Party Poker has always taken the conservative approach as far as the games it offers on the site –they were one of the last rooms to add micro-stakes games to their site, and for the most part stuck to the poker mainstays of Holdem, Omaha and Stud. So it was a little bit of a surprise to hear about their latest poker game, Double Hold’ Em.

Double Hold’ Em puts an interesting spin on the game we all know and love: The most noticeable difference is that you are dealt three hole-cards, and this is where your first major decision will come about. Each player must select one of their hole cards to be used as an Anchor-card; this Anchor-card can be used with either of the players other two hole-cards (which cannot be joined together)to make their best poker hand.

An example of how Double Hold’ Em will play out is this:

* You hold – AdKdKc and select the King of diamonds as your Anchor-card which gives you the combinations of AdKd and KdKc: If you were to choose the Kc your combinations would be KdKc and the less formidable off-suit combo of AdKc: Selecting the Ace as your Anchor-card would be even worse, since it would eliminate the Pocket Kings from your combinations leaving you with AK suited and AK offsuit!

* The Flop is, KhTdJd giving you top set with your KK or a possible straight and flush draw with AKs, so unless a player flopped the joint and you brick-out this is a huge hand for you.

You never know how poker players will react to new variants, so we will have to wait and see if Double Hold’ Em becomes the next big thing in online poker, or if it joins games like Badugi, Five Card Draw, and Lowball as failed experiments.

Poker News Supplied by Poker News Boy