Strategy for home game with bizarro structure...

[JerseyTom]

Hey all,

What's your strategy (hand selection, pre-flop raising, betting, etc.) for a low-low-low-limit home game with the following betting structure/rules:

- each hand is dealer's choice (which means mostly hold 'em, some O8, and occasionally 7-stud)

- dealer antes .05 for everyone at the table each hand

- there is *no* mandatory preflop call (or bring-in in the stud game). It can literally get checked all the way around preflop (though this rarely happens). Usually after 3 checks, someone disgustedly throws in .05 or .10 "just because"...

- betting on each round is a spread limit from .05-.15

- bet and max 3 raises per betting street (so max per round is .60)

- raises need not match the amount of the previous bet/raise, but must be at least .05 (e.g. i bet .10, you can raise to .15, he can raise to .30, i can re-raise to .35)



Clearly, this structure makes for very large pots relative to bet size. A typical hand where 7/9 players call .10 pre-flop has a pot of 1.15 (remember the antes) before the flop is even dealt.

On the whole, the players are average-to-poor (cold-calling preflop 3-bets with K3o, calling multiple flop bets with a naked A2 and one low card on the flop in O8, calling multiple flop bets in hold 'em with a single A overcard, etc.). There are maybe 1-2 other players you think play decently.

Your image at the game is very tight. There are many hands where you are the only player to fold pre-flop. Your preflop raises get some respect, if they only succeed in narrowing the field from 8 to around 5. You occasionally donk things up in the rare shorthanded pot where there are players who might actually fold.

There is much beer involved as well.

Maybe this belongs in "Poker Theory"?


Cheers,

Tom

[KenProspero]

My recommendation

Drink a lot of beer and have a lot of fun. Sounds like a game I play in (recently described in a thread below).

Let's face it -- anyone who chooses stud either doesn't understand poker or is playing to have fun. In either case, it just doesn't sound like people are there for the money. If it's a group of friends, my advice, enjoy the friendship and have a good time.

[JerseyTom]

[ QUOTE ]
My recommendation

Drink a lot of beer and have a lot of fun. Sounds like a game I play in (recently described in a thread below).

Let's face it -- anyone who chooses stud either doesn't understand poker or is playing to have fun. In either case, it just doesn't sound like people are there for the money. If it's a group of friends, my advice, enjoy the friendship and have a good time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo! We have a winner...

[kodonnell]

We play a lot of 7 card stud with wildcards (baseball, follow the queen, chicago, etc.)

We have one game we call "clusterf--k".....7 card stud, baseball (3s and 9s are wild), combined with follow-the-queen and queens. So to start there are 12 wildcards (3s, 9s, queens). Depending if a queen comes up there may be a total of 16 wildcards.....woooohooo.....gimme another beer. Played with low chicago (low spade in the hole) or black mariah (if the queen of spades comes up everybody turns in their cards and the game is redealt) it can be a lot of fun....not much real poker there, but a lot of fun....gimme another beer...oh, I said that already.

[tubalkain]

[ QUOTE ]
My recommendation

Drink a lot of beer and have a lot of fun. Sounds like a game I play in (recently described in a thread below).

Let's face it -- anyone who chooses stud either doesn't understand poker or is playing to have fun. In either case, it just doesn't sound like people are there for the money. If it's a group of friends, my advice, enjoy the friendship and have a good time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seconded. Don't try to "fix" this game... it's not so much a poker game as a bonding experience.

[MrBrightside]

you should introduct Anaconda to this group. I play in a wild game like that and they introduced me to this and I thought "another stupid luck game" but I think there is a lot of strategy and it's "crazy" enough that people like it.

Structure:
Ante and set a max "burn" (if you call to flip your last card and lose both hi and lo, you're oout this and deal again). Also set a max bet. we usually ante .25 and set burn at $2 or $2.50 (note: this game works great with 6 to 7 players).

deal: 7 cards, face down. Played as a hi-lo split game with straights and flushes invalidating low hands (so A2346 is best low).

play: pass 3 cards to your left, pick up your cards. pass two, pick up (sometimes we do a round of betting here). pass 1. Now discard two and set your cards face down in the order they will be uncovered. Everyone flips a card, hi hand leads betting (like stud). Now flip another, bet, another, bet, another, bet, etc. Remember if you call the fourth card bet and uncover your fifth card, you are due the burn if you lose.

Hi and lo spilit (you can't sweep). If only two left, the game is over, otherwise losing players pay burn and you deal again.

There's a lot of strategy of passing and then watching what everyone is uncovering. It's really fun to have a busted boat draw (2 pair) and win low. Usually takes a boat to get hi. Several times I've gotten a nothing much initially, but 3 cards to a middle straight flush. I will draw to that because people tend to pass middle (6-10) cards because they are either going hi or lo.

[kodonnell]

We play that a lot too.

Try this next time.
"Love thy neighbor": Anaconda. High only. Winner splits the pot with player to the right who is still in the hand. It gets tricky because you now have an interest in the hand to your left (where you are passing your cards). It's a great catch-22.

[kodonnell]

Another great catch-22 game is double-flop crazy pineapple. Pretty easy. Crazy pinapple with 2 simultaneous flops, turns and rivers (burn once). High only. Winner of each flop splits pot. Hmmmmm which card do I toss!?!?!?!?

[somapopper]

man, don't bring all this poker theory and optimal strategy stuff into the beautiful ridiculous home game we all remember. I got misty eyed reading your post. For God's sake you aren't supposed to beat this game consistently, throw your money around, gamble it up, bluff people with 27, then buy the pizza.

[AlphaWice]

ya this is disgusting, you want to outplay your friends to take like $10 from them?