Some Help needed on my home game

    • skitzo
      skitzo
      Bronze
      Joined: 14.02.2008 Posts: 5
      Hi all,

      Newbie here trying to gain some advice on this home game i usually go to.

      Some general points on the game itself. Almost everybody is loose passive as i'm sure most friendly home games are. Meaning, you have people who frequently limp in with AQ/AK. Even KKs and AAs occasionally. This made it hard for me to put anybody on a hand, and forced me to play a really tight 3betting game, cause i have played AJ-AQ like the nuts (when there were 1-2 players in the hand), thinking i'm ahead of thier range, only to get valued town myself on several occasions.

      3Betting the limpers will only bloat the pot as everybody is usually gonna call even 10x reraises preflop.

      I have been generally winning by adopting a limping strategy myself to get to a cheap flop with hands that have good potential (set mining, suited conenctors). Also playing premium hands really aggressively, which is really good since alot of them are calling stations.


      Recently we have upped the blinds, but everybody is buying in for like 50BBs instead. I feel that this kills my see-cheap-flop strategy as the implied odds i could get has drastically reduced. At the same time i do not want to play a super tight game although i'm sure it would be profitable, but as we only average 70-100 hands per session, i might be waiting for the cows to come home before i get any kind of hand.

      Any input is greatly appreciated.:)
  • 3 replies
    • tokyoaces
      tokyoaces
      Bronze
      Joined: 01.04.2009 Posts: 1,883
      You shouldn't be trying to "beat" your home game for a profit. Relax, have fun, enjoy your friends. Online poker is for making the monies.
    • woopstash
      woopstash
      Bronze
      Joined: 14.01.2010 Posts: 94
      You may not want to "beat" your buddies at a friendly home game, but you certainly don't want to lose either. If you like me and one of the only guys that plays online poker, you can't be the guy that always loses at these donkaments.

      Play tight early, and looser in late position. If everyone's going to limp, play any suited connectors or one-gappers, any suited Ace from Late position and just hope to hit the one big hand that these calling stations will pay you off on.

      Cbetting with a missed big Ace is probably not going to work as they'll just call with their top pair with J8o anyway.

      This sounds so much like my home game. No one respects a raise. They just play poker once every other week, and a $0.4 raise seems like nothing to them so they call just to see the flop.

      Hilarious
    • kosmonaut111
      kosmonaut111
      Bronze
      Joined: 26.01.2009 Posts: 715
      • 21.03.2010, 11:51
      • This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by kosmonaut111: 21.03.2010 11:55.
      It seems that you are playing with too high blinds, if everyone buys in for 50BB. I'd reccomend to lower the blinds and play deepstacked (200+BB buyin). It is much more fun in home games. We have also a minimum buyin of 100BBs. Maximum is not limited (we buy in usually with 200BBs)
      BTW beating friends in home games is much more fun than beating fishes in internet :D
      And about the strategy: it is good to limp in hands with big pot potential, specially if opponents pay off easily. If you are only 50BBs deep, you should play preflop aggressively with good hands (not only AK, QQ+ but also 99+ , AJ+, KQ - it seems that they call with worse even in 3bet pots).
      And valuetowning yourself: if you have AQ on Q38r flop and someone calls your bets with AA, it just happens:P , more often they have Q6 or something like that.