888 has a new game for its online poker room. It is Flopomania. This game is played similar to Texas Hold’em. Players are dealt two cards.
There are five community cards on the board in Flopomania. Three are shown first, followed by a turn and river. The best five-card hand wins. There is a dealer button that rotates clockwise one seat after each hand. The cards and betting start to the left of the button.
The differences between Texas Hold’em and Flopomania are simple. Every player posts an ante. There are no blinds. All players see the flop. There is no preflop betting round. This is what the ante represents.
Once the flop is displayed, the betting starts to the left of the button as it normally would. The remainder of the hand continues as a normal Texas Hold’em game. There is also a push or fold version of the game with only one betting round.
This is the latest move toward the recreational poker player model. Bodog was the first poker company to try and focus on low-skill players in an attempt to keep them in the game. The site moved to all anonymous tables, removed wait lists from the lobby, as well as full tables. It later removed all table selection from players.
Other sites joined Bodog in the pursuit of recreational players in an attempt to keep sharks from destroying the poker ecosystem. This included VIP programs geared towards recreational players, and in some cases, banning or restricting winners.
Live poker rooms are also getting in the act. The Orleans, the largest locals poker room in Las Vegas, has a game similar to Flopomania. It spreads Free Flop Hold’em. This game has blinds instead of antes. It is also dealt in a 3/6 fixed limit format. Otherwise, the games are identical.