[dfan]

At a recent home poker game, a few of us were early and sat down at the table. It happened that 4 of us were on one side of the table and the host, we'll call him Jim, sat on the opposite side. A joke was made about the four of us teaming up against Jim, and Jim (who is forever telling us what a gifted player he is) said jokingly, "Hell you could all combine your cards and I could still beat you." We laughed and said something to the effect of "yeah right!" After a bit of bantering he made the following serious offer: He would play me heads-up, with me getting dealt 8 cards from which I could choose my 2 card starting hand. He would play his regularly dealt hand but I had to give him 2 to 1 on the money. For example, if he bet $25 and I called and lost I had to pay him $50.

I accepted his challenge and we played. This was 1/2 NL, and we each had a stack of $180.

Here are the questions:
1) Which side of this proposition would you take - mine or Jim's.
2) What strategy would you use if you were me in this game? (starting hand selection, how much to bet preflop (most important), etc.).
3) What is Jims best strategy?

BTW, we played two sessions of this. I'll post how I came out and what my strategies were after I hear the comments of others.