Poker for Kids

Materials:

1. Two Decks of Uno Cards
   1. Keep the first one normal and take all action cards out of the second deck
      1. The first deck will from here on out be the “normal” deck
      2. The second deck will be the “family” deck
2. Friends
3. Poker Chips (If gambling, not recommended)

Rules:

1. Played from 2-8 Players
2. Know the rules of Texas Holdem, the only difference is the uno cards have action
3. Take all skip cards out of the normal deck they have no value in this game
4. The game begins like normal Texas Holdem, whoever the dealer is, will deal two cards to everyone from the normal deck
5. After looking at there cards players may have a few options
   1. If they have a +2 they play it and draw two cards from the family deck
   2. If they have a +4 they play it and draw four cards from the deck
      1. It can then be kept and used as a wild (see below)
   3. If they have a reverse they may choose to switch hands with one other player after everyone has played their action cards
   4. If they have a wild, they may draw one card and keep the wild
      1. The wild card can now be played in conjunction with any card in order to change its color to whatever the player would like
      2. It can only be used on the cards in their hand
   5. If they have none of these cards they may keep their hand and play as normal
   6. Any cards action cards discarded should go into a discard pile specifically for the normal deck
6. PLAYERS MAY HAVE NO MORE THAN 5 CARDS AT A TIME
   1. If a player ends up with 6 or more cards they must discard a card of their choosing into a discard pile for the deck that they got it from
7. Then the first round of betting occurs
8. From here on out the hand is played exactly like omaha poker except with 5 cards instead of 4

Artist Statement

When I debuted this game idea in class I said I chose it because poker is one of my favorite games and by all means this is true, but I also wanted to make something complicated. The game I made is fun by all means but there is no real reason to play it. People do not typically play a game like poker for the sake of enjoyment but usually because they enjoy the thrill of winning money. If you take the monetary aspect out of it the game itself is not fun because each hand loses all value. People do not want to play a game that takes poker and makes it more complicated because there is no point to that while betting. That is why when I played with my friends we tried playing with and without betting. While we thought the action card aspect made the game unnecessarily complicated while gambling, when playing without money we actually enjoyed it more than we would traditional poker. You see when playing poker without money there is no real skill involved because there is no way to keep score, however when playing with the uno cards, there is skill depending on your use of action cards to make hands and deciding what cards to keep and which to drop. I will say while it is better than classic poker without gambling in general we all enjoyed classic poker with gambling more. 

I did think it was interesting to combine two things that would not typically go together. Poker is typically seen as a game for adults. In most states including Massachusetts you have to be 21 to even step foot inside of a casino. Uno however, while being enjoyed by people of all ages, is typically regarded and marketed as a kids game. Putting the two juxtaposing games together felt like something Dada might do. Similar to taking the Mona Lisa and drawing a mustache on it, I took a serious game like poker and added a color and a childish aspect to it. 

This game involved rounds and rounds of play testing and I do not think it is possible to make it better than either of the originals however it is enjoyable nonetheless, so why I failed I do not regret the idea.