What are the most important skills for a home game?

ihaveapigyo · #1 07-11-2005, 07:57 PM

I'm in a tourney tommorow with a couple buddies, over 50 of em in fact. I need to know the most important skills for a home game!

Also, anyone who is good at spotting tells, help a fellow 2+2er out! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

RiverDood · #2 07-12-2005, 01:35 AM

What you'll need most of all is a sense of how to play multitable tournaments. The most important principles are true for live games or online -- and you need to know them.

There are some excellent posts in the archives, and it's a poor use of electrons to try to recraft them in detail. Heck, you may be an MTT wizard already.

But if you're reading this just a couple hours before your tournament, keep the following points in mind.

1. You need to be adaptable. If you're one of the early chip leaders, you can raise a lot more and push smaller-stacked players off their hands. Just don't get sloppy with your calls. . . . If you fall behind in your chip count, your strategy changes greatly. Tighten up. Don't get tangled up in middling drawing hands if you can't affordably last to the river. Push to protect a made hand, or to force other players to fold.

2. You need to understand how the blind structure works -- and be very attentive to how the game changes as blinds go up. Fewer hands will play out to the river. Steals will become more important. Well-timed aggression is crucial. It often matters more than what cards you hold.

3. If it's open seating, sit downstream from chip leaders and aggressive players. Your life will be a whole lot easier if you can act after them. . . . If it's assigned seating, be very mindful of who's on both sides of you.

4. Watch your two neighbors on your left. Do they defend their blinds? Do they look at their cards before you? If so, you may learn something about whether they want to be in the hand or not. And that can shape you you play the button or cutoff.

5. Beyond that, I'll agree with other posters who advise you not to burn up energy hunting for minor tells. If you insist on doing so, read Mike Caro's book. But even the most astute tell-epathists benefit maybe once an hour in a big way from their insights. If you understand the basic dynamics of an MTT, you're benefiting 5-10 times an orbit.

6. Pay attention to what image you're projecting to the table. Not the social nonsense of sunglasses, scowl, etc. -- but how you appear to be playing your hands. Have you been limping a lot and folding to raises? If so,expect to get raised at a lot. Stop limping unless you're sandbagging people with a monster hand . . . . Have you folded every hand for the last two orbits? Observant players may read you for super-tight, and if you bet hard, they'll get out of your way. (Note: If you're at a table of unobservant players, don't get caught in Fancy Play Syndrome. It's a common and horrible way to lose money.) . . . Have you been taking down pots without a showdown? Expect people to play back at you more on the belief that you bluff, even if all your (unshown) hands were strong . . . . Have you won a couple pots lately with cards that were scary good? Look for a chance to bully weaker players some more.

Anyway, welcome to 2+2. Good luck.

kodonnell · #3 07-12-2005, 02:06 AM

My best advise is don't try to bluff ignorant players (at least not with a lot of chips). They don't go away. Only play good hands against these people. Bad players treat small bets the same as big bets.

Be aware of who knows how to play. Be afraid of everyone else because they are the most dangerous. Get a premium hand against the ignorant, and you will get all their chips.

As far as tells, concentrate more on betting patterns rather than physical tells. One of my best traits is identifying when a player is on a drawing hand. Depending on the skill level of your opponent, your river bet may not need to be much to buy a pot against a weak player on a draw.

KJL · #4 07-12-2005, 02:15 AM

Just play tight in the early stages and play more aggresive with a lead at the end or the final table.
As for tells, according to Mike Caro, when a player seems interested he's bluffing and when he seems uniterested he has a hand. This is what most of his book relates to. It would be better for you to observe how a player acts when you are sitting out of a hand and try to pick up on betting habits.

EStreet20 · #5 07-12-2005, 11:24 AM

Regular tourney strategy is usually best in any tourney situation. In most home games it's important to be able to drink lots of beer, tell jokes, and (if girls are there) try to hook up.

Good luck,
Matt

ihaveapigyo · #6 07-12-2005, 12:58 PM

Thanks every1

Lottery Larry · #7 07-12-2005, 06:01 PM

You have 50 buddies that play poker? Lucky you

TheCroShow · #8 07-13-2005, 01:27 AM

protect your chips, do not be aggressive with AK after you have completely missed the flop. weak players are unbluffable, so if you make a continuation bet after the flop and they call, just call it a day and pick a better spot...unless of course you hit an ace or a king on the turn..in which case you should exercise caution.

be weary of small pots. let's say you have a pot of...4 BB's and you're holding 99, the flop is 256, looks relatively safe right? if some idiot goes all in, you cannot be positive you have the best hand, even if you do, is it worth the risk? at a much larger scale, look at what happened with phil gordon this year..some dude bet 15k into a pot that was something like 1.5k...gordon thought he was just trying to steal, so gordon called or went all-in and villain turned over KK vs. gordon's JJ...villain OVERBET big-time and it was a bad play, a bad overbet.

TomHimself · #9 07-13-2005, 01:37 AM

I would say be patient, the one thing I hate about home games are they are so slowwww compared to online. So be prepared to wait and be patient

TheCroShow · #10 07-13-2005, 01:40 AM

as for tells..there are basic ones you can look out for, even the tiniest sign of weakness, especially if it's slightly over the top is a sign of strength. it's human nature to wanna sell your hand as a weak one, "oh man i guess i'll call," or a shrug of the shoulders and then a call. mike caro illustrates this in his videos, an excellent starting point to learning basic tells.

as one poster mentioned already, play it safe at first.."Tight is Right" they say...some players LOVE to pick up LOTS of tiny little pots early on. one player said in a sng i was in back at home, "all these little pots are adding up, i'm getting the chips boys!" i busted his xxx 2 levels later. i nearly won (had a 3:1 chip advantage going into heads up and made some poor decisions to lose =/) and i only won a few major pots and a few tiny pots...QUALITY over quantity.

not sure what else to say. i'm a home game hero and love home games, that's where i started and where i learned the most so far. gl to you