Poker

[Jwrussell]

OK, so maybe it's not a sport, but hey, I saw gambling and it was the first thing to pop in my head. Let me know if this belongs elsewhere.

Who plays?

I played a small home game Sat night and it was insane. If anyone here has played online and played the low buy-in single table tourneys you'll know the craziness I'm talking about. I took out 2 people and crippled one player ($10 left with $10/$20 blinds (of course tournament chips, not dollars)) in one hand. I got dealt Rockets on the button and had 1 player go all-in just off the blinds, one call, and then another all-in before I went over the top of them all All-in. The other guy called with $10TC left. The Aces held up, strangely enough and I glided to first place within 15 minutes. No one else even had a pair. A,J...K,Q...K,J. Wacky.

 

[coastalwader]

I use to play hold-em in a weekly game in the Houston area. Long time ago. Late 80's early 90's. So long ago I don't remember the particulars, but we used to have a match the pot hickey if you lost. It was at times very brutal.

Fun though!

 

[tedski]

I play Hold 'em on PartyPoker ... but just with funny money.
I don't think I'm good enough to play with my cigar funds just yet.

 

[Wasch_24]

I have been playing dealers choice poker since my teens, yeah yeah I know it's like ten years. Just this past New Years I played some Texas Hold 'em. That game completely changes your betting strategy.
Poker is a very fun game.


Mark, what kind of buyin do you usually play with?

 

[Sean9689]

I host a home game once a week with 9 other guys. We usually have 8-10 per week in the game and play "live" the entire night (no tourney's). Everyone initially buys in for $30, but it goes up from there. We all threw in $20 and created a "points system" to track our winnings/losses through 25 weeks. The guy with the largest positive gets the pot at the end. Right now, I'm +195 after 12 weeks and currently in 2nd.

I also play at the Ameristar Casino 1-2 per month (No Limit, $300 buy in) and Ocean's Eleven when I'm out in SoCal at least one day out of the stay.

Pretty fun game to play...

 

[Kurtdesign1]

I've played it all when it comes to Poker. Holdem since I saw Rounders, Stud since I was in Junior High, Tourneys since I got in good with the Knights of Columbus, weekly games since I learned how to 'lose on purpose', Late night Casino huge pots, late night casino ATM runs, etc. What I've found in the past year or so since Poker has gotten popular is that I've been burned out. I've read books by Skalanski, Brunson, "Mad Poker Genius" Caro and all that knowledge just took away what I enjoyed about the game in the first place; the fun of it. Lately every game I've been in isn't about laughin and drinkin with buddies any more, it's about screwin the guy on your strong side when it comes to money rotation around a table. That's not right for me. Hopefully one day It'll be about fun again. I lived to play this game in High School, I'd love to be that way again.

 

[Pulse]

I host Hold 'Em games at my house for about 5-9 of my friend semi-regularly. We do it just for fun. $20 buy in at a time and you can buy in as many times as you want...We just have a good time.:smt025

 

[Wasch_24]

I really prefer dealers choice poker...it's still "poker" i.e. High card, pair, two pair, etc. but we play games like Black Mariah, Dime Store, Blind Baseball, Seven Card Stud, Jacks to Open Three of a Kind to Win (Can get real long), etc.

Dealers choice is fun for beginners but can get rowdy if folks are drinking. I am really starting to appreciate the art of betting needed in Hold'em.

 

[Jwrussell]

What limit are you guys playing Sean?

I play in a couple of semi-regular games in the neighborhood that are both Tourney style. Used to be $20 at one and $30-50 at the other. THe $30-50 one has recently turned into a "if you see cars, come on over" and $5 buy-in, blinds raised every 6 hands quick tourney. That's where the little story comes from above. I don't mind the smaller buy-ins, easier on the pocket book, but nowhere near as easy to really make any money at it. Went through a period at the other game where I won or came in second 4 times in a row. Was starting to get scary!

I play on Pacific mostly, but my playing has slowed down considerably. I went for probably 6 months playing just about every day and went from $45 up to over 1K. Party Poker took a nice chunk of that when I started playing over there. Got caught up in those damn $25 and $50 NL tables. Oh well, I like the lower intensity playing I'm doing now, makes the game alot more fun.

Oh yeah, and Ted, just some advice that's worth what you payed for it: Play money is worthless and will harm your real money play. If you are at all serious about the game, learning how to play it to make money, those play money tables will do nothing but teach you bad habits.

 

[Jwrussell]

I'm not a fan of dealers choice as the folks I've played it with have more money than I do and like to play crazy ass games.

For instance, I'm sure most of you know "Guts"? The gist incase you don't:
You get three cards. Best hand is royal flush A,K,Q of one suit. So same basic hands, just with three cards. You get dealt your cards, you look then you hold them up over the table. "1,2,3 Guts!" and anyone who is out drops. If you are in and you win then you get the pot, if you lose you MATCH the pot.

Got it so far? Well, the crazy ass host I played with decided to have wild cards AND draws! That means that once you did the 1-2-3 thing, if you were still in, you got to draw.

Well, we had to institute a maximum $50 in and out of the pot at one point to keep people from going broke (there was already 3-4 IOUs in the pot). I got dealt K,K,x where x was the wild card and it was just me and the host. He asked me how many I wanted and I said none. He looked at me, looked at his cards and said, "OH, shit!" and drew two cards. The one he kept was an Ace and the two he drew were 2 of the other 3 wild cards. Figure out the odds on that shit!
Anyway, that's why I like Texas Hold'em and Omaha. Nice easy rules with no weird BS.

Not a huge fan of 7-stud as my memory isn't that great for the up cards that have been discarded.

Kurt, I know what you mean. That's what happened to me (along with a losing streak :lol: ). I'll never play the game the same again, and that's fine with me. I like winning money and I'll do whatever I need to to get the money from the other folks at the table without angle-shooting or any of that crap, but the people I play with all take the game fairly seriously as well, so it's still fun.

 

[Wasch_24]

I'm not as fan of crazy-stupid games like that...I'll usually just sit that one out or fold after the ante.

 

[Jwrussell]

Heh, hard to sit out on those stupid pot games. They take FOREVER. That one game took close to 2.5 hours by itself. I think I folded for about 2 hours of it. Forgot to mention that I had to throw in an IOU on that hand and stayed with it long enough to win it back. Then I was done! :lol:

 

[Wasch_24]

It's also good to establish house rules for that kind of crap. As far as I'm concerned games with that kind of potential aren't poker anyway.

I always play with a limit...time and bet/raise when playing dealers choice.

 

[tubaman]

I play poker with some guys about once a month. Mostly Hold Em and Omaha, 7 card stud sometimes. We have a $50 buy in and you can re buy whenever you want. Mostly for fun. I also play on pokerstars.com, just play money. I'm thinking about entering a tournament on there to see how I do.

 

[Jwrussell]

Best tournaments on the web are at Pacific, IMHO. That is, as far as ease of competition goes. Let me know if you decide to make the jump, and I can hook you up!

 

[Sean9689]

What limit are you guys playing Sean?

We usually have $30 buy in to start (so everyone is even). Then, as the night moves on (and people loose) they rebuy as much as they want. I think the record for the most someone lost at my place was $215 or so.

 

[Wasch_24]

If people can continue to buy in do you set a stop time?

 

[Sean9689]

If people can continue to buy in do you set a stop time?

We don't run tourney's. It's just "live" play, whereas, all the guys can buyin whenever they want as long as they've lost all the chips in front of them. We usually start around 7PM on Monday night and end around 11PM (gotta work!).

I purchased chips from a guy who bought all the chips from the Vinyard Casino. This casino was open for a little over a year and went belly up. It was located in CA and they turned the building into a Church. So, the chips we play with are real casino chips, which makes the game that much more fun.

Also, if you don't have any yet, I suggest purchasing your playing cards through KEM. They use these decks in all major card rooms and casinos. I was playing at the Bellagio when I found out about them. When I got home, I had to have some. They're $20/deck but you won't wear through them like regular card decks. They don't crease and are made of some really cool materials.

 

[tubaman]

If people can continue to buy in do you set a stop time?

Whenever we all pass out.

 

[Pulse]

Hehehe, good question. This was a problem the first few times because I have a hard rule about no one being able to just quit and get "paid out" whenever they want. Originally it was all or nothing. You buy in, your chips stay...period.

Now i've bent that rule a bit and leave it to the last 2 people standing. They can split the pot if they want or continue to play. There is no time limit and some nights do tend to last a lot longer than they should but the majority of the time it works out well. We usually start around 6 or 7pm and end anywhere between 12 and 2am on avg.

I am thinking of putting a "no buy in" rule that would start after like 10 to avoid people having to stay for hours and hours that they may not want to. As you can see....it's a work in progress, but we all have fun. :smt025