Home Game Question Please Help Thanks

When you are invited to play at a home game do you ask about the stakes and the games that are going to be played at the game before deciding whether you will play or not?

Please answer both parts of the question.


There will be a follow up set of questions to come later but I do not want to poison any responses by asking too many questions at once.

Thanks for the help and your thoughts.

Yes. Why wouldn't you?

umm, yes. I make sure I know the stakes and also make sure someone I trust trusts the person running the game.

This is not a trick question. I need a decent sample size to answer this question so that I may go on to the second phase. Thanks

It would suck to be invited to a game - not ask - then find out you are playing $100.00 a hand go fish. Of course you ask for the stakes and the games.

we understand and i am interested to see, honestly you could not possibly play without knowing the stakes right???

I play in several local homegames and occasionally I'll get invited to a new game. Before I even ask what night they play I ask the stakes and if it's a tourney the average number of players.

Personally I'd just say no thanks and walk away. I'm not interested in playing dealer's choice games with a group of people I don't know. Maybe with my friends and stuff once in a while, but I'm playing to win if I play a game like this and dealer's choice just gets too messy. I'm just looking for straight NLHE cash games.

In terms of your question though, seems like adequate information. Maybe some clarification on how much choice the dealer has. Can he decide to play go fish? Can he make up crazy rules like the 8 of hearts, 3 of clubs, A of diamonds, 9 of spades are wild just to confuse people? What are the typical games the dealer's choose in your game?

I often get invited to various games.

There are a number of questions that I ask prior to making a decision.

1. Is it a cash game or an elimination tourney style game ?
2. If its a tourney style game, are there rebuys/ add ons? what are they?
3. what are the stakes ?
4. Who else will be playing and what is their skill level ?
5. Is there a rake? if so , how much ?
6. if there is a rake, are there dedicated dealers?
7. whats the starting stack?
8. what are the blind levels?
9. and then I will ask general questions about the environment, i.e. privacy / noise levels / etc

all these questions make a huge difference to me, because I am more of a tournaement player, I'll work on my cash game in my own time but not at a live game, I dislike rebuys and prefer freezeout formats, I want to play within my bankroll's means, if there is a rake (especially at a home game) I wanna know why, alot of people are using "fund raising" as an excuse to charge a heft rake of sometimes up to 25%. some places higher.
If there is a rake, what do we get for our money?
I also want to know if the game is going to be private and uninterrupted, if its going to be a noisy affair with kids running around etc, I'm staying home.

What if Dealer's Choice includes games such as :

HickeyO also called Rollo and Petticoats which is Omaha Hi Lo where you can use two or three cards from your hand

Jimmy also called Jimmi three hole cards bet , three card flop bet, players can replace 0, 1, or 2 hole cards final bet high low.

Elkhorn 4 hole cards, 2 card flop, 1 card turn, and 1 card river played high low.

Criss cross also called iron maiden and iron cross this is actually a game that you can find if you do a little searching.

Does the inclusion of these homespun favorites require more disclosure than simple Dealer’s Choice? Appreciate the fact that at the end of the night these will be played table stakes no limit.

I would never play in that home game. To many donk games. To make it simple why don't you all just play go fish cause thats the types of games you are playing. Fishy suck out games.

when I first started playing social poker, as entertainment and a cool way to spend a friday evening, we used to play all variations of community, stud and draw poker, games like southern cross, guts, anaconda, baseball, acey-deucey, butcher boy etc
The set up was dealers choice and wild cards and all sorts of "fun" poker for low limits. Most you could make in an evening of poker was a at most a few hundred rand (like $30) but that was "fun" poker

I no longer play fun poker, I take my poker playing rather seriously and I stick to games like NLHE, Omaha and some stud

No more "4's, whores and one-eyed jacks" or any of that, because that kind of poker is going to have a negative impact on my game.


To be honest I don't even miss "fun" poker because I have fun playing serious poker.

So no, I would never play at a home game like that, if I hear of a game like that on the go, I'll make sure I am doing 180mph in the opposite direction

Can you really have a social game and no limit in the same breath?

Is there added toxicity when you mix the homespun games and remove the limits?

Is this like taking moonshine on a hunting trip?

I play in a live no-limit homegame almost every week. If we mix it up at all it's with a round or 2 of Omaha (PL). And what kind of hunting trip would it be without moonshine??


BTW I also would likely avoid your card game. Any game that you have to explain the rules to me every time we play is not for me.

I certainly wouldn't play those games unless I knew the other players in the game very well. And even then, I wouldn't want to play them for more than pocket change.

To answer the original question, I'd certainly want to know what the stakes and games were going to be ahead of time.

This past week I had a few players who were willing to play in the game until they got the menu consisting of the enticing selections listed earlier. BOth players then gracefully bowed out. Their response was that if its not holdem, omaha, stud, or draw they would pass.

When you get this response twice in a row should the response be shared with the other players for possible consideration and action?

By the way sometimes the damn rules have to be explained to the players sevaral times while the hand is being played and at the end of the game the player still might not know the rank of their hand.

No this is not a joke. This is real Very REAL

I think the message in this is very simple: the completely bizarro games you're playing are discouraging people from joining the game. Just thinking about how the variants you mentioned before would be played makes my head hurt.

If even the regular players are having trouble keeping track of the rules, then it only reinforces the point.

So this is a simple problem of supply and demand. People are demanding games that they know, but you're not supplying them.

I'm really not sure what else you want us to tell you.

I suggested delicately and more forcefully that this may be the case. This is one of the responses that I received.
"One game is a one rule variation on Omaha....and the other is very similar to Pineapple...except the last cards go in your hand instead of community......
The whole idea of poker is to be capable of calculating constantly shifting odds.....
It is the same reason why chess is a better more dynamic game than checkers."
Generally speaking this is a group of exceptionally intelligent people and they need to see that this really is not wise. But they do not like to listen to me. Thus the postings with the hopes of generating some statistically meaninfull measures.

If you want variations, but too many choices are scaring players off, I might suggest using a basic HORSE structure. This would give you 5 games to choose from, giving you consistant variations. You may even tweak this a little. Some people don't like Razz, so you could play HOSE, or you could add in Draw and have HORSED or HOSED. I would just say take a vote (verbal) at the next game and once you pick a version stick with it each time you play. In case you're not familiar with HORSE, it would be...

Hold em
Omaha (regular or high/low, but keep whichever you choose)
Razz
Stud
Eight or better (7 card stud high/low with 8 or less for low)
(D)raw (5 card)

The game changes each trip around the table so everyone pays/plays the same amount of each game. For more info, here's PokerStars page on HORSE with game details.

LOL - see bold above, obviously I've got it all wrong. I thought the whole idea of poker was to win money

You haven't thought of just giving up on these guys and starting your own game? Sounds like you'd have plenty of takers if you just stuck to hold 'em.

^^^ Absolutely. I am not even interested in "Dealer's Choice" games with my friends...

Ok one eyed jacks and anything following a 2, plus the jokers and umm 4s are wild...

I'm with WVHB on this one, we at our home games use the ol' KISS theory

Horse well that idea has been tossed out there unfortunately you did not extrapolate what this evolves into once you add in the homespun specials.

Appreciate the fact that the creators of these homespun specials take pride in their creations. The world just has not had adequate time to appreciate the true genius of these creations.

Notwithstanding, this lapse of fantasy, these are a great group of guys to have at a poker game.

Here is one of the many ironies: the state amateur holdem champion created and seems to prefer playing Jimmi.

Most of the players hold their own wherever they play and whatever game they play. This is not a group devoid of ability.

Obviously the group you play with currently is fine with the "variety" games. I just wouldn't expect to find too many new players willing to join the gang.

Well, if you have 4/5/6 main games you play, you still may want to consider playing a HORSE style game. Each time it's someone's deal. maybe deal it all the way until it goes full circle to the next player. So it would be a ring+1 deal to get to the next player. I personally don't mind playing dealers choice, I just hate when you get a new game, new game, new game, new game... by the time you've played the 4th game, you've forgotten how to play the first two. With this other style, if you had 7 players, the same game would be played 7 times and THEN a new game would be played. This may give new players hope to learn the game since they can fold a hand or two and see action. Just a thought.

That may be the case, but it sounds like it is a group devoid of outside action.

If they want people other than the regulars to join their game, they're going to have to give up the crazy variations - doesn't get any simpler than that.

Mightn't hurt to keep in mind that:

- 9/10 players have probably never heard of Pineapple, let alone the versions you guys have come up with, and
- Working out a regular split pot makes normal people's heads hurt. Playing a high-low game multiplies that pain by ten.

Lets turn the headache into a migraine. One of the players just got a new set of three tier 14 gram chips. These are awesome chips. The only problem is that the $.50 chips look damn similar to the $5 chips. Turn on that less stellar basement lighting and splitting pots gets to be as challenging as the game.

I don't think that NL takes the "fun" OUT OF IT. Basically as long as all players understand and agree to certain limits and no one is blowing thier rent money etc.. it can still be a very friendly game.
Personally, I prefer not to play in 'dealers choice' games, they often are not compatible with "good" poker play and it seems to throw off my game. I prefer to stick to what I know- stud, hold em and maybe occasional draw.

exactly my sentiments, its also why I stick purely to freezeouts and not rebuys.

a rebuy/addon tourney is a different animal, I call it kamikaze poker. for 90 minutes people play like incredible donkeys, then tighten up after the rebuy period and the entire dynamics changes, you cant apply the same strategy to freezeouts where you start tight and loosten up later.

play a few rebuy tourneys so it messes with your head then go play a freezeout and youre all over the place.

Dealer's choice / wild card poker has the same effect, may as well put it in the same class as kamikaze poker.

We had enough players for this house game this weekend. I have asked for comments at a couple forums and couple final tables. I shared some of the key remarks with the players.

A few interesting remarks with merit were retorted
1) this is a social game
2) if we played nothing but holdem it would be boring (this is a 5 hour game)

The social game element would make on presume that winning and losing is a by product rather than the primary way of keeping score of success. Unfortunately, the perennial losers are also the players who are becoming less likely to show up. Sevaral players have been doing some reading to improve their games. Somehow this all does make sense.

Finally, one player admitted that some of these games were created to negate the advantages that other players possessed in the conventional games.

I must thank you all for the remarks and comments they have helped.