Al Martinez: Poker twist draws new players to card game
It came to him in a flash of lightning and a roar of thunder not unlike the way Moses must have received the message from God to lead his people out of Egypt. In the case of Bruce Paul it didn’t involve salvation, but rather chips and cards. He was told to invent a new poker game.
Poker Pro Magazine: New Forms of Poker
New Hold’em/Omaha Variation Getting Rave Reviews at The Bike
NEW POKER VARIATIONS turn up every year. Home games are notorious for new wrinkles. That’s how the game evolves. But few make it to the big time. After all, you do not find the Bellagio spreading “Night Baseball.” But an innovative new game, 2-11 Poker, seems to be the exception, and it’s being spread now to rave reviews at one ofthe nation’s most famous cardrooms, the Bicycle Casino near Los Angeles. In fact, this year’s North American Poker Tour Players’ Appreciation Tournament at The Bike will feature the new game. Players will alternate playing two levels of 2-11 Poker, followed by one level of standard Texas hold’em.
“We felt like the players would be able to play a more equal number of hands of each of the games with this new format,” says The Bike’s tournament director known to players as Action Mo.
Bruce Paul, the creator of 2-11 Poker, agrees: “Players are beginning to appreciate 2-11’s unique blending of poker games from the past and present and seem to be understanding, and more importantly, enjoying the game more with each tournament they play.”
In what Paul is calling “Poker’s 3rd Dimension,” he has taken the mystery and danger of the hidden card aspect of poker’s original mainstay, five-card draw, and mixed it with hold’em and Omaha’s community-card aspect. Combine that with 2-11 Poker’s innovations – the “two or three cards from your hand” rule and only four (not five) community cards, and suddenly you have “a balanced blend of poker games in one exciting package.”
The Bicycle Casino’s four successful 2-11 tournaments drew more than 700 entrants and beat the cardroom’s incentive-based guarantees in each event, so it seems players are warming to the new variation in a big way. We caught up to the creator of 2-11 Poker, Bruce Paul, for the latest on the game and some insight as to how 2-11 Poker was born. Read more >>
Bluff Magazine: 2-11 The Next Great Poker Game?
Bluff Magazine – July 2008 | Adam Slutsky
If nothing else, my tenure at BLUFF has given me the opportunity to interact with a colossal assortment of unique and interesting people — people I never would have met scribing for other publications. And although I always do my best to chronicle my experiences for your reading pleasure, words alone cannot convey the innumerable amazing memories that have been forever cemented into my gray matter.
Just a few of the many that come to mind are: Marv, the reclusive UFO chaser in the high Sonoran Desert. “Paul Bunyan” and his poker-obsessed Bigfoot-hunting buddies up in Kettle Falls, Washington. And that scarier-than-Satan-with-a-rusty chainsaw marijuana cartel kingpin down in Juarez, Mexico. Good times all! However, while my most recent escapade offers very little in the way of high-octane adventure or taco-short-of-a-combo-plate zaniness, it is easily one of my all-time favorites. And that’s simply because it put everything I know and love about poker into perspective. On top of that, it reminded me the very reason that I — and most of you — learned to play the game in the fi rst place: Because it’s a helluva lot of fun!
The Original 2-11 Home Crew w/ Jamie Gold