Dealers Choice Home Game Question

[hachkc]

Does anyone use an all blinds format when playing in a dealers choice game? What I mean is that any game you play (stud, draw, holdem, omaha, razz, etc), the first round always starts with a SB and BB instead of an ante where appropriate. Currently, when we play dealers choice its usually an ante for stud, draw and some other games. For holdem and omaha, we use blinds and everyone needs to deal a hand so the blinds even out.

Anyone done this before and have any ideas on where this should work.

Thanks.

[PokerGoblin]

Hey

You can't use blinds in a stud game it's rediculous. In my home game we have the dealer ante .50 for everyone at the table, so for a 6 handed game the dealer antes $3. It works out the fairest that way.

Where in MI are you? What limits do you generally play?

PG

[hachkc]

1. I wouldn't say blinds in stud is ridiculous, its not much different than they play in Greektown where they use a bring in (low up card by suit must open). The blinds would only apply to the first round and subsequent rounds would be played as normal (best up cards has option to bet).

2. SE Michigan, Lake Orion area.

[PokerGoblin]

the bring in is standard in any casino stud game, and we have a bring in in our home game as well.

Blinds are a ton different than the bring in, because a different player can start the betting on each round.

PG

[TenPercenter]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey

You can't use blinds in a stud game it's rediculous. In my home game we have the dealer ante .50 for everyone at the table, so for a 6 handed game the dealer antes $3. It works out the fairest that way.


[/ QUOTE ]

We used to do it that way when I lived in Seattle. The ONLY reason was that my buddy and I got tired of waiting for the "I'm in" to go araound the table, and trying to figure out who didn't ante. Plus it was always the same six guys, and no one sat out hands. Otherwise I'd have each poerson ante his own.

Ten

[smoore]

Dealers choice per hand can get sticky like that, it's much easier if every "choice" is a whole orbit. Just use your holdem dealer button for the "choice". Each game can then be played correctly with either blinds or antes and no one gets screwed.

If we're doing blinds in a dealer's choice game I usually recommend that the blinds are dead for ante games and it's treated like everyone's ante. Sucks for the blind posters but I've only gotten complaints a couple times. I'm always willing to change seats to two to the left of the guy that calls stud every time so I'm the one getting stuck posting dead.

[ThinkQuick]

Holy moly.
I don't know exactly where to put this, but I just wanted everyone to know how very excited I was to open the home poker forum and have the top 3 threads, and 50%of my first page threads non-chip-related!
Hmm reading that I kind of look like a jerk. I don't mean to insult - I love some of the chipsets that have been produced and am glad that people can get extensive and detailed answers about chip quality and companies. However, I was also very glad to see some questions about other facets of home poker come up and not get buried.

[smoore]

bump!

I totally agree ThinkQuick. Chips are cool, I love them... there's a lot more to poker than gear though /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[theRealMacoy]

Hello Gentlemen,

I reiterate that some discussion around actual playing home poker is a nice change. Although, I love being a voyeur and checking out the sweet new chips sets.

In the poker league that I organize we do the full orbit thing as well. One full orbit with blinds and you can play all the HE, Omaha and draw varitations (with the dealer deciding). The next full orbit is with a forced bring-in bet (low card showing pays in high games) combined with a small ante by the dealer each time (for the table). With this we can play all the stud variations (again dealer's choice). At the end of the full orbit we get table concensus as to what we do next. Basically all the games are covered and you can still mix it up during the orbit.

Ps. We have been playing a lot of double flop HE, which always gets a lot of action. We just added double flop Omaha, which is a crazy variation with even more action. Anyone else try this?

[Fins]

[ QUOTE ]
Hello Gentlemen,

I reiterate that some discussion around actual playing home poker is a nice change. Although, I love being a voyeur and checking out the sweet new chips sets.

In the poker league that I organize we do the full orbit thing as well. One full orbit with blinds and you can play all the HE, Omaha and draw varitations (with the dealer deciding). The next full orbit is with a forced bring-in bet (low card showing pays in high games) combined with a small ante by the dealer each time (for the table). With this we can play all the stud variations (again dealer's choice). At the end of the full orbit we get table concensus as to what we do next. Basically all the games are covered and you can still mix it up during the orbit.

Ps. We have been playing a lot of double flop HE, which always gets a lot of action. We just added double flop Omaha, which is a crazy variation with even more action. Anyone else try this?

[/ QUOTE ]
Ditto your comments. I play with a group of regulars (I'm the noob) with dealer ante and progressive betting 25¢ 1st round, 50¢ 2nd, 75¢ 3rd etc... All games are split hi/lo declare and dbl flops are common - almost always Omaha... definitely good for action. Not crazy about the structure... I'd rather orbit and stick to the non-crazies! It still makes for fun and the hi/lo which I think sux does allow for break even nights for most. The dbl omaha is one of the few crazy games I like.

- Fins

[warewulf]

My dealers choice game has the dealer post all the antes. I have also done rounds which works well. Blinds only work if you do a whole round.

[theRealMacoy]

[ QUOTE ]
Ditto your comments. I play with a group of regulars (I'm the noob) with dealer ante and progressive betting 25¢ 1st round, 50¢ 2nd, 75¢ 3rd etc... All games are split hi/lo declare and dbl flops are common - almost always Omaha... definitely good for action. Not crazy about the structure... I'd rather orbit and stick to the non-crazies! It still makes for fun and the hi/lo which I think sux does allow for break even nights for most. The dbl omaha is one of the few crazy games I like.

- Fins

[/ QUOTE ]

yo Fins,

Do you play double flop (HE or Omaha) with high/low? Tell me how that works out. I thought it would be too chaotic with both flops being split for a total of 4 pots.

the Real Macoy

[Fins]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you play double flop (HE or Omaha) with high/low? Tell me how that works out. I thought it would be too chaotic with both flops being split for a total of 4 pots.

the Real Macoy

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, we play both but mainly Omaha. It's all declare and perfect is 6,4 w/ straights/flushes negating a low. There is only one pot to split and you can play from either line but not across lines. If you're trying to scoop you can play hi on one line & low on the other. Must win both to scoop as typical... also no ties. It would be chaotic to play each line seperately. FWIW, we play a bet & 3 raises caps per round.

- Fins

[BNO]

Our regular game is 1-2 limit, and we play with a single $1 blind for flop games and, for stud games, a single $1 dead ante posted by the player to the dealer's left, plus a $1 bring in from the low card. The big change we made, though, to keep it fair, was having each person's chosen game go for a whole round. That way, no one gets screwed because they're always to the left of a person who calls stud every time.

If you're going to use an ante posted by all, you have to have the dealer post for everyone. Otherwise, every other hand is a fight about who didn't post because the pot is short.

[theRealMacoy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Do you play double flop (HE or Omaha) with high/low? Tell me how that works out. I thought it would be too chaotic with both flops being split for a total of 4 pots.

the Real Macoy

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, we play both but mainly Omaha. It's all declare and perfect is 6,4 w/ straights/flushes negating a low. There is only one pot to split and you can play from either line but not across lines. If you're trying to scoop you can play hi on one line & low on the other. Must win both to scoop as typical... also no ties. It would be chaotic to play each line seperately. FWIW, we play a bet & 3 raises caps per round.

- Fins

[/ QUOTE ]

Aha!
Thanks for the clarification Fins.
We have been playing all our double flop HE and OM as split pots (one half for each flop). It actually works out quite well and there is still the opportunity to scoop both sides. Incorporating high/low declare will be excellent for the double flop Omaha. We have always played with the wheel for low and straights/flushes not counting againts low. Do you see any difficulty in using this for the double flop Omaha high/low declaration?

Cheers,
the Real Macoy

[MeridianFC]

What kind of clay chips would you recommend? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

FWIW in my ring game which we play as Dealer's Choice (or sometimes a Forced Rotation), when it's dealer's choice that player will call the game out of the legal choices for our club (Hold 'Em, Omaha Hi/Lo 8, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo 8) we do one circuit of the table, when it get back to the person who called the game it actually skips over him to the player to his left. This keeps the blind structure even if flop games are called.

For stud games to keep things simple, the dealer antes for the table. Maybe not exactly startegically even, but it speeds things up and since all games make one rotation everyone has to stand the antes.

[smoore]

[ QUOTE ]
What kind of clay chips would you recommend?


[/ QUOTE ]

I find that using different colors for different denominations works out GREAT!

[hachkc]

Thanks for all the replies.

Sorry for the late thanks but I've wanted to spend sometime on my response. My issue is I wanted to avoid the "Everyone deals around" and come up with some scheme that was fair to everyone (blinds/antes) and easy to manage. I thought the "All Blinds, All the Time" might work but it sounds like the idea may be just a bit too far out there.

Personally, I think the following setup is the fairest:
1. Everyone deals a round.
2. Blinds for HE, Omaha.
3. Dealer antes for Stud, Draw.

I'm not a huge fan of the "Everyone deals a round" because there are some games I don't like and some games others don't care for and now you have to play it 6-8 times in a row.

Thanks again.

[theRealMacoy]

actually you can play draw with blinds as well. doing a round of blind play gives alot of choice: OM HE and draw variations. also for your stud rounds if you add a forced bring-in bet and minimize the ante in stud it can make for a bit more action (low showing brings it in, then high hand showing from then on).

later and good luck in your games

the Real Macoy