Deck of Random Outcomes - How big should it be?

I'm working on a game that is a simulation of poker.

I know this sounds strange, but bear with me for a moment. You are playing someone who is playing in a dirty poker game. So rather than actually play poker, you are controlling the things they are doing to, shall we say "improve their odds" so to speak.

I want the game to have a big poker feel, but be based way more on strategy than on luck, so to speak.

However, like in poker, if you have a really bad hand, there is a lot of incentive to just stay out of the game because you can only "improve your luck" so much. So I want to introduce a pot splitting mechanic. Both as a carrot to keep people in the game longer, and also as a way for more advanced players to utilize strategy a bit more.

Basically, the game starts out with players being dealt a hand of 5 cards and putting in an Ante. I haven't decided on big blind/little blind, or anything exciting like that - though that mechanic does seem like it would keep things moving better.

Then players commit to a "hand of cards" face down in front of them. Each card in the deck has a hand listed on it - 5 cards - that is worth a quantity of points. From 2 pair, to a Royal Flush. Each card, in addition to having a poker hand on it, has modifiers and abilities on it - so choosing your hand is not necessarily as simple as picking the hand with the most points, as the card might have an ability on it that would serve you better in the game. After committing to a hand, there's a betting round. People can fold at this point as per normal.

Then people play cards from their hands onto other players. Each player can have a total of 5 cards played on them (or play them on themselves). These will be cards that add value to, or subtract value from, the committed hand. In addition they may have special effects. After each player has 5 modifier cards, there's a betting round, with people able to fold etc.

Then, the pot-split card is revealed. This might be something like "Hi-Low", or "Winner Take All", or "Lowest Spade" or something like that. These will refer to your committed hand - unrelated to the points modifiers. It's this part that I'm trying to get more information on (but I'll come back to it in a sec). Then there is another betting round, people can fold etc.

Then there's the reveal (unless there's only 1 player left in the game). Each player would reveal the point value of their hand (with modifiers), and that player would win half of the pot (except in a winner take all game), and the person (aside from the winner) who met the conditions for the pot split would take the rest.

Now that second deck, the pot-split deck (or the "game" deck as some people call it) is my enigma. I don't know how big to make it! I want it to be random (as I said, this is an incentive to keep people with bad hands in the game so it doesn't take so long) but predictable. Certain cards in Phase II may let you peak at this deck (maybe a card at the bottom, maybe even the top card), so there is some ways to glean information - and if the deck is small enough that people generally know what the cards are, then there is some predictability as the game progresses to what pot-splits haven't shown up yet. This deck, also, might be the game clock. Once the deck has run out, the person with the most chips wins.

So question time since I find specific questions tend to be more useful.

1. How many poker hands are typically played at your friendly table in about 60 minutes?
2. How many different cards from a typical deck do you remember well enough to start expecting one to show up?
3. What are some of your favorite Split-the-Pot poker variants?
4. What do you think of the game concept as a whole?

Thanks for your feedback!