Paul called a new game tonight: Super Criss-Cross Roll ’em. (He said that he came up with the name of the game first, then came up with the rules.) It plays similarly to regular Criss-Cross Roll ’em, but instead of five community cards there are nine community cards. Players can use any three community cards lined up horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, sort of like tic-tac-toe:
As with regular Criss-Cross Roll ’em, the center card is wild and all like it. However, if a player uses one of the tic-tac-toe lines that does not go through the center card, he has NO wild cards. (e.g., if the center card is a 4, and a player is using the bottom horizontal line for his three community cards, 4s are NOT wild for him.)
Players receive four hole cards. The first betting round occurs before any community cards have been revealed. Following that, the four corner community cards are all revealed at once, and there’s another betting round. Then the four middle outside community cards are all revealed at once, followed by a betting round. Finally, the center card is revealed, followed by a betting round.
Play continues just as in regular Criss-Cross Roll ’em. Remaining players set up their hole cards the way they want to reveal them and turn them over one at a time, with a betting round in between each reveal. The game is hi-lo declare; declaration occurs before the players’ final hole cards are revealed. Players make their hands using any combination of their four hole cards and three community cards along a tic-tac-toe line.
The results were a bit surprising in the round we played. Only one wheel card was revealed as a community card (a 3). Even so, both Mike and Glen ended up with the wheel to split for low. Phil won high with a measly full house.
An 8 had been revealed as the center wild card. No other 8 was within the community cards, and no player had an 8 as a hole card!
Mike had a rough night, dropping $101.00. Time and again he’d start with a great low hand in Omaha Hi-Lo (e.g., A-2-2-4 with the ace suited) and raise pre-flop only to see no low materialize.
Buck ’em didn’t help Mike either. During one round, when playing three cards out of five, Mike declared low immediately after Phil had declared high. Mike then realized that he should have checked Phil off for high (Mike had an ace and the joker) in hopes of winning a pot-sized payoff from Phil. Instead, because Mike declared low, no money was exchanged, no legs were earned, and play continued. (Phil ended up winning the game.)
| Mark D | +$8.00 |
| Paul | +$28.00 |
| Phil | +$64.00 |
| Bill | +$18.00 |
| Lyndon | +$6.00 |
| Mike S | ‑$101.00 |
| Glen | ‑$25.00 |
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