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Pokerchess is a game i made up. I've never played it. As the name suggests, it's an cross between a simplified variant of chess and a simplified variant of no-limit texas hold'em poker. Here are the rules.
Pokerchess is a game played with a deck of 52 cards (no jokers), 64 chips/tokens, and a chess board. The chips can represent real money or imaginary points; if real money is involved, cash can be used in place of chips.
At the beginning of the game, the chess board is set up as usual for chess. Each player is given (or buys in for, if real money is being used) exactly 32 chips. Each player is dealt a card and the player with the highest card plays white, and moves first. During each turn, the deck is reshuffled and then the player whose turn it is is dealt a card, face down, and then after looking at their card makes a move as in chess, except:
If a piece would be captured, then instead there is a poker battle between the 'attacking' and 'defending' chess piece. Each player is dealt a face-up card whose rank matches their piece's type: king=king, queen=queen, rook=jack, bishop=10, knight=9, pawn=(2-8 or A). The defender is dealt a face-down card. The attacker will use the face-down card they were dealt at the beginning of the turn. Now each player has one face-up and one face-down card which they use as 'hole cards' in the poker hand. The poker hand proceeds as in no-limit texas hold'em, except with some simplifications:
A player wins when they get all the chips (and the opponent chooses not to 'rebuy', if the chips represent something else), or they capture the opposing king, or the other player forfeits. There is no 'checkmate', the opposing king must actually be captured.
Each time a player may make a decision, there is a 30-second time limit (by mutual consent, the players may change this time limit, or have different time limits for decisions during battle and decisions outside of battle). By default, the time limit is always in force, but by mutual consent, the players may choose to play so that on each move the clock doesn't start unless/until the other player has 'called the clock'. In addition, by mutual consent the players may each have a 'time bank' they they can draw upon (possibly only in 30-second increments). If a player fails to move in time outside of a battle, their opponent may choose a move for them (the opponent only has 30 seconds to choose the move, of course, so if they don't decide during this time the initial player gets another chance, and if they still don't decide then the other player gets another chance to decide for them, etc). If a player fails to move in time during a battle, then they check (if they can check), or otherwise fold.
The game can be played by two people, or by a group. If by a group, then the group divides itself by mutual consensus into teams, and one person on each team is chosen as General (by consensus if possible, or by approval voting plus runoff otherwise; also if consensus cannot be reached on the initial group division then reweighted (proportional multiseat) approval voting may be used to choose two team captains who then take turns choosing members). Before the game, the General assigns each piece on their side to one teammate. The General chooses the outside-of-battle (chess) moves, and each teammate plays the battles that a piece of theirs is involved in. Instead of having one stack for each side, as in the single-player version, each teammate has their own chip stack, which is used when they are involved in a battle, and the General also has their own stack. The General may stake their chips to other team members for the duration of battles (eg if the General gives a team member an amount of chips equal to 10% of the resulting stack, then after the battle the General gets 10% of the remaining stack back). If the King is captured, the General loses their remaining chips to the opposing General, and other team members lose 1/2 of their chips to be equally distributed to all members of the other team; by mutual consent, a team may make some other agreement amongst themself for distributing their winnings/losses.
At the beginning of the game, the chess board is set up as usual for chess. Each player is given (or buys in for, if real money is being used) exactly 32 chips. The deck is shuffled.
The top card in the deck is discarded ('burnt') face-down. Each player is dealt a card, and the player who gets the highest card (in terms of number, aces high, or, in case of a tie, suit; the rank of suits, in descending order, is spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs) plays white. All three cards are returned to the deck and the deck is reshuffled. As with chess, white moves first. Here is what happens during each turn:
The deck is reshuffled. The top card in the deck is discarded face-down. The player whose turn it is is dealt a card (the card is face-down; the player whose turn it is can look at the card but the other player cannot).
Just as in chess, the player whose move it is must choose one chess piece to move. The way the pieces move is just like in chess, except simplified:
Note that pawn promotion is still in effect; if a pawn is moved into the opponent's end row, the player owning the pawn must choose to promote to any other type of piece, except for a king.
If the player makes a move which would, in chess, cause a capture, instead this is considered an 'attack', and a poker-like 'battle' ensues to resolve it:
The attacking player (the player whose turn it is) post a blind bet of 1 chip into the pot.
The top card in the deck is discarded. Cards are dealt face-up and discarded until a card is dealt whose rank 'matches' the piece type of the attacking piece or defending piece, as follows: king=king, queen=queen, rook=jack, bishop=10, knight=9, pawn=(2-8 or A). This card is given to the player whose piece it matches (or to the attacker, if both attacker and defender are the same piece type). Now cards are dealt face-up and discarded until a card is dealt whose rank 'matches' the piece type of the defender. Now all discarded cards are returned to the deck, the deck is reshuffled, the top card is discarded, and a card is dealt to the defender, face-down. The two face-up cards remain face-up until the end of the battle.
At this point each player has one face-up card (whose rank matches their piece type), and one face-down card (for the attacker, the card which was dealt prior to the battle; for the defender, the card that was just dealt). These function as the 'hole cards' in texas hold'em poker for the duration of this battle.
Now it's the defending player's turn to respond to the attacker's 1-chip blind bet. The defender may fold, call, or raise. The minimum raise is 1 chip and there is no maximum raise (other than the size of the player's stack; an 'all-in' raise). The rest of the hand continues as with no-limit texas hold'em poker, except that:
The winner of the battle is whoever doesn't fold if one side folds, or whoever wins at showdown.
If the attacker wins the battle, the defending piece is captured (eliminated), just as in chess. If the defender wins the battle, neither piece is captured and the attacking piece must retreat. An attacking pawn or knight or king must retreat to the space it attacked from, but an attacking queen or rook or bishop may retreat to this space or to any space that it 'moved over' in between the space it attacked from and the defending piece.
The game continues until either one person loses all of their chips, or until one king is eliminated, or one player forfeits. If one person loses all of their chips, and the chips represent money, they have the option to 'rebuy' for the same amount as they initially put up, and to get 32 more chips, and the game continues. Otherwise, the game ends and the player who has all the chips, or who has the only remaining king, or who did not forfeit, wins, and they get all of the money at stake in the game.
There is no checkmate; the king must actually be defeated in battle.
Each time a player may make a decision, there is a 30-second time limit. By default, the time limit is always in force, but by mutual consent, the players may choose to play so that on each move the clock doesn't start unless/until the other player has 'called the clock'. In addition, by mutual consent the players may each have a 'time bank' they they can draw upon (possibly only in 30-second increments). If a player fails to move in time outside of a battle, their opponent may choose a move for them (the opponent only has 30 seconds to choose the move, of course, so if they don't decide during this time the initial player gets another chance). If a player fails to move in time during a battle, then they check (if they can check), or otherwise fold.
There are no provisions for ending the game early (aside from one player forfeiting); this is because it would not be fair if one player's king is probably going to be captured, and then the other player walks away with the chips that they were probably about to lose. However, the players may negotiate an ending.
The game can be played by two people, or by a group. If by a group, then the group divides itself by mutual consensus into teams, and one person on each team is chosen as General (by consensus if possible, or by approval voting plus runoff otherwise; also if consensus cannot be reached on the initial group division then reweighted (proportional multiseat) approval voting may be used to choose two team captains who then take turns choosing members). Before the game, the General assigns each piece on their side to one teammate. The General chooses the outside-of-battle (chess) moves, and each teammate plays the battles that a piece of theirs is involved in. Instead of having one stack for each side, as in the single-player version, each teammate has their own chip stack, which is used when they are involved in a battle, and the General also has their own stack. The General may stake their chips to other team members for the duration of battles (eg if the General gives a team member an amount of chips equal to 10% of the resulting stack, then after the battle the General gets 10% of the remaining stack back). If the King is captured, the General loses their remaining chips to the opposing General, and other team members lose 1/2 of their chips to be equally distributed to all members of the other team; by mutual consent, a team may make some other agreement amongst themself for distributing their winnings/losses.
