Florida Recount Poker
In the episode DT did a pretty good job of describing the rules of "Florida Recount Poker," a game developed by David, our friend Josh, this guy, and myself in November of 2000. I thought I would explain them further and print them on the blog for anyone who wants to play:
The game plays like a normal 7-card stud game, for the most part. Each player is dealt two cards down and one card up. After a typical betting sequence, another round of cards is dealt face up, followed by another round of betting, and so on until seven cards are dealt.
The only difference is that certain cards trigger various alterations in the rules.
If a RED KING is dealt, the goal of the game completely changes. Now the win will go to the player who can make the LOWEST five card hand out of his or her (but almost always his, frankly) seven cards. The theory here being that a red king indicates that the republicans have won control of the White House, and the whole world has gone topsy turvey (it did).
If, however, a BLACK KING is dealt after the RED KING, the whole game goes back to normal.
If a BLACK JACK is dealt, the player who receives it is Ralph Nader, and he automatically receives "matching funds" from each of the other players in the amount of whatever the initial ante was.
Similarly, if a RED JACK is dealt, the player who receives it is Pat Buchanan, and he is forced to give all the other players payment in the amount of the initial ante for, as David put it, "being an asshole." I think our original reason for this was a bit more nuanced. The money was intended to be penance for unintentionally confusing voters in Florida with the butterfly ballot (if you will recall, many elderly Floridians were confused by the butterfly ballot, and claim they voted for Buchanan when they intended to vote for Gore).
I find our game somewhat prescient in that the Republican administration DID go on to quite frequently reward or promote its members after they failed in various ways (ie George Tenet).
The game plays like a normal 7-card stud game, for the most part. Each player is dealt two cards down and one card up. After a typical betting sequence, another round of cards is dealt face up, followed by another round of betting, and so on until seven cards are dealt.
The only difference is that certain cards trigger various alterations in the rules.
If a RED KING is dealt, the goal of the game completely changes. Now the win will go to the player who can make the LOWEST five card hand out of his or her (but almost always his, frankly) seven cards. The theory here being that a red king indicates that the republicans have won control of the White House, and the whole world has gone topsy turvey (it did).
If, however, a BLACK KING is dealt after the RED KING, the whole game goes back to normal.
If a BLACK JACK is dealt, the player who receives it is Ralph Nader, and he automatically receives "matching funds" from each of the other players in the amount of whatever the initial ante was.
Similarly, if a RED JACK is dealt, the player who receives it is Pat Buchanan, and he is forced to give all the other players payment in the amount of the initial ante for, as David put it, "being an asshole." I think our original reason for this was a bit more nuanced. The money was intended to be penance for unintentionally confusing voters in Florida with the butterfly ballot (if you will recall, many elderly Floridians were confused by the butterfly ballot, and claim they voted for Buchanan when they intended to vote for Gore).
I find our game somewhat prescient in that the Republican administration DID go on to quite frequently reward or promote its members after they failed in various ways (ie George Tenet).
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