thought of this idea and think it'd be fun to try some time (on the forum, not on a poker site as that would be impossible at this moment in time)
imagine playing NLHE, but instead of a single board of community cards, there are as many as 12
let me go through the game:
preflop: exactly the same as normal NLHE, each player getting 2 hole cards and a round of betting
flop: here's where the "squared" bit comes into play
instead of 3 cards, you get 9, arranged in a square
eg:
there are actually 7 flops here, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal from the top left to the bottom right
betting follows as normal
on the turn, 7 more cards are added:
there are now 9 boards with the addition of a horizontal and vertical.
betting as usual, and then on to the river:
there are now 12 boards, horizontal, vertical and both of the diagonals.
another round of betting and the showdown! on showdown players can choose any of the 12 boards to play, and just like in holdem they can use 2, 1 or 0 of their hole cards to make the best hand possible.
why would this game rule? imagine it: action packed, and you'd be able to narrow down your opponent's range significantly as more dead cards are revealed (but of course, it'd be HARDER to guess which board they're playing so that adds an extra dimension). the average winning hand would shoot up to probably a straight, with flushes and full houses occuring frequently
what do you think of this game
