funny money
So a terrible thing has happened at my beloved home game. Tuesday nights has degenerated into a dealers choice night. It always dealers choice if truth be told but up until now it was 80% holdem and 20% PLO but funny money games have been creeping in and now its to the point where is 20% texas 20%PLO and the rest of the games are batshit crazy.
Apart from a nice place to whinge about this Im looking for peoples opinions on how to play crazy poker games, there is stupid amounts of money on crazy drawing hands because of the shear number of possible outs. Its fucking bingo right ? so If Im playing I just have to accept my money is in the wind and where it lands is anyone's guess ? Or is there some strategy I should be considering?
so for example - we have been playing an omaha variant where all four hole cards are playable ... like WTF??? a guy could have quads without connecting on the board. its a game of bluffing and because our blinds are so low anyone can get in on the hand.
Advice, opinions etc ?
Apart from a nice place to whinge about this Im looking for peoples opinions on how to play crazy poker games, there is stupid amounts of money on crazy drawing hands because of the shear number of possible outs. Its fucking bingo right ? so If Im playing I just have to accept my money is in the wind and where it lands is anyone's guess ? Or is there some strategy I should be considering?
so for example - we have been playing an omaha variant where all four hole cards are playable ... like WTF??? a guy could have quads without connecting on the board. its a game of bluffing and because our blinds are so low anyone can get in on the hand.
Advice, opinions etc ?
Comments
serious answer: maybe you could play a bit tighter in games you're not too comfortable with. some variants might really be bingo (i don't know all the details), but others probably just have higher variance than regular games.
Dealer's choice and they didn't use chips. You literally had to lug 5lbs of change to the house and sort it out. They played games that were so bizarre, we had absolutely no idea what was going on whatsoever. Couldn't stop asking ourselves if this was what real home games were all like?
Needless to say, we didn't bother going back again. Vote with your money. If you're not having fun, find another game.
Everyone gets four cards. Then deal out a 3x3 grid of 9 cards. Flip over three (never three in a row) for each of 3 betting rounds. If no queen shows the money stays in the pot and a new hand is dealt. If a queen shows, it is wild and also the next card turned up is wild. If there are no cards left to turn up then only the queen is wild.
Make your best hand using any row or diagonal of three plus your 4 hole cards, any combination of cards. The person with the high card of the same suit as the middle card gets half the pot.
Next decide if you're going to showdown with a coin drop. If you're going for high hand drop two coins (or chips). High card in the middle drops 1 coin. If you're going for both drop 3 coins. Drop zero coins if you want to fold.
If you drop coins and lose at showdown you burn and have to match pot and the game continues. If you drop 3 coins and do not win both you burn and have to match pot. Game ends when there are no burns.
I used to play a game like that and it was so annoying. Things like: five of a kind vs five of a kind and the one with more natural aces won. Things like that become so silly. There was also a game which played like tic-tac-toe with the middle card being wild and a cut card from the deck being wild at the end as well. It would get really, really gross.
I love playing different games and love the variety, but I stay away from games with wild cards or crazy rules. Variations of "real" games like SOHE or Pineapple (so many variations of this as well) are fine.
Exactly...superbowl, chili, and dealer choice poker...I'm very familiar.
Burn games are brutal - especially when you are drinking! Bring your balls and wads of cash...playing super tight is the only way (cause nobody notices anyway).
Like moose says...these games can be lots of fun, but at higher stakes they get stupid real fast.
This also reminds me of my first full-time job after I finished high school. I was working at Arnold Brothers as a driver delivering candy, smokes, and over the counter drugs to all of the Short Stops in the Tri-Cities. Every Friday (payday), the older guys working in the warehouse would gather in a back room and play dealer choice poker. The room was dark, smokey and smelled like wet cardboard. Games like 'Airplane', 'high/low Chicago', and others with foreign names were commonly played. I would hang out and watch, never saying too much or getting involved in the game. I didn't have a clue what was going on - but it had always had an aura of intrigue and mystery to it.
Wild card games are not poker, people just pretend that it is. That said, it is usually fun, and can be profitable. You really just need to understand a few basics. The more wilds, the bigger the hand you will need. As an example, one of my favourite games is "Kings and low in the hole". It is dealt like 7Stud. Kings, and the lowest hole card in your hand are wild. Basically, in this game, if you do not have five of a kind, you are going to lose. Crying calls with Royals are standard. Call down with four aces and you will be tagged as a sucker.
As others have said, take it for what it is, a fun night out. If you are going to try and make a profit, you will definitely ramp up your ability to resist tilt in "real" poker games.
Above a Royal.
Once I added the Jokers into the deck for a NL cash game. It almost ended friendships. Beanie and I got into a very heated debate over 'natural' straights and flushes.
Never again.
There is no other game in town worth playing so I have to save this one from its-self
Fridays will remain Texas Holdem Tourny so I will switch to fridays once (if) winter ends.
So last week we had to host the game at a friends house who like me, hates batshit poker so we played Texas all night - To my surprise just about everyone who showed up was super relived. It seems there are only 2 main guys imposing their will to have these games played. So Im going to try and convince them to peel it back a bit and stick to
Holdem, Omaha, Pineapple and a game we call one up. One of the two is the guy who owns our regular place so I have to convince him !
Wish me luck - would hate to have to move town just to find a new home game.