Sugar Lips

Our poker group in Ann Arbor plays a plethora of different games. It’s dealer’s choice, and as long as the game isn’t a progressive game, and there aren’t wild cards, then it is usually allowed. The game that often trips newcomers up when they join the fray is called Sugar Lips, and I believe it is the best poker game ever invented.

First, some history on the game. As legend has it, Nick and Ocho’s step-dad, Bob, invented the game 15 or so years ago. It was his turn to deal, and he was busy eating a powdered donut. Someone reminded him that it was his turn to deal, and asked, “What’s the game, Sugar Lips?”

Faced with a new nickname, he responded that the game he was dealing was called Sugar Lips, and proceeded to deal the game that we know and love.

The game is a five card roll’em game. Each player is dealt five cards face down. They look at the cards and place them in a stack in the order that they would like to reveal them.

It’s a hi-lo game, meaning that the pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand. The real trick though, is reading your opponent to determine whether the are going high or low, based on the presentation of their cards.

Once every player has their cards stacked in front of them, each player turns over the top card. We play with blinds, so the first player to act is left of the big blind. Players may either call, fold, or raise. Many players will fold, even in the big blind after no raise, because they don’t want to get sucked in and make a mistake.

After the first round of betting, a second card is revealed by each player. The player with the best showing high hand is the first to act, and then play continues to the left around the table. There is a pot limit to the betting, meaning that no bet can be more than what is in the pot at the time of the bet.

Once we complete the fourth round of betting, then it is time for players to declare whether they are going for the high hand, the low hand, or if they believe that they can win both the high and the low hand. We declare by taking two chips under the table, and then bringing one hand into the middle of the table in a fist. Once all participating players have put their hands in the middle, then we open our hands to reveal whether we are holding no chips (declaring that we are going low), one chip (declaring that we are going high), or two chips (declaring that we believe we have the best low hand and high hand).

If a player holds two chips when they declare, then they must win both the high hand and the low hand outright (no ties), or they win nothing and are eliminated from contention.

In Sugar Lips, going “both” high and low almost never happens. Someone would have to have no pair in their hand, and hold an ace, which could play both high and low to win both outright. In this game, I never take two chips under the table, just so I can avoid the possibility of making this mistake.

Because there are so many rounds of betting, the pots can often be very big, and huge chip stack swings often occur during these games.

When I first joined this poker group, I really struggled with this game as I just didn’t have a good sense of what a playable hand was in this game, so I didn’t fold enough. There’s also a lot of nuance involved in reading the players, and the stories that they are telling with their card presentation and betting strategy.

For new players, the first thing that is helpful to know is what constitutes a good low hand. We have a rhyme for that. More on that in a second.

The best possible low hand is 6-4-3-2-A. While it’s possible to lose with something like 6-5-4-2-A, really any hand where you have a six low, should be a winner, and you should never fold.

In fact, after the first year or so of losing my shirt at this game, I began to deal this game out, six hands at a time to get a better understanding of what was a good starting hand. In found after dealing nearly 2,000 times, that a six low hand occurred only 0.15% of the time, so it is nearly a sure winner. So, a six low hand doesn’t even play into our rhyme for new players to understand what a good low hand would be. That rhyme goes like this:

7 is heaven

8 is great

9 is fine

10 think again

Jack is whack

That rhyme basically will work as a guideline for new players. My friend Brian would argue that a 10 low is also “fine,” and he’s probably right. In a six man game, a 10 low or better is dealt about 11% of the time, so it likely is a winner statistically speaking. If you get up to a 9-man game, then it probably is a hand that you should fold.

As far as playable high hands, a good pair probably wins most of the time. In fact, I’ve found that two pair or better is only dealt about 7% of the time. If you have three of a kind or better, then you should win 97+% of the time in a six-man game.

We have additional variations of this game, but Sugar Lips is certainly the one most often played. In fact, this year, on my birthday, I plan to host a Sugar Lips tournament, and I can’t wait to see how that plays out.

Other variations include “Hot Lips,” which is an ode to Loretta Swit’s character of Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the 70’s sitcom M*A*S*H*. In this game, players are dealt six cards, and have to discount one before we play the traditional Sugar Lips. Essentially it just changes the rhyme by about a half level from what was presented above.

We also play a variant called “Mick Jagger,” where we play five card draw for the first round of betting, then place our cards down and play Sugar Lips. Botox can only be played with five or fewer players, and we deal 10 cards to each player who then must split their cards into two different Sugar Lips hands. We continue to be amazed by the amount of times that no one gets a good hand in this variation.

In summary, Sugar Lips has become the game that defines our poker group, and is by far my favorite game. The combination of math, psychology, storytelling, and poker strategy make it the ultimate test of one’s poker skills.