Try Something Different: Poker Kill Games

I want to talk about a poker variety I would like to see more of: the kill game.  No, I’m not talking about a tournament where when someone is eliminated, they are really “eliminated.”  A kill game is a Hold’em or Omaha variation that allows for occasional higher stakes hands should the stars align.  There are two common ways for this to happen, depending on the game’s rules:

1. If a player wins two hands in a row, the next hand is a “kill” hand and that player must post a “kill blind.”
2. If a player wins a pot that has reached a certain size, commonly five times the big blind, they must post the kill blind on the next hand.

In the first scenario, a special “kill button” or “partial kill button” is placed in front of the previous hand’s winner to remind everybody who must win the next hand in order to create a kill pot.

So what happens in a kill hand?  The player who met the requirements laid out above posts a kill blind, which is twice the size of the standard big blind.  The players in the small blind and big blind still post their bets as normal.  Thus, in a $1/$2 game, the small blind would be $0.50, the big blind would be $1, and the new kill blind would be $2.  It doesn’t end there, though.  That kill blind is now the minimum bet, so for the duration of the hand, the stakes have doubled.  Our $1/$2 game has become a $2/$4 game!

If the qualifications for a kill hand are hit again, the next hand is once again a kill hand.  In the scenario where it only requires that someone win consecutive pots, then the same person will post the kill blind.  In the scenario where the pot has to reach a certain size, the kill can switch to a different player.

Should the player in the kill blind also be in either the small or big blind, he may or may not be required to post the normal blind.  It just depends on the house rules.

As you might have guessed, kill games can get quite exciting as the stakes ratchet up.  You might wonder, though, why anyone would have invented such a format.  Conventional wisdom is that the kill was created as a means to “even things out” when a donk makes a terrible play and wins a big pot or goes on a lucky run and wins a couple of hands in a row.  The kill blind is not only a way to make that luckbox give some of the money back, but also a way to incentivize him to test his luck even more if he wants to defend his new, larger blind.

The kill hand was created to give tighter players an advantage over looser ones.  Looser players will be at higher risk of losing more chips when the stakes double, while tighter players will be waiting back, ready to strike.  However, the higher stakes often cause the majority of the table to start throwing chips around in hope of hitting that big score.  I am personally a tight player, so the few times I have played in a kill game, I tend to tighten up during kill hands.  Upon reflection, however, I have realized that this isn’t the way to go.

Playing tight isn’t always a bad strategy; always playing kill hands tight is a bad strategy.  Just like in any normal poker game, if you play the same way every time, your opponents will be able to read you like a book.  Therefore, my sage advice is this: play kill hands like you might play any other hand.  If the table tightens up, play looser.  If everyone goes nuts, playing any two cards, wait for a big hand.

If you are an online player, you are likely going to be out of luck when looking for a kill game.  UB.com used to have them, as well as other unique game types such as Crazy Pineapple, but doesn’t anymore.  Online poker rooms have tended towards consolidating their player bases rather than spreading them out over different games.  They have added more Mixed Games over the last year or two, but those still center around Hold’em, Omaha, and Stud; inserting kills into Mixed Games would be awkward.