STRIP POKER

'Strip poker' is a variant of the card game of poker, in which the rules require players to remove articles of clothing in response to various events.

Contents

Rules

Popularity

On TV and video

Tournaments

Computer games

Rules

The game can be played based on any variety of poker, with the same number of players, dealing and betting rules, and other details. It usually starts with all players wearing an equal number of articles of clothing. There are a number of ways in which the standard rules can then be developed into strip poker, with varying degrees of similarity to the poker betting found in casinos. Like many other adult party games, the rules are often flexible, and other activities can be included besides playing cards.
;Basic Strip Poker Rules
In strip poker, instead of playing for cash, people play for clothes. Alternately, the game can start out with people playing for money, and when players run out of cash, they must offer up articles of clothing to remain in a hand. Whether the clothes are removed before or after the hand varies. Generally, any variation of poker can be played, or any game at all, though usually simpler games with fewer betting rounds -- such as five card draw or one of its variations -- are used to keep the game simple.
;How Much Is Each Article Worth?
Before the game begins, players should agree to the value of different clothing items. For example, if a sock is worth one unit, is a shirt worth two? Similarly, is it possible for people to buy back clothes?
;Losing and Winning
Generally, a person loses when they have lost all their clothing. The winner is usually the last person with clothes.

Popularity

The popularity of strip poker has been greatly increased largely due to TV shows and web sites. With broadband Internet connections players often use webcams, microphones and multi-user video chat rooms to play strip poker against each other. The game appeals to people of all ages and is often played with a "truth or dare" twist added to it.

On TV and video

A game show called ''Strip Poker'' aired in 2000 in late night weeknights on the USA Network and their former chain of broadcast stations, USA Broadcasting. The program was a general knowledge quiz show, albeit one where contestants took off (some of) their clothing. Though it involved cards in poker hands, the resemblance to the actual game was distant, as the contestants also had multiple layers of underwear on to extend the length of the game, and did not fully undress due to broadcast standards.
Other regular strip poker-based TV shows include:

★ ''Tutti Frutti/Colpo Grosso'' (Germany/Italy - 1990),

★ ''Räsypokka'' (subTV - Finland - 2002),

★ ''Strip!'' (RTL II - Germany - 1999),

★ ''Everything Goes'' - (USA, 1981–1988).
Strip poker productions often involve a group of all-female players. Famous strip poker productions were probably ''National Lampoon's Strip Poker'' and ''Strip Poker Invitational''. Both productions featured a group of female players made up of ''Playboy'' or World Wrestling Entertainment models together with pin-up models competing in unscripted, no limit, Texas Hold 'em poker competition. The productions for National Lampoon were filmed in their entirety at the Hedonism II resort in Negril, Jamaica, whereas ''Strip Poker Invitational'' productions were filmed in Las Vegas. Both productions aired on Pay-Per-View in 2005. ''National Lampoon's Strip Poker'' was the first title in National Lampoon's history to feature full frontal female nudity; veteran ''Playboy'' model Taylor Kennedy won the first episode.

Tournaments

In April 2006, as an April Fool's Day joke, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power announced their intention to stage a strip poker tournament. The level of interest generated by this announcement persuaded Paddy Power to stage such a tournament for real, the World Strip Poker Championships on August 19, 2006 in London's Café Royal. Paddy Power intended this to be the largest ever tournament of its kind and the company has been recognised by Guinness World Records as having hosted the world's largest strip poker tournament (196 players). Paddy Power's tournament in London was eventually won by Jon Young, a 32-year-old freelance writer and artist from Slough, Berkshire, United Kingdom.

Computer games

The first ''Strip Poker'' computer game was written by the German game designer Dieter Eckhardt in the late 1970s using the computers of an astronomical observatory near Düsseldorf. Strip Poker computer games were produced from the earliest stages of video game production with very basic low resolution graphics and have continued to be released, increasingly from pornospecialist distributors using video sequences of models taking off one piece of clothing at a time. The growth of the internet has also seen some interactive strip poker websites where people can play against each other via webcams or sets of still pictures.