Magic Hold 'em

[jcb193]

I was driving down the road today thinking about how many players have left Magic to play Texas Hold 'Em.  Since Magic was originally based on gambling (ante), i was thinking about whether the two could be combined into a captivating game.  I haven't heard about anyone doing this before, so i'll glady take interim credit for the format, but if someone else has tried this, please let me know how it turned out. 

A possible way to play the game:

1.) 
Each players start their games with an ante ($1 for instance).
Draw their cards (opportunity to raise the bet)
Play their game with opportunities to raise the bet:
a.) before every turn
b.) every 3-5 turns
c.) in response to anything

One of the problems i run into is how to handle calls or reraises and such.  I figure it can go one of two ways:
1.) Any player can try to raise the pot, but the other player is not obligated to allow the raise
2.) Players can raise at anytime (assuming that they would only raise or try to buy the pot if they were going to win anyway)

I think this format might be kind of interesting once all the rules are fleshed out, as you could bluff the game (example: you are holding an illusions of grandeur and donate in your hand, but your opponent thinks you are going to lose).  You could re-raise your opponent after bluffing you have no hand.  Or you can pretend you have a monster hand and cause your opponent to play carelessly or nervously.

I don't know, just a random thought about something new to try.  Especially in certain matchups (control-control, where the game can go back and forth many times). 

Let me know if you have any success trying this!

Joshua Brooks

Edit: I meant playing an actual Magic duel, but incorporating the elements of Texas Hold Em.  Example:

Both players draw 7 cards:

Player 1: Play Jackal Pup
Player1; "I raise you $.10."
Player2: "Call"
Player2: Play Black Lotus, Lightning Bolt the Jackal Pup and play two Jackal Pups
player2 "Raise $.25"
player1: "re-raise $.50"
player2: call
Player 1: bolts both jackal pups (and prepares to play Bll lightning next turn)

etc, etc....You get the point....are games of magic swingy enough for this format, or not?

[Jacob Orlove]

Oh man, that would be sweet, because you could totally abuse that mechanism to bluff your opponents, like bidding huge amounts after a draw-7, because if your hand is good, you'd bid high and then win, but if your hand is bad, you'd bid high to try to get them to scoop.

Incidentally, I've seen hold-em played with magic cards. Just use color as suit, and converted mana cost as the value (land is zero). So, Mana Drain is a "Two of Blue", as is Time Walk. If you play with someone's deck, the hands will probably be pretty good on average, but with regular cards they're usually really bad.

[Nefarias]

It is really cool and very strategic, but calling it Hold-Em is a bit misleading. Virtually every gambling card game features betting at regular intervals, and that's the only thing you're adding to the game. If you could find some way to add community cards, that'd me awesome, though it would likely make it stray significantly from regular Magic. (Just off the top of my head, one way to it would be to require a third deck containing stuff like lands and enchantments that each player could use and were "flopped" at certain intervals.)