[Closed] small ball poker in home games?

When I play in a home game I try to make myself forget about strategy, and just get drunk and have fun. If I try to play serious I just get annoyed at the stupid calls and plays made, so just treat it as a laugh.

If you want some sort of strategy, then play pretty much ABC and value bet like crazy when you hit. You know most of your pots are going to be multi-way so pick hands that have good post flop playability.

if u play also cash home games also small ball might be profitable

small ball poker is for people with small balls

It doesn't work in homegame SnGs. I tried it once and it just didn't work. Limp with suited connectors, big suited cards in any position and any hand you find just under the category mentioned in late position. And raise for value like crazy. 3bb at least. I personally play small-medium pocket pairs a bit more aggressively but it prolly is fine just to limp them. I'd prefer playing cash in homegames because villains are so much more exploitable in this format. Still trying to convince them it's to their advantage to play cash :f_love:. Try to give them solid arguments and then pwn them in cash. If you convince them to change to cash please tell me how you did it.:f_biggrin:

Oh yeah, I play them with friends but I still want to win. If I'd want to play just to get drunk and have fun I'd ask some ladies to play strip poker.

PS: Pick up tells for monsters. All of the guys I play with have one.

yep yep im with u buddy

got a tell on 2 players for their monsters, although they are not the strongest there.

also, i been trying to convince them to play cash... they say its just too complicated dealing with the money etc

i tell them, just use chips with a money value, i can go to the shops to get change for a 20 dollar note plus i have heaps of silver coins around... so its really easy

but it just seems too much hassle for them! dammit... i know i will rape them so hard at cash

RUthless i know, pillaging my family and friends, well fuckit, im a poker player. if i was a rapist id rape, if i was a thief id steal, im a poker player so ill poker them.

p.s. what sort of tells u got on them?

my players arent really experienced, but one guy will tap his holecards when he has a nut hand (lol).

the other guy, acts INSTANTLY with a good hand (for him, toppair good kicker). doesnt matter who had initiative as soon as he seens the flop BAM raise and raise decent size. same on the turn if his hand holding up. really noticeable... like he calls ur raise, then hits twopair on the turn BAM INSTARAISE

when hes bluffing he takes his time

HAHA

How to have fun at home games:

1) Do not look at your hand
2) If noone raised before you, min raise
3) Donk min bet every time its checked to you on flop/turn/river
4) Look at the cards only if someone shows aggression (raises, reraises you), evaluate

One guy is just plain awful and gives evil look and acts super confident with AA. He's done this twice. So that's why I feel it's a legitimate read. He just wants to trap but once it went check all the way with me shoving TP then he minbet A-high flush and I called just because I had the K and thought I might be good.
A tell I have on someone else is the way he bets. When he pushes chips he is bluffing. When he counts the chips and kinda splashes (not Rounders style, just a decent splash, like counting while betting.. <<one chip, two chips, and 5 total nicely stacked in a tower>> ) and gives a short speech like "Let's gamble!" he has a very good hand if not the nuts.
And one I'm not really sure about: he takes a deep breath, maybe loosens up his neck muscles, acts as if he's thinking of folding/checking or not and then raises/bets. Maybe he is doing it on purpose but once he showed trips after all folded and second time he went all in and got called. Showed quads. Although I also played him online on FTP. Got all of his playchips ♠_cool:. If I can play a decent number of hands against them I would surely win. But in a SNG with the blinds raising they don't have time to make so many mistakes because I'll start P/F preflop and they just call if they have it. And one of them usually gets it. But you know about the variance in SNGs so it's not worth discussing it here.

The others are usually nits and when they get in a hand they have AJ+, KJ+ or pocket pair. If they raise they have AQ+, 99+ for sure. Although it looks like standard ABC poker, they just know those are good starting hands but have no idea of post flop play. None of them actually do but they are the worst.

Same problem with me for cash games. Other than that it would have to be for a bigger buy-in. $1.2 SNGs are very high stakes for them and don't want to buy in for something like $3 (in Romanian currency of course) in cash because you can lose it all in a hand and w00t not. I tried explaining that they can rebuy and also they can only play QQ+ if they want. Haven't played live in a while so I might still try to change their minds. At the moment though I'm having fun playing online. Fishy ol' me even started a blog.

PS:You gotta watch The Big Game. It's entertaining but you can also learn from the loose cannon. Don't get me wrong... he is the HOW NOT. He helped me discover a super obvious tell I have: If I'm talking when it gets to me and I have a good hand I just casually raise and keep chatting but when it's marginal I think about it and go into silent mode (d'oh). Good to know!

@zamoda: I got to try that. I think they will be gunning for me with 32o after a while

just concentrate on your game and try to read your opponent if you want to enjoy your game and wanted to win.

I play home cash game regulary. I have nine friends to play with so we usualy play 6-7 handed. They all also play online so I found that small ball just dosn't work. We all love to play post flop and to try to outplay each other, so when you raise small pre flop u get at least 3 callers and at least one to c-bet.
Now I have decided to try another style, I do lot of 3-bets and squeez plays and it is much more profitable then small ball. You get less callers and fold euqity to c-bet is much higher.
Ofcourse, tells are realy important, same as previous history against specific player.
I think this can work to in S'n'G game against weaker players.