Home game confusrion, are these typical rules?

[Zetack]

So I go play in a little 12 man home tourney last night.

Afterwards, four of us play a cash game with rules that made my head spin. The guys acted like this was pretty standard home game stuff and I was really odd for wanting to play something like the standard games I'm familiar with.

They played some variations but basically we played three games, hold em, omaha, and topeka (three card hold em).

They played with an ante instead of blinds.

This was problematic for me because it sort of kills the ability to be patient. You're almost in a must play every pot. Also your ability to make people make mistakes pre-flop goes way down because there aren't a whole lot of hands that its incorrect to call a raise with. Also it puts me in the position of playing almost every hand for that exact reason.

Most hands were a limit structure pre-flop and a modified pot limit post flop. So no pot sized bets pre-flop. So we all ante 2 bucks, since I can only raise 2 if I raise the next guy is getting 5-1 (10 dollars in the pot) the second guy 6-1 and the third guy 7-1 on their 2 dollar calls. Conversely, I pretty much had to call a raise with any two getting 6 or 7 to one. Then if somebody bets out post flop you have 18 bucks in the pot and are getting 9-1 or better every time depending on where you act after the bettor.

Post flop either (depending on how the dealer called it) pot limit or limit unless you wanted to make a pot sized bet. In the second version if we were playing with a 2 dollar ante, after the flop you could either make a 2 dollar bet/raise, or you could bet the pot.

If you bet the pot, however, betting ended, you could be called but then there was no betting on the turn and river.

In the closer to regular pot-limit form they played, after the flop you could bet any amount up to the pot, if you potted it though, again betting ended.

So its a structure that gets everybody to see a flop, and lets you see a relatively cheap showdown by betting the pot and ending the betting.

The final rule I had trouble with is that they had rotating action. Pf, the guy to the left of the dealer would act first. On the flop the guy to his left acted first, on the turn the guy to his left acted first, and (in a four handed game) the dealer would act first on the river.

So the advantage of position disappears.


No way to make people make mistakes pre-flop, very little ability to try and wait for good hands, and limited ability to protect your hand post flop, and no positional advantage. Man I was stumped.

Any thoughts on whether this is a normal sort of structure? In addition to not knowing how to play omaha or 3 card hold em, I have no idea how to adjust for these conditions.


I was lucky enough to more than double up early, and then other players bought chips in the amount of my buy-in off of me and I put that money in my pocket so I broke even on the day when I eventually lost all my chips (which it was pretty clear to me I was going to do.)

Much as I would like to play some live ring games, I have to say, not knowing what the hell I'm doing isn't much fun, so if I keep playing with these guys I may have to just stick to the tourney side of it.

--Zetack