How to Play Strip Poker
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Strip poker has been a staple of dorm-room parties and video game consoles since, well, since dorm rooms and video games were invented.
Would it surprise you to hear strip poker has been around since poker itself was invented? Probably not, we'd guess.
While the earliest references to poker show it being born around the 1830s and loosely related to the French game Poquer, the first references to strip poker aren't far behind.
How did they play strip poker back then? And how many variations of strip poker can you find (and play) nowadays? We're here to help answer your important strip poker questions.
We'll get to the history of strip poker below and cut right to what you're probably looking for right at the top:
Well, the truth is you can play strip poker any numbers of ways and work in your own variations and adaptations as you see fit. There are, however, a few simple rules or guidelines that can strip poker run a little smoother.
You can, of course, play strip poker in any variant you want (5-Card Omaha, anyone?) but the best approach for a strip poker game is to keep it simple.
The point, after all, isn't exactly to see who can grind out a tiny profit over 100,000 hands online. The point is to get to the removal of clothing as quickly as possible which means simpler, easier-to-follow poker games are best.
The average player in a strip poker game does not have a high-level understanding of poker rules and strategy so Texas Hold'em and 5-Card Draw are nice easy games to understand and play. If you need a refresher for how to play each game, check our rules pages here:
You can play strip poker with those games in their full form or you can also obviously make the games even simpler if desired.
With a Texas Hold'em game, for example, you can simply deal the hole cards all face up and then deal the board in full without any betting rounds. The player with the worst 5-card hand then removes an article of clothing. Or the two worst hands do. Whatever you like.
If you want to get your kits off really fast, only the winner of the hand keeps his or her clothes on and everyone else removes an article of clothing.
If you want to play the standard game with chips and betting you can of course do that and have the loser(s) of the hand remove an article of clothing. That makes the chips somewhat redundant though.
The way many people do it is to make one article of clothing removed the cost of losing a hand. Some like to make an article of clothing something you can bet (or raise) with as well. More on strip poker variations below.
With 5-Card Draw you can cut out the betting rounds altogether and simply have one draw, then flip the cards face up to see who has the worst (or best) hand.
Another way to speed up or simplify the game is to agree beforehand on what constitutes a piece of clothing. Do hats count? Are socks one or two? What about glasses? How about earrings?
In keeping with the good nature of the game you don't want to get in a heated debate about what counts or not in the middle of things. Just decide beforehand or even out the amount of clothes everyone is wearing.
Is it over when one player is completely naked? When one player has reached their underwear? When only one person is left with any clothes? Can players already naked keep playing and win back items of clothes?
Again, it's entirely up to you and your strip poker partners how you want to determine a winner but it's good to set a framework beforehand. Or not.
Strip poker really takes on a life of its own so even if you've set out with a plan that can change in the moment. If everyone is happy and having a good time, go with the flow, too!
Just basic naked etiquette, really.
A straight forward game of Strip Poker tends to work out just fine for all involved but there are several variations you can work in to up to stakes so to speak.
Here are a few different styles of Strip Poker games you can try out.
Let the Winner Pick Who Strips
The winner of the hand gets to decide which other player removes an article of clothing. If you're playing a very simplified version of poker that is entirely the luck of the draw, this can work out well as the winners are usually spread around fairly evenly.
If you're playing a form of "real" poker, with chips and betting rounds, this will obviously favor the better poker players. If you do play this variation it's important that it doesn't feel predatory with one player controlling all of the unrobing - unless of course that's what you're angling for.
Let Players Fold Before the Flop
To slow down the game a bit and make some of the more timid players feel a bit more comfortable you can always give an opt out clause early in the hand and let players fold without losing an article of clothing.
This can make the early part of the game more relaxing and allow someone who has lost a lot of items early time to catch up a little to everyone else.
The ultimate goal of most strip poker games is to make everyone feel comfortable and have fun so this opt out clause can really help. You might want to put a cap on the number of times a player can fold, though, as there can obviously be some people who take advantage of it.
Bet Clothes Per Hand
Another variation you can mix in is to replace any chips (if you're using them) with clothes. Eg the ante to play a hand can be one item of clothing but to go further in each betting round you have to put another item in the pot.
This works well if you're short on time or want to have each hand taken seriously. Not a game for the amateurs, though.
Allow Players to Win Back Clothes
If you want to keep everyone in the game for longer you can always let players who have disrobed win back clothes if they win a hand. It can make the "stripping" process take a little longer but can actually add a nice level of intrigue to the game.
Add in Some Truth or Dare
Another way to extend the game and allow players who have lost all their clothes to keep playing in to add in a Truth or Dare option. Instead of losing an item of clothing a losing player can opt for a Truth or Dare. You can add this in when a player hits the underwear level, for example, to keep the game a bit more modest.
Alternate Men and Women Removing Clothing
If you're playing a co-ed game of strip poker you can easily implement an alternating pattern to the disrobing. If a female player loses an article of clothing the next hand you can make the male player with the worst hand take off an article of clothing and keep the ladies exempt.
Again, with any game of strip poker the object is fun and a bit of titillation so mix in your own variations as you see fit.
As we mentioned since the advent of the PC or video game consoles there have been computer simulated strip poker games you can play. Programmers who spent a lot of time in their parents' basements need to have some titillation, too, it seems.
Back in the early days of computing these were obviously heavily pixelated and far from "sexy," but it didn't stop them from being spread around liberally.
The first Strip Poker game for PC was put out in 1982 by Artworx and was called "A Sizzling Game of Chance." The artwork wasn't especially impressive and it looked like, well, 1982, but it did inspire several generations of spin-off strip poker games still being produced today.
Among the legacy of strip poker video games you could find and play on various consoles:
Sexy Poker for the Nintendo Wii might be the high water mark as far as graphics and game play go but infamous men's magazines like Swank and Playboy even tried to take things one step further with actual real-money poker rooms.
They failed to take off, and it wasn't "exactly" strip poker, but it's likely only a matter of time before the two are combined again.
Just kidding. We mentioned this above so we figured we should deliver at least the header. But you didn't really think we cared about the history of strip poker, did you?
There were card games. Then people found a way to play them and get people to strip. Men with men, too! That's pretty much it.
There have, of course, been a few very notable (and publicized strip poker tournaments played over the years. The Paddy Power World Strip Poker Championship in London in 2006 is one of them, and it in fact holds the Guinness Book of World Records record for biggest strip poker tournament ever.
John Young was the champion and earned 10,000 GBP. You'll have to look online yourself for the pictures ...
There was also a rather famous DVD of a strip poker tournament featuring celebrity Carmen Electra and poker pro Erica Schoenberg, now married to poker pro Erick Lindgren.
We're sorry to report there's no place to play real-money strip poker online. Or not really sorry ... but you know what we mean. There are, however, lots of online games and apps where you can play strip poker.
None are affiliated with a traditional poker site however. If you want to get truly creative you can set up a home game at PokerStars and play with that special someone and play by your own rules via webcam (You didn't hear that here).
But otherwise, it's just play-money apps and online games of various (read: dubious) quality. If you're interested in playing or setting up your own home game with friends, strip or not, try creating a new account and PokerStars via our review for a $600 bonus:
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