Notes from the table · 2026, ongoing
Notes from a
long-running
home poker game.
A working journal for the games we play on Tuesdays — rules
written down properly, strategy worked out empirically, and one
featured variant studied at depth.
The games here are dealer's-choice country: variants invented or
inherited around kitchen tables, played long enough to develop
house rules and folk strategy, and never (to our knowledge) studied
formally. We are documenting them as both a reference for the
players who already know them and a research artefact for the
curious.
The featured variant — 7s, 8s, and 9s,
a.k.a. the Passing Game — is the most analytically rich game
in our rotation, and it is the one we have built a simulator
around. The other variants below are documented or in preparation;
we will return to them.
Featured
001
7s, 8s, and 9s — The Passing Game
A hi-lo split game in which twelve native wild cards, two distinct
classes of composite wild cards, four scripted card-passing rounds, and
a simultaneous chips-in-fist declaration phase combine to produce one
of the most strategically demanding home-poker formats we know of.
Played in two forms — a single-street classic and a six-round
progressive-reveal "proper" variant. Five of a Kind is the routine
winning hand; the perfect low is universally called a six-four.
6–7 players · $5 buy-in · four passes + six reveal rounds · scoop or bust
Read the work ›
Other games in rotation
These are real games we play. The rules pages are being written
from memory and table notes; we'll add them here as they're
confirmed.
002
Chai Nullification
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
003
The Obverse
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
004
Centripetal Bumble Bippy
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
005
Himp the Minkey
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
006
Eights then Deuces
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
007
Before the Jack, After the Queen
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
008
Low Card in the Hole
Plus the modifiers: and Deuces, or Chicago,
or High only. Each played as its own form.
In preparation
Stub ›
009
Classique
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
010
Hetero Baseball
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
011
Gay Baseball
Rules under transcription.
In preparation
Stub ›
— and more, not yet listed.
About this project
Tuesday Night Poker is a small research project from
Unsubscribe LLC,
interested in card games at the intersection of folk transmission
and formal study. Each variant is documented twice: first as a set
of rules that a group could actually sit down and use, and second
— when the rules are mature enough — as a research
artefact, including simulator code and a findings page with
empirical results from many simulated hands.
See About for our methodology and what
counts as a finding.