Sports Poker begins since it depends on what happens during part of a live sporting event, like a football drive, or baseball inning. As the round plays out over time, the value of your hand gradually comes into focus, and when the round terminates (the end of the drive or inning), the value of every hand can be determined with certainty. A hand that seems good at the beginning of a round (a strong hand) can lose value depending on what happens on the TV, and conversely a weak hand can gradually (or suddenly) gain strength. Accurately estimating and re-estimating the strength of your hand as the round progresses is crucial to skillful play.
The way the value of a hand is determined differs from version to version, since they use different decks of cards. But how to score a hand is always obvious from the game context. The details for each of our currently available games will appear in subsequent posts.
5. Betting rounds
Once a round of Sports Poker begins, any player can bet at any time, thereby initiating a betting round, unless:
- a betting round is already in progress,
- the player is no longer in the round, i.e., the player has already folded, or
- the player initiated the previous betting round, and the waiting period has not yet passed.
Only exception (c) needs to be explained. The waiting period prevents a certain kind of “sandbagging”. (More on this in a future post.) The length of the waiting period can be (and often is) set to zero (no waiting time), but in general it is simply an agreed-upon house rule. Of course, if another player starts a new betting round during your waiting period (for example, if they raise your bet) then you are free to bet again any time after that.
A player typically starts a betting round when the activity on the field suddenly makes his/her hand more likely to win; but a player can also bet with the idea of bluffing the other players, or for any other reason. Since players initiate the betting rounds, there is no set number of betting rounds in a round of Sports Poker.
6. Call/Raise/Fold rules
When a player bets, it initiates a betting round, and the countdown clock starts ticking down. The time on the countdown clock is “house rules”. (We suggest 15-30 seconds for our current versions.) Remaining players must call the bet before the clock hits zero or they have automatically folded.
This means players make their call/fold decisions at the same time, not sequentially! There are no “table positions” in Sports Poker games. This is different from traditional poker, but it’s actually easier!
To raise a bet, you first call the bet, and then start a new betting round after the clock ticks down. The new bet is the raise. This is not exactly like raising in traditional poker (where the call and raise are simultaneous). This change is needed because of the structure of the betting rounds. It’s easy to get used to! Also, it gives you the option to wait a bit before raising a bet.
Betting rounds in Sports Poker obviously won’t take nearly as in traditional poker games. No matter how many players are still in, a betting round cannot take longer than the time on the clock. This is what you want for Sports Poker since there is a live game going on. You will not miss table positions and sequential decisions once you see how to play poker without them!
The countdown clock serves another important purpose. There is an obvious incentive to wait for your opponents to make their decisions before you make yours. This is why late position is advantageous in traditional poker games. In Sports Poker, players should decide what to do while the clock is ticking down, and then push some chips towards the pot at the very end if they want to call. Nobody has an edge! If you want to fold, you don’t have to do anything, since you automatically fold if you don’t call.
In friendly games, if players can agree to make their decisions without always trying to be last, then no clock is needed. But using a clock is easy. Use an old fashioned “egg timer” or use the timer on our Tracker App, or any other timer app.
7. Showdown
When the round terminates (end of the drive, inning, etc.) the values of the hands are no longer in doubt. There is one more round of betting (“last call”) if any player wants to bet, then there is a showdown. The remaining players show their hands, and the player with the best hand wins the pot. As with traditional poker, if at some point during the round only one player remains (all the others folded), then that player wins the pot right there, and there is no showdown.
8. House Rules
Some Sports Poker rules are flexible, and the choices can be considered house rules; for example,
1) the size of the ante, and the betting limits,
2) the time on the countdown clock,
3) the length of the waiting period for re-betting,
4) additional restrictions, beyond (a), (b), (c) in item 4, on when betting is allowed.
With these basics you are ready to play any Sports Poker game! Once you understand the cards in the deck you’re using, you’re good to go. That’s what the next batch of posts will be about.