Words of Wisdom for a very loose 3 table home tourney (24 players)

I've started hosting a tourney the first Friday of every month...last month it was 16 players, this time it is 24...its fairly easy to make the final 3/5 players just by not being stupid and playing solid tight/agreesive poker. Any bits of advice to put a guy over the top?

[Texter]

First In Vigorish.

[CrazyN8]

Don't coach!

Thanks...That was my problem last month...it was the first time we had it and there were like 8 people who'd never played at all before...I spent 1/2 my time telling them what a blind was and what the hand rankings were and had a really hard time focusing on my play.

i usually don't like to play with people who don't know how to play poker for three reasons-
1.) like you said, you have to explain the rules
2.) you don't get any better playing these type of players
3.) its hard to bluff someone who doesn't know what they're doing, or simply put, its hard to bluff at lower limits because players have a tendency to call more.

However, someone could easily counter this argument by saying that if you play with horrible players, you win money. Question comes down to - in this particular tournament, am i playing to get better or make money?

[Hedge Henderson]

[ QUOTE ]
Question comes down to - in this particular tournament, am i playing to get better or make money?

[/ QUOTE ]

You missed another possible reason: For some people, playing poker is actually (*gasp*) enjoyable, no ulterior motive necessary.

fundamental theorem of poker.

you (should) know about pot odds/equity. they dont. if your players are like the ones in my home game, bet sizes are usually about 1/10 of the pot by the turn, then when i raise to 1/2 pot (still too small usually) they think im crazy....much less if i bet like 3/4 pot or more on the river. your seemingly oversized bets will be intimidating enough to get folds with your weaker hands, and calls when they think you're bluffing, which they will eventually since you probably wont be showing many hands down lol. just be careful when flushes come out, because people will call fd's to the river with crap. i recently got rivered in my cash game with AK UI (raising pf and thereafter making 2/3 pot sized bets) vs some donk that called to the river with 35s and hit his flush. just be a little more selective with your aggression on the river when the board is coordinated. also be wary of people occasionally filling gutshots, and i wouldn't call too many all ins (from deeper stacks that is) unless you have the near nuts, esp if these people watch any televised poker. also watch out for people slowplaying bad hands, such as TPWK, i get check/raised by people hitting hands like top pair with QJ when i have KK, occasionally making me fold the best hand when i don't realize how stupid they are.

sorry if that wasn't very coherent, i kind of had a stream of consciousness thing goin for a second

good luck, home games = the win

[Colquhoun]

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its hard to bluff at lower limits because players have a tendency to call more

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You dont NEED to bluff players that call more. You make your money by the fact that they call more. In fact, you will make more money from bad players that call more than you will from better players that you can bluff.