the present invention is a poker game very similar to texas hold &# 39 ; em , with variations to improve fairness for skilled players . a unique deck of playing cards is used . the deck starts from a base of a conventional 52 - card deck . additional values are then inserted in the deck — preferably four 11 &# 39 ; s and four 12 &# 39 ; s , which obviously fit between the 10s and jacks of a conventional deck . one or more values are also considered unsuited , preferably the 10s and 11s . because unsuited cards cannot be used to complete a flush or straight flush , the selection of 10 and 11 still permits a royal straight flush ( 12 - j - q - k - a ). fig1 and 2 show representations of the unsuited 10 and 11 respectively . these representations are the preferred form , although they can take any visual form provided it is clear that these cards are not available for suiting with a flush or straight flush ( see , e . g ., the design shown in fig4 ). the depictions shown use no pips , and in place thereof a logo is used along with the word “ unsuited .” optionally , the logo may incorporate a suit design for aesthetic purposes only . fig3 shows a 12 of spades according to the deck of the present invention . although , it is not necessary to use pips on the 12 cards , fig3 shows one possible arrangement of 12 suit pips . a similar arrangement is shown in fig4 , which shows the entire deck of cards . in the preferred embodiment play proceeds the same as in texas hold &# 39 ; em . namely , each player is dealt two hole cards face down , followed by a round of betting . three community cards — the flop — are then dealt face up on the board , followed by a subsequent round of betting . a fourth community card , and then the fifth ( river ) community cards are then dealt with a respective third and fourth round of betting after each . any betting scheme may be used , presuming it is compatible with other hold &# 39 ; em games like texas hold &# 39 ; em . in any event , a player not calling a bet in any round must fold his cards and forfeit any money previously placed in the pot . at the end of the fourth round of betting , any players who have not folded vie for the pot by comparing hands . in the preferred embodiment , a player &# 39 ; s hand consists of the best possible hand that can be made from his two hole cards and the five community cards , with the exception , preferably , that both hole cards must be used to make a straight , flush , or straight flush . additionally , the unsuited cards are preferably not eligible for use in a flush or straight flush . the requirement that both hole cards be used for straights , flushes , and straight flushes , is strongly preferred , because it helps fulfills the basic objective of the invention of making it difficult to improve a second - best hand . the other way this objective is fulfilled , is by excluding unsuited cards from flushes and straight flushes . the aforementioned variations make it approximately 15 % more difficult to improve an initial hand in the present invention as compared to the same hand in texas hold &# 39 ; em . what were “ coin flip ” situations in texas hold &# 39 ; em now favor the stronger hand played according to the rules of the preferred embodiment by approximately 15 %. for instance , in texas hold &# 39 ; em , and initial deal of q - q is approximately 4 % more likely to win than an initial deal of a - k ( unsuited ). in play according to the rules of the preferred embodiment , that same pair of queens are statistically significantly stronger . the use of the unsuited cards also dramatically improves play over traditional texas hold &# 39 ; em . with two unsuited values ( 10 and 11 ), there are 13 % fewer suited cards , thus there is a significant reduction in the chances for a player trying to catch a flush draw on the turn or the river . it thus follows that a skilled player with a made hand can now more easily dissuade a lesser skilled player from “ fishing ” for his flush or straight on the turn or the river . as an example , suppose the board shows 9c - js - 7c - 2c and two players have jh - jd and 8c - 3h respectively . in conventional texas hold &# 39 ; em , the first player has three - of - a - kind already , and should be able to buy a small or moderately sized pot . however , the second player may decide to stay in , tempted by the straight draw and the flush draw - noting that this player should never have stayed in for the flop in the first place . that player has 11 “ outs ” in this hand in texas hold &# 39 ; em out of 44 cards ( or a 25 % of winning on the river ). in the present invention , according to the preferred embodiment , the second player has “ drawn dead ” and has no chance of winning . in a second example , suppose the board shows 5h - 6d - js - 7h , and two players have ah - as and 4h - 9h respectively . in texas hold &# 39 ; em , the first player has had the much stronger hand all along , and again , the second player should probably not have called before or after the flop . in texas hold &# 39 ; em , the second player has 14 “ outs ” from 44 cards ( or roughly a 32 % chance of winning the hand ). in the preferred embodiment of the present invention , that same player cannot make a straight and has only 8 “ outs ” ( to make the flush ) from 52 remaining cards ( or about 15 % chance of winning ). thus , it can be readily seen that the present invention favors players who play wisely and skillfully from before the flop . other variations of the preferred embodiment are possible , just as may be done with texas hold &# 39 ; em . for instance , betting may be limit ( fixed stakes ) based or no - limit based . the game can optionally be played hi - lo , where the best hand splits the pot with the worst hand . betting incentives may be added by casinos , such as progressive jackpots for “ bad - beat ” hands ( where the losing hand is of a pre - determined minimum ranking ). the possibilities are endless without departing from the basic scope of the present invention . furthermore , other values may be selected to be unsuited ( e . g . 7 and 8 ). while the foregoing is directed to the preferred embodiments of the present invention , other and future embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof , and the scope thereof is determined by the claims which follow .
a variation of a poker game is shown , with a unique deck of cards . the deck inserts two additional values , and un - suits two values . the play is substantially equivalent to that of texas hold &# 39 ; em except that the unsuited cards cannot be used to make flushes or straight flushes , and both hole cards must be used to make a straight , flush , or straight flush .