How to Play Flopomania Poker at 888poker
888poker launched its latest innovation, Flopomania, on Aug. 20 and PokerNews got the opportunity to put it through its paces and see what all the fuss is about.
What is Flopomania
On the surface, Flopomania looks like a traditional Texas hold’em cash game except there is one notable difference: there is no preflop betting round.
Flopomania games are played on six-handed tables and instead of there being a small blind and a big blind, everyone at the table pays an ante before the hole cards are dealt. These antes weigh in at $0.05, $0.10, $0.30, or $1 and the minimum and maximum buy-ins for these games is 50 times the ante. For example, if you sit at a $0.10 ante table, you will start with a $5 stack.
Once the players have paid the ante, everyone receives hole cards, the flop is dealt with no preflop betting round and the player to the left of the dealer button opens the betting. From this point on, the traditional Texas hold’em rules apply.
There is also a variation called Push or Fold Flopomania. Here, everyone pays the same antes as in the standard Flopomania game and sits down with the same stack of 50 times the ante, but now the only betting options are to fold or make a “push” bet of 10 times the ante, after which no other betting is possible.
The removal of the preflop betting round not only speeds up the game by allowing more hands per hour, it also creates a unique dynamic where there are up to six players seeing a flop with random hands, which in itself creates plenty of action as players flop unlikely two pairs with trash hands and pick up draws they wouldn’t ordinarily see; it is safe to say Flopomania is an action game.
How Does Flopomania Play?
PokerNews bested out both Flopomania variants at low stakes. The first test was at a $0.05 ante table with a $2.50 buy-in. Traditionally, these sized games play quite passively, but at the Flopomania tables there was plenty of action on the flop.
In the couple of hundred hands played, there was lots of min-betting on the flop as people attempted to represent weird and wonderful holdings; there did not seem to be a lot of half-pot and three-quarter sized pot bets during our test.
We did notice that a couple of the stronger players would take a stab at the pot on the river when the rest of their opponents had shown weakness on the turn, particularly when a draw came in or a potential scare card made an appearance, but these bets were often looked up by hands such as bottom pair.
In the Push or Fold Flopomania games, the action was fast with the majority of hands seeing someone push on the flop and receiving at least one caller. It seemed the most popular holdings to push with were flush and straight draws, although we saw this move made when someone had any piece of the flop.
One thing that stood out, particularly in the standard Flopomania games, were pocket pairs seemed to lose their strength somewhat. Because nobody can raise preflop, it is difficult to get hands to fold to a single bet on the flop, especially if there were some potential draws out there and someone had already made a min-bet before. Once the money started piling into the middle, players seemed unable or unwilling to let their hands go so there were at least a couple of callers. While this does create larger pots than a typical hold’em game, we can see the variance being higher in these games.
Does Flopomania Have a Place in Poker?
Like other non-traditonal poker variants, Flopomania is either going to be loved or hated in equal measure. Poker purists will likely shy away from both variants because they see preflop as a vital cog in the hold’em machine, but on the flipside of the coin, Flopomania is fun, fast-paced and exciting and is sure to be a hit with recreational players who want to try something different from a standard hold’em game.
Try Flopomania For Yourself
If you want to try Flopomania for yourself, why not download 888poker via PokerNews? Doing so entitles you to $88 worth of free cash and tournament tickets just for creating your account, and when you make your first deposit, 888poker matches it 100 percent up to $888.
