Luck and Risk and Fun

Since I played a very casual, very friendly game of poker a few nights ago, I was amused by Matthew Yglesias's luck last night. "If only we didn't play with extremely low stakes, I would now be a wealthy man." I keep hearing about friends cleaning up on extremely low pots. I wonder if people take better advantage of lucky hands like that with low & friendly risks.

Poker is very new to me, and not something I plan on taking up with any seriousness, but I was amused by my friends' willingness to let me make up totally ridiculous games when I was dealing. The best part was naming the game. My friend Dave Goldweber had previously made a game Middle Age, a build-'em&-wreck'em, with the four limbs and the stomach of a card-man on the table knocking out numbers and faces from the players hand as each card is turned, and upturned head creating a wild card. (The limbs and body grow week, but the head brings wisdom--hence, Middle Age.) My understanding is that the standard build-'em&wreck-'em formation is a pyramid of six cards. So here's my game:

Everyone gets dealt six cards. Yes, that's right, six. A pyramid of six cards is dealt on the table. Each player turns a card, followed by a betting round. The first three, at the bottom of the triangle, wreck your hands. If a Jack is turned over, you can't use your Jacks. The fourth and fifth cards (the middle two of the pyramid) can rescue cards knocked out in the first three rounds--the build-'em phase--but they're also communal cards, a mini-flop. The sixth and last card is a wildcard. We only played it once, and the mini-flop aspect was not involved, but I still thinki it might be fun. Maybe it already exists? Maybe people shoudl be dealt fewer cards in their hands? If it doesn't already exist, I call it Bermuda Pascal. The triangle reminds me of Pascal's Triangle, and the Bermuda is the wreck bit. But I thought it was nice and goofy.