Bwild: Fencer is still working on which rules he will implement, I addressed that exact situation to him and at that time his answer is "kicker is always in the blind" but he is thinking about final version and monitoring this board for suggestions.
when it doesnt give me my half of the pot because it doesnt split properly..will refresh help that?
the best 5 cards makes the hand....this means that if 2 or more players have the same pair..but their kicker is lower than the board...its a split pot.
Just a note to everyone, if you are having troubles with the tables stopping from playing (or freezing up), you can hit refresh on your browser or F5 to reset the table.
Remember that this is still in testing mode and things are still being tweeked
I just found out one another "bug". If you have less chips than minimum raise, you cannot raise. But you should always be able to raise all-in, even when you have less chips than min raise.
Fencer: I'm not sure if such thing as official rules even exist for Texas Hold em :) Anyways, i can't think of anyplace where minimum bet works otherwise.
Same players should never have to pay bb or sb two rounds in a row. Currently this happens if new player arrives between dealer and blind positions. Button should be moved before considering new players.
Also, on most sites i've played at new players are not dealt any cards before they post big blind. Arriving players can choose to put in amount equal to bb in their current seat or wait untin they are sitting in bb position. This is done to avoid people constantly sitting out and moving around trying to avoid blinds or gain better position.
Minimum raise is not correct. In no limit and pot limit re-raise always has to atleast equal what was raised before in current betting round. For example: blinds are 5/10 and someone bets to 50 chips. The bet was 40 more, so if someone wishes to raise that he/she must raise atleast 40 more to 90 chips total.
Well I thought I would post a quick note in here in case others visit the poker tables - they seem to be currently froze for everyone, and Fencer is probable in deep sleep right now, so in case anyone tries here soon and see's a problem, it is not just you - but everyone... and I'm sure Fencer will fix it when he gets back.
Fencer: I'll be away most of this weekend so I probably won't participate in any discussion the next 48 hours. But I do have some ideas on how to have Poker tournaments on BK. I'll write it up on Monday.
AbigailII: Actually, we don't need to take a rake until something more valuable than free chips (Brains, for instance) is played for. But the tournament idea is good.
coan.net: There are various ways. A house can take a percentage of the buy-in, or a percentage of the pot (sometimes capped at a maximum). Or it can take fixed fees. For instance, having the dealer pay a fee each round, or asking a fixed fee of every player every X minutes. Or they organize tournaments, and ask an entrance fee of all the participants. The difference between the sum of the entrance fees and the prize money is the rake of the house. Or the casino makes it money through other means, and uses poker to attract people that spend their money buying expensive drinks or something else.
AbigailII: I have also thought about that issue - with people getting "free" chips, some people will keep on gaining and gaining chips.
First thought was to maybe make it a "loan" of chips - and if you gained enough back, repay it. But then I have to remember - the point of the game (in my opinion, and maybe I'm wrong) - is to allow everyone to play - at least once a day - and someone having a lot of chips is just a different way to show "ratings". (so instead of ratings, you can see who has the most chips.)
But also - I know Fencer is planning to bring other card games to the site. Maybe he will bring something like Blackjack (or something else where you play "against" the house) - where the house will have a chance to get some of it's chips back. (heck, have some "video poker" machines that randomly show 3 images, and make it pay out 25% of the time or something like that.) (again, just some random thoughts.)
Question (which I could probable go and look for the answer but a little lazy right now) - in a casino, how does the house make money on poker games since the house does not play? Does the house just take a cut or something? Again - I'm not sure if that is something that is needed here, but curious.
There's of course the matter of 'inflation'. If new chips are injected into the system on a regular basis, one year from now, 1000 chips won't be worth what it is now today. Things that could be done to counteract this:
Once a day (or week, or 10 days), a tally is made of all the chip counts. Points get awarded to the N people with the highest chip counts, and all chip counts are reset to 1000. Statistics could be created for people having the most points, and having scored the most points in the last D days (D=365 gives you a year).
On a nightly or weekly bases, everyone who has more than Z chips will be deducted by Q%. This requires some tuning for acceptable values of Z and Q.
"Glamour" tables, in which you can only participate after paying a significant amount of chips as house stake; but that only works if there's something to force players to participate at such tables. One way of 'forcing' people is to barr players having a large number of chips on "regular" tables if they haven't played at a "glamour" table in the last W days.
But these are just some wild ideas, I'd expect many people not liking them.
AbigailII: I like that idea (and suggested values).
Always have Y as 250.
Pawns = X as 500 maybe
Bishops and above = X as 1000
So if someone does lose all their chips, they will at least be able to play on a table the next day. ***** Reminder for Fencer if he programs something like this - Don't let the bug slip by that if someone has all their chips on a table playing when the script runs, that it will give them free chips... otherwise someone will move their chips to an empty table, wait for the script to give them 250 free chips, then move their chips back off the table.
Fencer: Well, here's my suggestion then: every day, everyone who has less than X chips, get Y new chips, (maxed out at X). Suggested values for (X, Y) are (1000, 250). You could even have different (X, Y) for different membership levels, so pawns refresh slower and are maxed out on a lower level than rooks.
rednaz23: I agree somewhat - that is you don't want to make it too easy to regain lost chips.
I think currently (correct me if I'm wrong) - if a person drops below 500 chips, they are allowed to go to their profile (limit = once a day?) and increase their total to 500?
I'm not sure of a good solution, but would like to see a "little" more work for it - maybe like after they lose their chips (or go below 250 - which is currently the lowest buy-in table), at the end of the day (midnight or whatever), their totals are increased to 250 automatically. (so they can at least play on a table every day if they want). Then maybe once a week, they can request the 500 total chips (so if they last requested 500 chips on Monday and quickly lost it, on Tuesday it would give them 250 chips.... and any other day if they are below 250, it will increase automatically to 250) - then on next Monday, they could request 500 again.)
Also I think it is nice that Pawns get to play - but I also think there should be something "lower" for pawns. I'm not sure how - somehow again to let them play at a table at least once a day... longer if they don't lose, but think there should be a difference in "free chips" between pawns & bishops+
... and this post is just a quick example I thought of... i don't think it is the best solution, but can't really think of a better one right now. Any other ideas? (again, I think the goal should be that everyone can at least play on a table once a day)
... maybe the pawn refresh to 250, everyone else to 500?
Fencer: I believe when a person has the ability to refresh to 1,000 chips if they fall under 500, it allows for those people below 1,000 to play very agressively without penalty since they can simply go to their profile if they lose a bunch and start over at 1,000 chips. If someone wants to play aggressively; that is fine by me; but Brainking should not allow for a vehicle to do so again and again and in turn abuse the system. I believe that the refresh should be to 500 and not the current 1,000 chips. This would still allow for those who have dropped to zero to still play... but only starting with 500 chips... this will allow a much fairer advantage to those members who have gone about earning their chips in a legit fashion. this also will not flood the poker boards with excessive amounts of chips which I can see beginning to happen already...
I talked to a couple of people in one of the poker rooms about it and I think there is support for this... I hope this can be considered.