Home Game Help

[Pokerho]

I host a weekly $10 NL game at my house. The competeion is mostly terrible players, with one or two players that watch WPT and think they know what they are doing (and even occasionally make decent plays). It is usually the same 6 guys, plus or minus one.

In the 15 or so tournaments we have had, I would say that my average finish is somewhere very close to 2.0 - 2.5. I've won 2 or 3 times. However, I feel like I should be absolutely raping these guys, and I'm not.

A common situation: Flop comes AK6, there is much betting and calling (I've folded). There are 3 players still in, and the next two cards are rags. The player that has been betting the whole time goes all in. Both players call. The better has a pair of Ks, the first caller has a pair of 6s, and the 3rd caller has a missed straight and thought the other two guys were bluffing.

So, two guys are out, and one has a huge pile of chips. Evrey once in awhile, it's me that has the huge pile, but not nearly often enough, considering the caliber of my competition.

In my online play, I'm probably weak-tight, which I think is arguably correct for the $.25-$.50 game I play. In my home game, I try to be alot more aggressive, but am still considered the guy who only calls with good cards.

I go on the theory that in a loose game such as this, the best play is to wait until you have a real hand, and then murder someone. Unfortunately, by the time I have a real hand, someone has 2/3 of the chips because of boneheaded play such as described above.

Any advice for me?

[rayrns]

If you only play "real" hands, the opponents are going to realize this and not give you any action. You have to mix in some other hands as well.

[Mike Haven]

if you are the guy who is known as only calling with good cards and if you were "raping" the game any more than you already are then either the game wouldn't last too long or they'd start to read 2+2

it seems fairly good for you at the moment - don't fix what ain't broke

[Paul2432]

Can you say more about the structure of your game? Is this a tournament format? Winner take all or a percentage to the top finishers? What are the starting stacks and the blinds?

One thing to keep in mind is that once the stacks get short (say 10x the large blind or less) that very loose aggressive play is often correct. The blinds are simply too high to wait around for a premium hand.

Paul

[Pokerho]

It's basically a $10 sit and go tournament. Winner takes all unless there are sufficient players to award a 2nd place. We usually give 2nd place their money back if there are at least 5 players. We usually have 2 tournaments in one night.

We start with 1000 chips each. The small blind usually starts at 5 or 10, and the big blind usually starts at 10 or 20 respectively. We raise the blinds every 2-3 orbits depending on how carefully we are paying attention to the blinds.

We usually go 10-20, 20-40, 30-60, 40-80, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200. I don't think it's ever gone beyond 100 for the small blind.

I suppose the comment about the game dying if I killed everyone is pretty relevant. I started this game with the idea of getting some live play skills to compliment my on-line play. I guess if I can do that for free or a small profit, it is definitely worth it. Plus it's fun.

I guess I'm just getting itchy, because I feel like I am WAY better than most or possibly all of the other players, and my take hasn't really reflected that. Maybe I'm not.