need advice for home games-

[orbie]

I've talked with friends about playing home poker games for sometime. I've offered to host the first few games at my place. My goal is to play in the local casino games by the end of the month. My goals for playing in home games is to pracice, learn my weaknesses , study tells, and have fun.

I'm looking at sticking to five main games. I know I want to play:5 card stud, texas hold'em, 7 card stud. For the additional 2 games I'd like to play Omaha 8 and perhaps Razz though I'm not entirely familar with these two games.
Am I better off skipping these two games due to my lack of experince or is this an ideal setting for me and potential bi-weekly players to learn?
If anyone has ideas on how i can teach myself Omaha 8 or Razz please let me know.

Thanks for any advice. ORBIE.

[willmunny]

For Omaha 8 or better see Ray Zee's Hi/Lo Split for Advanced Players. For Razz see Sklansky on Poker.

[orbie]

thanks for the advice. I'll try and pick up Ray Zee's book soon, I just got "more hold'em excellence" by Lou Kreiger. Should I be concerned with reading this before reading "hold'em excellence" ?
Orbie

[mobes]

I would definately include both those games in your roattion. Omaha 8 is the game where a good player has the biggest advantage over his opponents. And bad players love it because they think it is a river game.

[eMarkM]

Forget 5CS, zzzzzz. Focus on HE, O8 and 7CS, those are the most popular casino games. Follow the same rules as a casino (ie blind structure, etc). In your home game, just rotate between those 3 games. Play an entire round or hour of each and move to the next game. That's how I'd do it.

As far as a home games giving you practice for a casino, it depends on how good your friends are. If they're all inexperienced you may not learn a whole lot. Still do it for the fun, though. You may want to give online play a try at micros levels for more of a casino flavor and play against experienced players.