poker baseball

Card games, particularly poker games, may contain one or more cards designated as wild. These may be jokers, or they may be normal ranked and suited cards pressed into wild card duty ("deuces wild" is a common variant). In most cases, the wild card or cards must be agreed upon by all players before the cards are dealt and play commences. There are two common rules regarding wild cards: "fully wild" cards and the "bug".
A card that is fully wild can be designated by its holder as any card s/he chooses with no restrictions. Under this rule, for example, a hand with any natural pair and a wild card becomes three of a kind. With wild cards in play, the best possible hand is a five of a kind. The common rule in casinos is that a wild card plays as a bug, which is given the rank of ace unless designating it as a different card would complete a straight, flush, or straight flush. Under this rule, a hand such as K-K-Joker-5-2 is just a pair of kings (with an ace kicker), but any four same-suit cards with a bug make a flush, and a hand such as 7-Joker-5-4-3 makes a straight.
Two exceptions to standard poker practice sometimes seen in home games are the double-ace flush rule, and the natural wins rule. The latter rule states that between hands that would otherwise tie, the hand with fewer wild cards wins. This is not common in casinos and should be treated as an exception to standard practice (as is the double-ace flush).
There is a tendency among some players to regard wild cards as "impure" or treat wild card games as silly or amateurish. While it is certainly true that a game with too many wild cards can become so random that all skill is lost, the occasional use of wild cards is a good way to add variation to a game and add opportunities for skillful play. In particular, five-card draw is traditionally played with a joker in California (which plays as a bug), and also plays well with deuces fully wild. Seven-card stud plays well with one or two bugs, especially when played high-low split. Other games such as Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold'em do not play well with wild cards. For some players, the problem with wild card games is that the winner is almost always the hand with the most wild cards, making the other cards irrelevant, and making skill less important.
Another issue with wild cards is that they distort the hand frequencies. In 5-card stud, the stronger hands are less frequent than the weaker hands; i.e., no pair is most common, followed by one pair, two pair, three of a kind, etc. When you add wild cards, the stronger hands gain frequency while the weaker hands lose frequency. For example, if you have a pair and a wild card, you will always choose three of a kind rather than two pair. This causes three of a kind to be more common than two pair. But if two pair ranks above three of a kind, the two pair will become more common[1].
Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan (born March 31, 1944) is an American comedian, actor and professional poker player. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for his role as Gabriel "Gabe" Kotter in the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, but he has become more visible in recent years in relation to the popularity of poker, especially the "No-Limit Texas Hold-'Em" type, particularly as co-host and joint commentator, with A. J. Benza, on High Stakes Poker on GSN, formerly the Game Show Network.
As a boy, Kaplan had aspirations of being a Major League Baseball player. However, he was unable to make the roster of even a minor league team and decided to pursue other interests. He began working as a bellman at a hotel in Lakewood, New Jersey. Touring comedians would sometimes perform at the hotel, and Kaplan began to work towards his own career as a stand-up comedian.
Kaplan's comedy was successful, and he toured the country with his act based on his childhood experiences in Brooklyn. He appeared five times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from May 1973 to December 1974. During this period he also recorded the comedy album Holes and Mello-Rolls, which included long routines about his high-school days, among other topics; the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, whose central characters he helped Eric Cohen and Alan Sacks create and whose core format he helped them to develop, was in part based on his comedy act. In the sitcom, Kaplan played Gabe Kotter, a high school teacher. The series ran from 1975 to 1979. After Welcome Back, Kotter, Kaplan continued with his stand-up act and was in several movies, and portrayed comic Groucho Marx in an acclaimed one-man show.
While he was actively involved in his acting career, Kaplan also became involved in financial markets and poker. He made his first appearance at the World Series of Poker in 1978. His biggest win came in July 2004, when he finished third in a World Poker Tour no-limit Texas hold 'em event, earning more than $250,000. He also finished second in the $5000 2005 World Series of Poker Limit Hold 'Em event, winning $222,515.
In 2007, Kaplan won on NBC's Poker After Dark in the episode "Queens and Kings" after defeating Kristy Gazes heads-up and outlasting fellow professional poker players Howard Lederer, Ali Nejad, Vanessa Rousso and Annie Duke.
In the 2007 World Series of Poker Kaplan finished in 9th place in the $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E event winning $131,424; Freddy Deeb eventually won the event after defeating Bruno Fitoussi in heads-up play.
As of 2007, Kaplan's total live tournament winnings exceeded $1,100,000.[1]
Kaplan won again on NBC's "Poker After Dark" during "Cowboys" week that first aired in February 2008 against Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Chau Giang, Hoyt Corkins, and poker great Doyle BrunsonRecently Kaplan had resumed performing stand-up comedy and was also working on adaptations of Welcome Back, Kotter. He still played poker frequently and became a commentator for poker events and televised poker shows, most recently the National Heads-Up Poker Championship[2] in 2005 and 2006 on NBC, High Stakes Poker[3] on GSN, and the Intercontinental Poker Championship.