great, now i'm the a-hole boyfriend

[sharp63]

With poker becoming so popular, pretty much everyone is playing it. Most of these people have NO idea how the game is actually set up or played. A lot of people buy into the $10 buy in, $10 in chips theory. Sure, it makes no sense to us but it makes perfect sense to them. Try to casually tell them that this is a bad structure and why it's a bad structure.

I'd say one of the worst parts of dealing with other people's home games is dealing with other's blinds strucutures. Trying to convince people that doubling the blinds every 10 minutes is not a fun way to play is like trying to pull teeth. As people start to learn the game though, they begin to understand why it's not such a good idea. I've just learned to deal with it. I won't play for anything more than $10 with a poor blind structure/starting chips and luckily most of the people I play with know that a good structure makes the game more fun.

[utmt40]

All I can say is wow just WOW.

[JonPKibble]

Send them a link to www.homepokertourney.com and maybe they will see that THEY are the idiots.

FWIW, my tourney is a $10 buy-in, blinds also start at .25/.50, and I give $50 in tournament chips.

I had a similar situation. My employer decided to run a NL HE tourney. I told the organizer that I had experience doing tourneys and wanted to help run it. They kept refusing. The tourney started. I started explaining to the people on my end of the room the standard chip colors (red = 5, green = 25, etc.) and that we should probably start with T1000 chips. The organizers didn't care, and thought T1000 was way too many chips. So they just randomly selected a starting amount of chips and started randomly raising blinds.

They started breaking all sorts of rules. Someone couldn't be there for the first hour. Instead of blinding him off, they let him come in the second hour with a full stack of chips. When we got down to the final 7, I said we have to start the final table with the number of chips we had when at 2-tables. The people at the other table said they were dipping into the chip bank the whole time, so we had to start over with the same chip stacks we started with.

Would have been frustrating as hell if I didn't win the tourney.

[BOTW]

Sometimes it is hard to separate 'fun, with girlfriend' poker from 'fun, make money' poker.

I usually try to appeal to a higher authority in these situations. Tell them it is the 'Raymer WSOP structure' or that 'limit cash' is the new 'NL tourney'. If it is a fun game that won't go on very often, try your best to keep it fun for you and balance it with their fun. Try to get them to play funky wild card games that you don't get to play every day. It sounds like you were reasonable in this situation so I would let it go this time and be prepared to let it go next time or not play.

Here's how it works for me: I try to convince them to play with less than their total bankroll and play limit, spread limit, or, worst case, something that resembles pot limit. "That's not how they do it on TV!" Ok, keep pushing your big stack all-in on those little pots since every one folded to you the last three times. Guess what, bud, not this time. My set is good--YouGetToSitOutAndWatchTheRestOfUsPlay. A $1 bet into a $15 pot, followed by a $0.25 raise, guess what, I drew out--YGTSOAWTROUP. Consistently call my raises with any two--YGTSOAWTROUP, then bitch to your boyfriend about how you aren't playing anymore. Show your girlfriend every time you hit your hand--YGTSOAWTROUP. Who's next? Oh, it is you, Miss "How much are the red chips again?" They are $5, just like they've been all night. You know, if you look close, you might just see the [censored] number 5 right there on the chip! You might as well just give it to me, since a flush really, really, really does beat a straight. No, I'm not kidding, it does beat a straight. Really.

As I'm collecting the cash I always tell them: I've bluffed with more money on Jack high today than all the money you guys have combined! I am the greatest poker player in all the land!

I don't know why I never get invited back.

Or, I show them that dealer's choice with a quarter limit is fun. I enjoy playing every hand and trying to calculate my outs in single draw crazy pinapple with 2's wild.

[McHonts]

We have hosted and played in a number of these home tournaments. They were really bad until we printed out rules (buy in, blind structure, etc..) set a timer by each table and gave out hand rank charts (no lie). There were no more arguments just questions for clarification. Everyone had a great time and asked us when we were hosting again after our memorial day party. I won the first game and my wife won the second. Our friends still wanted us to do it all again. Of course in the end we barely won enough to cover the liquor store bill. Still, everone had a blast for a $10 buy in. Just give everyone a little more structure, you are hosting the thing after all. You should not get much flack except from the jerk that called your girlfriend...

Many people don't take poker NEARLY as serious as some of us do. You can't BLAME them for that, thats the nature of it becoming mainstream.

Imagine you're a college NCAA basketball star, and you're playing pick up with some of your girl's friends...would you argue over the rules? Or just accept the game as an opportunity to screw around

I'm not saying you are wrong, but in times like these its best to be diplomatic and go along with the crowd, or simply not participate.

The best bit about this is when they come to your house to play your game, complain about your rules and then call you a dick. I thought you handled the situation well. Got unlucky I guess. The key is to slowly introduce correct rules. Problem is of course that these people "already know" how to play. I find it much easier to play with people who have never played before because they listen to what you are saying.

CHeers

[JonPKibble]

It is laughable when someone who knows NOTHING about poker insists the game be run a specific way. Another example of this might be a kicker breaking a tie when two players have the same best five card hand (playing four cards from the board).

[tubalkain]

I was scouting a new bar tourney location on Monday and saw an entire pot left to ride on the next hand because two players had the same hand. WTF is that?