Handicap Poker

Handicap Poker is played like Texas Hold'em, but with the deal staying put rather than cycling round. If you're the big blind for the first hand, for example, you're the big blind all game.

Obviously, this puts the blinds and the early position players at a disadvantage compared to the players in late position. To compensate for that, the seats are auctioned off before the game begins. The first seat auctioned is the button (seat 10), and the other seats are auctioned anti-clockwise, finishing with small blind.

Players use their starting chip stack to bid. The player to bid the most for a seat wins that seat.

Players who've already won a seat can re-enter the bidding for another seat if they think it's priced too low. If they win the new seat, their previous seat is then re-auctioned. This makes sure each seat gets auctioned for a reasonably fair price.

Once all seats have been auctioned, the players pay the agreed price for their seats, and the chips paid are divided equally between all players. Thus, players who bid more for seats in late position will start with a smaller stack than other players. The skill is in judging how much your seat is worth - is playing on the button every hand a big enough advantage to be worth half your stack, for example?

The game is played for a set time, e.g. two hours, and the blinds stay at the same level throughout. The player with the biggest stack at the end of the game is the winner.