[Zetack]

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Last night I played in a home game that opened my eyes to the crazy mutations of the poker culture. The invite came from the friend of my roommate's co-worker, who hosts a game once a month or so. When we arrived at the game, there were 3 folding tables set up covered with bed sheets. There were no chips - just cash. One table had 7 card stud, another 5 card stud, and another no-limit hold em. We sat at the hold em table and were introduced to another set of bizarro rules. There were no blinds and no antes. If a player raised and everyone folded, every player at the table would have to "drop a dollar" to that player. The house took an uncapped rake of $1 for every amount up to $10, rounding up to the next full dollar amount (so $2 for a $20 pot, but $3 on a $21 pot) PLUS, if you signed up for the "unlimited food and drinks" (spaghetti, hennessy, strawberry shortcake), the house took an additional $2 off of every pot you won. It was a crazy game - with none of the standard card room/casino rules. Players would drop all their money in, look at the other person's reaction, say "I'm kidding" and take it back and fold, turn over someone's folded cards, and all sorts of other craziness. All of the hands were dealt by the same dealer at my table, who was playing at the same time and raking the pot, and doing all sorts of crazy things with the cards - could have been a mechanic, but if he was, he was good enough that I couldn't catch it. He was winning huge pots off of people time and time again with the nuts against the second nuts. People were going all in blind with $100, and throwing C-notes around like they were $1 chips. There were enough horrible gamblers there that it should have been a dream game, were it not for the ridiculous rake. I lost $50 bucks but it was almost worth it just to be exposed to this bizarro poker world. I'm praying that I can find another game like this somewhere - just without the crazy rake and the strange rules! Anyone else ever experienced anything like this? Any way that this game could be beatable with such crazy conditions?

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The only real question is whether the dealer is cheating. If not, this is a game you can make a lot of money in. The rake sucks but it doesn't make the game unbeatable. Even the, drop to the uncalled raiser rule probably doesn't hurt you that badly unless that happens a lot, in fact the lack of blinds may offset that completely. A large raise from somebody first in in late position probably means a hand going for the dollar drop.

Don't sign up for the extra 2 dollar per pot rake, that's ridiculous.

Strategy for winning? Get involved in big pots with these wild amblers when you have strong hands. If there are opportunities to see cheap flops with hands that can flop huge, take them. Have exra buy-ins available.

Although I probably wouldn't do it because I like playing with a lot of chips in front of me, this might also be a good game to try the small buy-in strategy that's been kicked around lately in the forums.

--Zetack