I’d be interested in hearing the rules of the Frankenstein variant, if you don’t mind typing them out.

Funny that you mentioned Frankenstein and your metal plate in the same entry…. ; )

Frankenstein the way we played it:
You basically play draw poker (i.e. deal everybody 5 cards, let them draw up to three new cards). Save the player’s discarded cards and build the best possible hand out of those cards. This hand is called Frankenstein’s monster. In order to win you’ll have to defeat the monster. If nobody can defeat the monster in a given turn the player with the second highest hand has to double the pot (see why this gets expensive?). Players can decide if they want to stay in or if they are out after the monster has been built. Once the number of players gets less it’ll get easier to defeat the monster.

So there are always some tough decisions to make: how many new cards do I draw? (the more you draw the higher the chances that the monster gets an unbeatable hand) Do I try to get a good hand or is it better to try to get nothing (for if your hand is only second best you’ll have to double the pot) etc.

So tell me how you liked it once you’ve played it!

Sounds interesting.

You say:
>Players can decide if they want to stay in or if they are out after the monster has been built.

If you know your hand can’t beat the monster, why would you stay in the hand? Just so no one else might win it?

You play in multiple rounds until the monster is beaten. If you fold you’re out of the game. In the first few rounds it’s virtually impossible to beat the monster. Usually players stay in as long as they have a really good or really bad hand. But once the pot get’s higher people drop out and it get’s easier to defeat the monster.

In the endgame it’s an interessting decision whether to go for a bad hand (which usually weakens the monster even more) or try to get a good hand and beat the monster (risking to match an insanly high pot).

That’s right. I forgot to stress that you play multiple turns. If you’re out all you can do is watch (which is still a lot of fun :).

We had some bizarre situations in our games. Like when everybody went for a shitty hand. I had the highest hand in that round with an 8 being my highest card. My friend who had only low cards and a 6 as his highest card had to double the pot.

In our first game the pot got up to 16 Euro after having started with only 25 cent. Yikes.

The unforgettable LAN-party poker? Gawd, it’s been a while but that was loads of fun. There are a lot of memories like this one connected with you guys and I am glad I was there to share these moments.