I have a 6-person poker group which gets together monthly. We play dealer's choice and end up rotating through a limited number of games. Is there a reference site where we could find some new games?
We do play some hold'em but the guys like to mix in some other games also. I've suggested a full night of hold'em but the group seems to enjoy the variety.
"We do play some hold'em but the guys like to mix in some other games also. I've suggested a full night of hold'em but the group seems to enjoy the variety"
i remember feeling the same way. I was used to playing: Lou, pregnant 3s, chicago, blah blah blah blah
Then I was introduced to a game where they played nothing but hold em...I figured it would be boring as hell...but that thought passed after an hour
We play again Friday evening and I will suggest a night of hold'em again ... perhaps I can move them gradually by suggesting 1 hour of hold'em and guage the reaction.
When playing a night of texas hold'em, how do you coordinate the dealing? Is there a designated dealer or does the deal move which each hand played? Do you have several decks of cards preshuffled (to speed play) or do you shuffle after each game?
Just like any game. I guess you could have designated dealer. But Hold'em always rotates the deal. So just pass the deck. Or I have before played in game where we had two decks going to speed up play a bit.
If the players are inexperienced, you are *never* going to be able to speed up the game significantly. You'll just have to relax and go with the flow.
Using multiple decks may sound like good theoretical idea, but it's hard to implement. The few times I've tried it weren't too successful. It almost always ends up that the second deck isn't shuffled ahead of time because the person isn't paying attention or is busy playing the current hand. When the decks get mixed up (happens more than you might think with casual players) it wastes time trying to separate them.
It *really* helps to have a separate dealer who isn't playing in the game. The game moves much faster and with fewer mistakes when you have a single dealer who's only task is dealing.
If you can't find a dealer, see if anyone in your group who is good at dealing *wants* (never pressure anyone into doing this extra work) to deal cards. It will improve things somewhat if you have a single player dealing cards.
Other than that (and this is probably the case for most "fun" home gaes), just sit back, relax and give everyone a chance to shuffle up and deal when it gets to them.
One more thing. Some home games have lots of weird shuffling protocols to prevent players from cheating. If you are worried at all that the players you are playing with are cheating, don't bother with these sorts of shuffling tactics. Just go home. If you can't trust the people you are playing with, play somewhere else. You won't enjoy it, and you won't play well.
(Unless they are *serious* fish.)
Despite the saying, I would not make my own mother cut the deck.
Oh yeah, JonB's post reminded me. If you do have a fixed dealer in *any* poker game, you always need to indicate which player is acting as the dealer, by the use of a dealer button or similar. And the "effective" dealer should rotate around (clockwise, just like everything else which rotates in poker).
And yes, it matters who the dealer is in stud games too (in certain situations where it's ambiguous who is first to act).
I wonder where you can get a high quality dealer button in Canada...
[I can't say any more than that or else my post will have to go the the Advertising section.]
Thanx for the feedback ... I appreciate the time you guys invest in explaining the games, etc.
We are definately all new players so limiting the number of decks to 1 is probably a good idea. As for rotating the dealing, it might be easier to designate a dealer for 5-6 hands then rotate to the next player.
As for a "dealer" puck, I will probably improvise for now (a stale Wagon Wheel would probably work well until we ran out of munchies ... then it would be open season on the puck!!)) but will eventually buy one on-line from pokersupplies.com. My brother (Golfnut) and I purchased our 500 chip sets from pokersupplies.com last year and have been VERY happy with the quality of the chips and the case. We both have recommended many other prospective buyers to their site (shameless pitch for a finders fee!).
We do play some hold'em but the guys like to mix in some other games also. I've suggested a full night of hold'em but the group seems to enjoy the variety.
Last November I organized a Monday night football/poker night at my place and we all played texas hold'em for the first time. 10 guys showed up which is a record for us, and difficult to play any other poker game with that many players at one table.
We played tournament style with a $50 buy in and unlimited rebuys for the first hour if you lose all of you $400 chips(tourny $$). This way no one loses a ton of cash and since it is a week night (8pm-11:30pm) it is usually easy for guys to get out of the house.
Now we play every second Monday religiously and all the guys love it. More guys are starting to ask if they can join in also.
I have become a better player form picking up little bits from this forum plus read a book or 2 that were recomended by Scotty if I am not mistaken.
I also got my 500 chips from the pokerstore.ca and I think that helps add to the excitement when you have the proper equipment.
One thing we did to help the hold 'em game is get rid of the burn. There is way less confusion for the newbies and more 'forgetful' players, and it gets rid of the arguments that always happen when someone forgets to burn.
Some people may not like this system, but the only thing that really changes is tradition.
That newbie dealer has some excellent intuition. You are supposed to burn cards in 7 card stud (for the same reason you do in Holdem).
You burn a card any time there is an extended period (e.g. a betting round) where the top card of the deck is visible to the players no matter what the game is.
That newbie dealer has some excellent intuition. You are supposed to burn cards in 7 card stud (for the same reason you do in Holdem).
Was not aware of that. :oops:
Hypothetical situation:
8 players in 7cs stay in until 7 street (that never would happen, no one plays that loosely... :roll: )
By the time you are dealing 7th street, you have dealt 6 cards to 8 players = 48 cards. You cannot deal a full 7th street as you only have 4 cards left. So you deal a community card for 7th street, correct? In total, 49 of the 52 cards are in play, leaving 3 cards in the deck.
If you burn a card at every stoppage - 3rd st, 4th, 5th, 6th... by the time you get to deal 7th st, you have no cards left. What happens?
15. If there are not enough cards left in the deck for all players, all the cards are dealt except the last card, which is mixed with the burncards (and any cards removed from the deck, as in the previous rule). The dealer then scrambles and cuts these cards, burns again, and delivers the remaining downcards, using the last card if necessary. If there are not as many cards as players remaining without a card, the dealer does not burn, so that each player can receive a fresh card. If the dealer determines that there will not be enough fresh cards for all of the remaining players, then the dealer announces to the table that a common card will be used. The dealer will burn a card and turn one card faceup in the center of the table as a common card that plays in everyone’s hand. The player who is now high using the common card initiates the action for the last round.
My interpretation of this is that in your hypothetical situation, you would shuffle up the previously burned cards (all 4 of them), burn one, and then deal one community card.
But seriously, it doesn't happen too often. Occasionally when we play a hi/low split game where people may be targetting two different winning hands, we might get more callers.
I was going to point out that it used to be common for the dealer to burn a card each round when dealing Stud also, but scottyz pointed that out. I haven't seen that in forever. It seems to have died out.
What I was saying is that it doesn't change the mathematics of the game, so as long as you know the guys you are playing with, it shouldn't make any difference whether you burn or not.
Last time I was in Vegas, dealers at the Mirage were burning cards while dealing 7 card stud.
While I agree with you that burning cards does not change probabilities, there is more to burning cards than just tradition. It prevents cheating. If you don't burn cards, players can look at the top card and see if it is (intentionally or unintentioanlly) marked.
That's why I was saying it would be fine in a game with guys you know. The reason was to speed things up for newbies, and if they are new to hold 'em, I doubt they are marking the deck! Generally, if someone is playing in a home game where they suspect someone actually marked the deck, run, don't walk, for the door!
Agreed that you shouldn't play in a game where you suspect cheating.
But
1. How well can you really know people, and how well can you judge whether or not someone will cheat? Often those who are cheated (not only in poker) are the ones who least expected it.
2. Cards (particularly at home games) may become unintentionally marked. Even an "ethical" player may decide to take advantage of this.
3. Even if you are playing with players who you have determined in all likelihood do not cheat, if you allow such sloppy protocols which make it easier to a would-be cheater, you run the risk of attracting cheaters to your game.
Personally, I would run, not walk, for the door in a game where people didn't burn cards.
Note that all of my discussion assumes you are playing for stakes which are (even somewhat) significant to the players. If this is not the case, then let's not get our knickers in a knot about it.
I agree Scotty, kno knickers knotted. My assumption from the start of the post was a low stakes poker group. If it were high(ish) stakes, I would definately want things to be done 'by the book'. That is the kind of player I am.
I have a 6-person poker group which gets together monthly. We play dealer's choice and end up rotating through a limited number of games. Is there a reference site where we could find some new games?
Comments
Why play anything else?
Try
http://www.thejokerking.com/site/homevariation/popularhomevariations.html
for staters.
When you're ready for even more games, the most comprehensive list seems to be here:
http://www.homepoker.com/games.html
ScottyZ
We do play some hold'em but the guys like to mix in some other games also. I've suggested a full night of hold'em but the group seems to enjoy the variety.
Scotty Z.
Thanx for the information.
i remember feeling the same way. I was used to playing: Lou, pregnant 3s, chicago, blah blah blah blah
Then I was introduced to a game where they played nothing but hold em...I figured it would be boring as hell...but that thought passed after an hour
We play again Friday evening and I will suggest a night of hold'em again ... perhaps I can move them gradually by suggesting 1 hour of hold'em and guage the reaction.
When playing a night of texas hold'em, how do you coordinate the dealing? Is there a designated dealer or does the deal move which each hand played? Do you have several decks of cards preshuffled (to speed play) or do you shuffle after each game?
Sorry if the question is trivial!!
If the players are inexperienced, you are *never* going to be able to speed up the game significantly. You'll just have to relax and go with the flow.
Using multiple decks may sound like good theoretical idea, but it's hard to implement. The few times I've tried it weren't too successful. It almost always ends up that the second deck isn't shuffled ahead of time because the person isn't paying attention or is busy playing the current hand. When the decks get mixed up (happens more than you might think with casual players) it wastes time trying to separate them.
It *really* helps to have a separate dealer who isn't playing in the game. The game moves much faster and with fewer mistakes when you have a single dealer who's only task is dealing.
If you can't find a dealer, see if anyone in your group who is good at dealing *wants* (never pressure anyone into doing this extra work) to deal cards. It will improve things somewhat if you have a single player dealing cards.
Other than that (and this is probably the case for most "fun" home gaes), just sit back, relax and give everyone a chance to shuffle up and deal when it gets to them.
One more thing. Some home games have lots of weird shuffling protocols to prevent players from cheating. If you are worried at all that the players you are playing with are cheating, don't bother with these sorts of shuffling tactics. Just go home. If you can't trust the people you are playing with, play somewhere else. You won't enjoy it, and you won't play well.
(Unless they are *serious* fish.)
Despite the saying, I would not make my own mother cut the deck.
ScottyZ
And yes, it matters who the dealer is in stud games too (in certain situations where it's ambiguous who is first to act).
I wonder where you can get a high quality dealer button in Canada...
[I can't say any more than that or else my post will have to go the the Advertising section.]
ScottyZ
Not if it's relevant to the topic at hand, then it would be considered advice.
p.s I believe ScottyZ was referring to pokersupplies.com
Thanx for the feedback ... I appreciate the time you guys invest in explaining the games, etc.
We are definately all new players so limiting the number of decks to 1 is probably a good idea. As for rotating the dealing, it might be easier to designate a dealer for 5-6 hands then rotate to the next player.
As for a "dealer" puck, I will probably improvise for now (a stale Wagon Wheel would probably work well until we ran out of munchies ... then it would be open season on the puck!!)) but will eventually buy one on-line from pokersupplies.com. My brother (Golfnut) and I purchased our 500 chip sets from pokersupplies.com last year and have been VERY happy with the quality of the chips and the case. We both have recommended many other prospective buyers to their site (shameless pitch for a finders fee!).
Thx again.
ScottyZ
Last November I organized a Monday night football/poker night at my place and we all played texas hold'em for the first time. 10 guys showed up which is a record for us, and difficult to play any other poker game with that many players at one table.
We played tournament style with a $50 buy in and unlimited rebuys for the first hour if you lose all of you $400 chips(tourny $$). This way no one loses a ton of cash and since it is a week night (8pm-11:30pm) it is usually easy for guys to get out of the house.
Now we play every second Monday religiously and all the guys love it. More guys are starting to ask if they can join in also.
I have become a better player form picking up little bits from this forum plus read a book or 2 that were recomended by Scotty if I am not mistaken.
I also got my 500 chips from the pokerstore.ca and I think that helps add to the excitement when you have the proper equipment.
Try it and I hope you have the same results!
Some people may not like this system, but the only thing that really changes is tradition.
ScottyZ
That was good for a chuckle the first 3 or so times he did it.
hork.
You burn a card any time there is an extended period (e.g. a betting round) where the top card of the deck is visible to the players no matter what the game is.
ScottyZ
Was not aware of that. :oops:
Hypothetical situation:
8 players in 7cs stay in until 7 street (that never would happen, no one plays that loosely... :roll: )
By the time you are dealing 7th street, you have dealt 6 cards to 8 players = 48 cards. You cannot deal a full 7th street as you only have 4 cards left. So you deal a community card for 7th street, correct? In total, 49 of the 52 cards are in play, leaving 3 cards in the deck.
If you burn a card at every stoppage - 3rd st, 4th, 5th, 6th... by the time you get to deal 7th st, you have no cards left. What happens?
hork.
hoping this post made sense...
15. If there are not enough cards left in the deck for all players, all the cards are dealt except the last card, which is mixed with the burncards (and any cards removed from the deck, as in the previous rule). The dealer then scrambles and cuts these cards, burns again, and delivers the remaining downcards, using the last card if necessary. If there are not as many cards as players remaining without a card, the dealer does not burn, so that each player can receive a fresh card. If the dealer determines that there will not be enough fresh cards for all of the remaining players, then the dealer announces to the table that a common card will be used. The dealer will burn a card and turn one card faceup in the center of the table as a common card that plays in everyone’s hand. The player who is now high using the common card initiates the action for the last round.
My interpretation of this is that in your hypothetical situation, you would shuffle up the previously burned cards (all 4 of them), burn one, and then deal one community card.
Your players are too loose!!!
ScottyZ
Just the way we like'em! :twisted:
But seriously, it doesn't happen too often. Occasionally when we play a hi/low split game where people may be targetting two different winning hands, we might get more callers.
hork.
What I was saying is that it doesn't change the mathematics of the game, so as long as you know the guys you are playing with, it shouldn't make any difference whether you burn or not.
While I agree with you that burning cards does not change probabilities, there is more to burning cards than just tradition. It prevents cheating. If you don't burn cards, players can look at the top card and see if it is (intentionally or unintentioanlly) marked.
ScottyZ
But
1. How well can you really know people, and how well can you judge whether or not someone will cheat? Often those who are cheated (not only in poker) are the ones who least expected it.
2. Cards (particularly at home games) may become unintentionally marked. Even an "ethical" player may decide to take advantage of this.
3. Even if you are playing with players who you have determined in all likelihood do not cheat, if you allow such sloppy protocols which make it easier to a would-be cheater, you run the risk of attracting cheaters to your game.
Personally, I would run, not walk, for the door in a game where people didn't burn cards.
Note that all of my discussion assumes you are playing for stakes which are (even somewhat) significant to the players. If this is not the case, then let's not get our knickers in a knot about it.
ScottyZ
J
Check out www.thepokerresource.com to post your home game