Should this be a juicy home game?/ Is this player a fish?

The other night I met a seemingly poker fanatic who invited me to a home cash game that she hosts regularly. This has no rake. However, I have very little cash game experience(I have played cash game 1100 hands and don't understand basic cash game theory, but have read Harrington on Hold'em vol. 1&2 and watched a fair few online videos) and was wondering if you guys could tell me if you'd think this player is a fish or not, going upon what she said:

She told me that it was a cash game, to which I replied, "I'm not experienced with them but I think one must play tight(something like that anyway)" and she replied, "nah if you play tight you will loose. You gotta play loose. It's common to see hands like 47 win. You miles as well throw away your high cards.(close enough to what she said)"

I played a short stack heads up game with her, it was play money. One hand she fired out a bluff on a non dangerous board on the flop; she went 3x the pot to which I criticized as a bad play. I said to her that just betting the pot would have achieved the same thing, but she said that she wanted to charge you to chase my random pairs, she was so convinced that the play was correct.

Another hand(the first hand) she criticized my play a fair bit and she was convinced, as was her daughters, that it was a bad play, no doubt about it. Here it is:

Villian (SB) 1475: limps
Hero (BB) (J6o)1450: checks
Pot=100

Flop: 987 rainbow

Hero bets 75
Villian raises to 250
Hero goes all in

I did the math and she needed to fold 40% of the time for that play to be neutral EV( I used the 3 J high cards in the deck as 1.5 outs, can someone PLEASE tell me if this is correct to do) This play also has the added advantage of making her play a little bit more straight forward against me and bluff less, consequently making the game easier. So was this such a bad move?

She also said that they are usually between 6-12 handed. Her daughter told me that she is the best of all the players that play there.


EDIT: I should add she called my all in raise(the hand with the J6o) with 94

In my experience of home cash games people hardly raise before the flop and most hands everyone will limp with everything. This means that odd hands (47o) will win a lot of pots as they have the chance to hit.

She sounds pretty fishy by online standards (no-one would ever really bluff over the pot) but maybe in her homegame environment her tactics work perfectly.

I usually jump at the chance to play homegames because people are often just so poor. I would probably go along with no serious ambitions and play similar to how you play online but be prepared to adjust to odd players who don't really understand the game. Most in my circles seem to be extremely loose/passive.

A few things you might do against loose/passive:
- Raise more preflop with strong hands. Some tables have groups of players who will call almost anything preflop with any hand so just raise extra to get more money in while you are ahead.

- Watch out for raises postflop. While a call postflop might be almost any hand (they think they have good odds to catch a middle pair or something) a raise is much more likely to be a strong MADE hand.

- Don't make fancy bluffs. A bad player will NOT fold top pair to any amount of betting.

There is no buy-in limit either; how would this effect the game(I can play with 1BB or 1000000BB)

This chick sounds like fishcakes to me, but who knows maybe she's telling you to dump you big cards as some kind of head game to get you thinking differently about your game. Then I saw that she bumped you 3x the pot on a bluff, and decided she's fishcakes.

"no buy-in limit"

But the game is no-limit I assume?

I would probably buy in for around 100BB and if the table is very controlable/loose passive buy up to cover everyone and go for heavy valuetown with absolute monsters.

Depends how good you are at pot control/deepstack play.

is it bad that I play in a decent home game? we only play with .10/.20 blinds, but the play is actually good. At most 3 players to a flop on average, aggressive is the game. Some of them are a little aggrofish or a little passive, but overall pretty damn good. :-/

never ever explain to a player why he is bad, never ever help someone beat you. Never ever ever do anything that indicates how you play. unless you want to have sex with her of coure.

Sounds to me like a set-up.

I wouldve said the same thing to you after you told me your pretty much dead money.

Shes trying to use your inexperience to make you play looser.



Never ask the person whos inviting you how to play. Its just a bad look. Poker is Poker. And in Poker you often have to make adjustments on the fly.


If their tight, be loose. If their loose, be tight. Obviously it will take more than that but you get the idea.

Most home games are full of chum.

I was thinking the exact same thing, but with the 3x bluff bet that seems unlikely, unless that is a set up too

If you are worried then:
1. Don't play for any more money than you can afford to lose.
2. Play your normal online game.

Adjustments are great but don't go mental. It is after all still just poker.

The only decent homegame I have ever played in was one in my halls of residence at university where my friends had watched me play a few tournaments in the past and we discussed lots of hands. They got quite good (and played very similarly to me) but we weren't playing for any money.

I would be a bit leery if I were you...If she is in fact completely obsessed with poker, then she knows the game and she knows the game well. It's ridiculous to think that playing low cards over high cards will pay out in the long run. Sure, you could gamble and get lucky on the flop but the odds of that happening are not great.

If you decide to play, play it tight! I recommend playing around 15% of your hands until you get a feel for the game as it's vastly different than playing in a tournament. I learned tournament style poker before playing in cash games, and it took me a few tries to adjust to them and to feel more comfortable playing in them but now I'm playing in cash games more than tournaments and I'm loving it! I know you will too once you've grasped the concept, which is never as difficult as we make it out to be in our minds.