Sticky Home Game Means New Rule?

[dabluebery]

I play with a group of friends and family, very friendly but taken seriously, too.

Played at my house tonight. $25 NL cash game, then a $20 tournament. During the cash game, "Steve" made the AMAZING lay down of KK preflop, to aces. The one time in your life this happens. It's obviously the talk of the night, and we get pretty chatty during our games, sometimes it slows us down.

Anyway, during the tournament, after some preflop raising, and with a flop of T62 rainbow, "Jason" makes a move at the pot, moving all-in with 99 versus Steve, the guy who folded aces earlier. So happens that Steve had them again.

Steve shows them to the player to his right, and says "Do you think I can lay this down?" The player said, "I don't know, you're in a hand, and I can't say anything." This generated some hoots and hollers at the table, speculating about laying down KK again. I said "If he's got KK, he's crazy, but what do I know."

So Steve makes the call, and then the guy with 99 explodes when he misses his 2-outer. He says that we gave him advice that convinced him to call, that he was gonna lay it down. He throws his money down on the table, storms out and leaves.

Our new rule; "STRICTLY adhere to 1 person to a hand."

This way, everything said by other players at the table is mere speculation. We're all friendly here, and there's a lot of talk at these games, which is a) unavoidable and b) what makes the game so fun usually. Typically, people will look at a flop with a flush / straight draw and say "Wow, JT of clubs looks pretty good right now," or whatever. So that's never gonna change.

Think this is enough action to discourage problems like this in the future? Basically, after this guy left, we all agreed to just not show hands to each other. It was pretty obvious that the guy over-reacted, but still, one player to a hand is still a good rule to have.

Rob

[chesspain]

[ QUOTE ]
Basically, after this guy left, we all agreed to just not show hands to each other.


[/ QUOTE ]

Now that was simple, wasn't it?

[dabluebery]

Kinda. But not really. This will end up being a major change. Some of the more social players, including the guy who flipped out, show their hands to someone every single time they fold. So, whatever. Thanks.

[SugarV]

I used to see this kind of stuff all the time in the small clubs and backdoor rooms. Most of the people that played were regulars...so, it was mostly a friendly game. I only heard foul language and see someone get really stormy once or twice. (That was meant to direct in a harmful way...)

No one really gave advice...but there were always those two or three "commentators" at the table. At least, that's what I used to call them. They were usually average players who never really won a whole lot...but they tried to seem like they knew what was going on by talking about it.

In your case...these guys would have said something similar. "Well...we remember his large laydown in the other hand, so we know he has the patience and he's never married to a hand. Blah, blah, blah..." I never saw someone get pissed over it. Most of us tuned it out.

In my opinion...the guy should have been more mad at himself for taking a stab at the pot with 99.

I have never had anyone "talk me into" or "out of" making a call/raise/bet/fold...

Just my $.02, but since it's only a penny for my thoughts...I want change. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

sv

[msb]

This is one of my very few pet-peeves during a social game. I put all of the following list of people in the same category: <ul type="square"> [*]Guys who love to call the board... announcing that a flush or straight is possible.
[*]Guys who show their hand to other guys while action is still going.
[*]Guys who folded that make comments about how good their hand would have been if they hadn't folded once they see the flop.[/list]All of these are inevitable at a social game, and I'm not going to be the dick who calls them out on it (unless it's really getting out of hand).

I also try to use it to my advantage... if the board is Q-9-9 and I have a Q, I don't mind hearing guys who folded complain that they would have had trips (just means there is one less 9 I've got to worry about). Also, it doesn't hurt when I've missed my straight but a third suit comes on the river and someone makes a comment about how there is a flush possible (in that case, I can represent that flush with a good bet and get the more timid to lay down their better hands).

So, while it can be a pain in the ass sometimes... there is no sense in breaking up the game over it and you might as well take advantage of it.

As far as the guy with the 9s... I'm sure he was pretty pissed at the time, but after he cools down he's got to know that there was no way that guy was going to lay down pocket Aces in that situation... no matter how much advice he was getting. Does it suck? Sure. But no rational guy could blame it on the advice he was getting.

[dabluebery]

This is the rub of it. All of this stuff is exactly what the guy who flipped out is the most guilty of. We make fun of him (in a friendly manner) when he's not there. He's got certain catch phrases;

"Boy [insert hand here] really looks good right here."

"I really want to play this hand (shows to guy next to him) but not for [insert raise amount here]"

"The pot odds are good (calls with awful hand)"

"Do you believe this?" (Fishes cards out of muck, shows to everyone not in hand. Everyone halfway decent in the hand knows within a few hands what he just folded, and makes adjustments accordingly.)

So, in keeping this from happening again, 90% of the "problem" is usually him.

Rob

[lighterjobs]

i have played at 3 different home games and looking at other peoples cards was never really a problem. at one particular game there were a few people who would deal out the cards then deal the flop, turn and river face down. this was extremly frustrating even though it was only like a $40 or $50 buy-in. since it wasn't my house i wasn't going to say anything, especially since i am only 18 and most of the people there were over 30, but eventually people would sneak a look at the cards when they weren't in the hand. this happened a few times before i said something to the guy who ran the game. to make a long story short he just made a rule to not deal out the cards until it is time to burn and turn. no one cared.

sorry this is ot.

[msb]

Yea... I think this generally falls into the category of "how much poker etiquite should you expect at a social, home-game"?

This is kind of like playing golf with your buddies and they hit out of turn, or walk in your line, etc... you just have to feel out the situation to determine if a subtle reminder of the rules is in order.

I would love for every home game I'm in to be filled with players that are poker-rule savvy, but I know that will never be the case. Sometimes you can make constructive criticisms that will be taken in good stride, other times it's just best to keep your mouth shut and try to take advantage of the loose rules when you can (short of cheating, that is [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img])

[LetsRock]

I would do everything I could to discourage any hand speculations while the hand is in progress. After the hand is over, everyone can chat it up and I agree, that is fun in the right environment. But while the hand is in progress it is very poor taste and ettiquette to be talking about what could or might be happening right now. This can all be helped by not showing cards to anyone; you could go to the extreme of DQing anyone who shows his cards while the hand is in progress if that's what it takes.

[msb]

Here's an example of where you can use this to your advantage....

A few days ago, I was in a game with J-Q and the flop came 10-9-3. I bet and the other guy calls.

Turn: 8 I bet, he calls.

River: 7

It's at this point somebody (not in the game) says, "Well, whoever's got the Jack has the nuts."

I bet... the other guy raises all-in and I call. He turns over A-J, thinking he has the nuts. Let's just say, he was a little embarassed when I flip the "true" nuts. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Sometimes it works out for you.