Introducing: Laredo

At last year's WSOP Ante Up Meetup at Binion's, a dealer introduced us to the game of Juarez, which is played like Omaha 8, but with these differences: Each player gets five cards, there are two flops and two turns (as in Double Flop), then a common river for both boards. The best high and best low split the pot, and you must use two of your five cards (you can use different two-card hands to make your high and low). Ever since this was introduced into the home game, I have been calling it Laredo for some reason. Laredo and Juarez are both on the U.S.-Mexico border, but on different sides and 700 miles apart.

So, here's the game of Laredo, just invented, so I can stop calling things by wrong names. It is another Omaha 8 variant. Each player gets three cards. Round of betting. Two flops, round of betting, then all players discard one card. Two turns, betting, then the shared river as in Juarez, and a last round of betting. Best high and low split the pot, but you can use one or both cards to make your hand (but not zero). This is LAREDO. Is it a workable game or just a silly novelty?

MIKE

Comments

[Snuffy]

Pass

[Lee]

Pass

[Chris Cosenza]

Um, what they said.

[Chi-Guy]

I like it! We do this all of the time with games and it is fun and the pots are huge to start until people figure them out.

Knowing the way we have done things, I don't think we would have discarded at the end but other than that, it sounds perfect.

Brian

[Erwin Blonk]

I'm in.

btw isn't Juarez just double flop Courchevel/8?

[gadzooks64]

OMG I have a headache.

Pass.

[Godard]

Looks like double-flop crazy pineapple to me.

[theron74]

let's throw in some wild cards why we're at it! I am constantly trying to convince people that Poker is a game of skill, this more like those crazy college versions of poker that require more luck than anything else. I say pass, as I can't see skill being a factor in this game.

Theron

[bitguru]

I'm not sure I understand your description of Juarez. Is it a four-way split-pot game? Or could it be that the best high hand is on the top board, the best low hand is on the top board, and nobody uses the bottom board?

[Zerkaboid]

I'd get kicked out if I tried to introduce this to my home game, which is mostly Hold 'Em, with the craziest game being Follow the Queen. But it sounds, interesting.

[Gambit]

Here's a crazy idea; pot limit omaha

[Erwin Blonk]

Gambit, are you nuts? It's the crazy game of poker.

Laredo is beyond split pot games, though. I'd call it a split personality game. Which suits me fine.

Ask for if it still has any skill, I think it does. But because there is so much going on, people tend to lose track of the hand, decisions become less informed which in practice makes it come close to, say, prop betting.
That would be the same if you let 9 people with no concept of strategy sit down together at a holdem game: instant roulette.

[aces88ss]

If you added low spade in the hole gets to steal a card from the player to his left, I would be in.

Actually, I have a home game with lots of drinking, smoking, cussing and occasionally spitting (rarely at people...maybe at our average age it would be called drooling). This game will be introduced next Tuesday night. Currently, our favorite pot building game is 7-27, only the red cards count, Black cards are zeros. so this game would fit right in

Mike, any strategy tips? what are the top ten starting hands?

[Erik Hahmann]

Pass

[Mike F.]

Bitguru, in Juarez the best high and low split the pot, not the best on each board. If the same board is used for both, that's fine.

In Laredo, I think A2X with a suited ace would be the basis for your best starting hands. To it you could add: an ace, an offsuit wheel card, a deuce, or an offsuit Broadway card. Three wheel cards might work, or three Broadway cards, especially with a suited ace. Big pairs with an ace kicker, especially with the ace suited, could be playable. Small pair small kicker might look attractive but is probably asking for trouble. Juarez is pretty much nuts at showdown; this game would bring the hand values down some from that. Still, I would avoid the middle of deck and middle pairs.

[Chi-Guy]

Mike and others,

Strategy-wise, I think you are right. Because nobody will have any clue how to play, they will play too many hands. It is like sitting down at an Omaha table with a bunch of crappy players.

You basically need the nuts. Adding new games like this is all about A23, A2K, etc. Like any game, if you don't know how to play, just play super tight and you'll do better. This is especially true when everyone else who doesn't know how to play will gamble too much.

The second key is to find out who is the overbettor so that when the hand is complete, you hope that person is on your left so you check, that person bets, you get 5 callers, then you raise with the nut flush or Kings full, and let everyone call another bet.

Brian

[aka_BigAl]

Mike,
we developed Christmas in Pittsburgh. Hold'em with 3 cards dealt. Discard 1 after the flop. Then three cards on the river but you can only use one in your hand.

[Jon]

Laredo is double flop crazy pineapple.

[Jon]

and these games are much more fun/skillful short handed and heads-up. In my experience they tend to become nit-fests anywhere close to full-ring.

Also, Juarez is much better PL than limit.