Crazy home games as a cure for boredom?

[chesspain]

Last night I attended for the first time a new home game [1-3 spread limit], and was struck by the wild games being played, such as:

"Double Omaha 8," in which players get five cards and where two rows of community cards are dealt, allowing you to use either row;

"The Mushroom," in which you are dealt five cards and can combine them in anyway with at least four piles of three cards each;

"Three Card Hold'em," which is like a Hold-em/Omaha hybrid, in which you receive three cards but can only play up to two of them;

"Double Draw Poker," in which you bet, draw, bet, redraw, and bet;

...and so forth.

What surprised me most was that at least a few of these guys also play online, and occasionally play in casinos. In fact, two of them eagerly signed on for my upcoming NL Hold-em tourney, which will have essentially standard, casino rules.

As a relative newbie, I'm wondering: Do most home games tend to favor crazy games like the above, in order to fight the potential boredom and predictability of playing casino poker games against a fairly constant set of familiar players? And if not, what other ways are there to play fresh while playing the same games against the same people?

[Wake up CALL]

"And if not, what other ways are there to play fresh while playing the same games against the same people?"

Play blindfolded, bet your hands based on pure bluffs. I find this works well until someone inevitably peeks. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[BigSlick]

there are much more action in those games! Thats why they are preferred. I have played a game where there are 3 x 3 of cards on the board and exha player has 5 in there hand. use the board any way 4 betting rounds

[Easy E]

"Double Omaha 8," in which players get five cards and where two rows of community cards are dealt, allowing you to use either row;

Are the rows 5 cards in each or 6 cards in each?

"The Mushroom," in which you are dealt five cards and can combine them in anyway with at least four piles of three cards each;
... as in, the Mushroom Cloud, where your supposed good hand is blown up like an atom bomb hit?

"Three Card Hold'em," which is like a Hold-em/Omaha hybrid, in which you receive three cards but can only play up to two of them;

If you can play one out of two, then this is a variation on Pineapple Holdem. If you have to discard the extra card around the time of the flop, this is spread in casinos out West.

"Double Draw Poker," in which you bet, draw, bet, redraw, and bet;

Triple draw lowball is spread in California.

[Yardbird]

The players who like these games are generally either hustlers or fish, and most often the latter (just because they want to win pots with "high ranked" hands). I think that this is in part due to boredom...

My personal opinion is that it makes the game cheap, since they generally make straights and flushes roughly equivalent to one and two pair in their abilities to win pots. If I was pathologically compelled to win with straight-flushes or quads every hand, I'd play Gin! /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

That doesn't mean that I haven't played in these types of home-games on occasion... In fact, historically, I have my best hourly rate expectation in such games in terms of BBs/hr; but, they're all micro-limit /images/graemlins/frown.gif

The crazy games you find in people's homes where they play Dealer's Choice are fine if that's how you get your kicks---personally, it's just not my kind of scene.

Maybe this topic should be transplanted to the Psychology forum /images/graemlins/crazy.gif