My girlfriend's cousin is having a big poker night on Saturday for his 26th. It will be a home game, 2 tables, one £25 ($44) and one £10 ($18). It is tournament format and winner takes all from each table.

It will be a mix of people I don't know very well. Most of them play, but not much (compared to the 4-5 hours per night and entire weekends that I do), and none of them have ever read a poker book. There will also be a couple of complete novices who want to learn, and a couple of novices who are just taking part cos it's the guys birthday - whether it's poker or fancy dress or karaoke is irrelevant.

There will also be drinking, home made 'cigarettes', and other dubious substances.....

I've had a couple of home games before with a similar mix of novices/players, and it always gets out of hand. The novices raise and reraise everything, the players fold everything, everyone just gets fucked and no one knows what's going on. Then cards start turning up under people's elbows or on the floor and stuff.

Someone who has studied a bit and plays a lot should clean up right? But I find it hard and end up wishing I'd just stayed online, or gone out to a poker club!

Oh and just to make life extra difficult...my girlfriend told them all I play a lot, read a lot of books, and that I had a big tournament win last weekend. Now they all think I'm some sort of amazing poker genius......

I just wondered what you guys thought about how to approach a game like this. Every hand is going to be raised and every street bet, by people who mostly don't really know what they're doing. A lot of usual plays -limping, bluffing, check raising, etc - are just not going to work. Sure you can sit there and wait for AA or KK to bust everyone, but what if they don't come? Even if they do you're gonna have several in the pot with you and most likely get sucked out on.

Should I take it all seriously and try playing 'proper poker', or should I just get fucked and treat it as a night off from playing 'proper poker'?!

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Nobody ever bet enough on a winning horse
- Anonymous

I take it this is NL.

I play in games like this from time to time (with my brothers and their friends around the holidays - jesus they're bad). They're frustrating because you're basically playing war. So rule of thumb is try to see as many cheap flops as you can - I know there's a lot of raising, but that usually settles down after a while.

Just try and trap as much as possible with big hands, and let go the medium and marginal stuff on the flop. If you hit, just start raising the roof on them. It can be tough because you might not get good cards, and might not hit flops. But you're playing cards, not poker.

Against the better players, leverage that "I'm a poker genius" persona your girlfriend created. Talk about your big tournament win (not in Phil Hellmuth "I'm the greatest" style, just conversationally). When there's no maniacs in the pot (there will be a couple like this later on in the game), reraise the tighter players who aren't calling stations (they've shown they can lay a hand down) to steal the pot. If they fight back, go away if you don't have a hand.

Just remember that in multiway pots, the value of pairs goes way down (I think the average winning hand in Hold'em if you just play a certain number of the hands dealt to showdown is something like 2 pair).

Good luck.

Yes, it is NL tournament play, I should have specified.

Cheers Jason, good advice as always.

I'll look for limping opportunites and try to see some cheap flops then. I guess I do need to rememebr with lots of big multiway pots pair value goes down. I'll try and get in there with big suited connectors and hands like that to try and flop a monster...otherwise I'll get out.

I like your idea of concentrating on just the cards and not the poker! That's the way forward man.

Well it'll be a great night whatever happens, but I just wanna take their money and make it a legendary one!!

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Nobody ever bet enough on a winning horse
- Anonymous

Drink with them.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

They might get lucky at the poker....but that is one thing they WON'T beat me at!! Hehehe!

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Nobody ever bet enough on a winning horse
- Anonymous

"should I just get fucked and treat it as a night off from playing 'proper poker'?!"


Hmmm.. I dont believe any male below 75 should really have any doubts on this one.

If you set yourself up a a poker guru - the poker gods won't like it and you will get 7,2 os all night. Furthermore when you do get AA you will be cracked by 72 os..

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See me playing $10/$20NL like it was play money

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...405&q=xxdemexx

Doberman: "but Sarge, isn't poker gambling and just luck?"
Sgt. Bilko:" not the way I play it"

Jason's advices sound good...

See cheap flops... look for str8s, flushes, and sets before pulling the trigger ant trap a lot...

Remember, to win that kind of STT you technicly need to win 4 hands...

Should be fine!

KJ

Loosen up your starting hands, tighten up your bluffs.
Clean it up.

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A good education is expensive but ignorance costs more.

Well...

I would say no bluffs...

KJ

try and identify characteristics of each player.

who will pay you off when you have a big hand and you can just raise and they will call.

who to bluff and who not to bother bluffing.

who is over aggressive so you can slowplay a monster.

who is watching what is going on and will realise you are playing tighter than most.

who is very drunk and wont renember a hand from 10 mins ago

etc