[OrrLives]

This is going to be a long post...

I play in a semi-regular $0.25/0.50 NLHE cash game with a group of very bad players. Typically, players will buy-in for $10-20 (very low, but I have to be accommodating) but it is uncapped. If a player gets stacked, he will usually re-buy for another $10-20.

The game is very loose and $5 preflop raises called by 3 players aren't uncommon. There is only one player in the game I need to worry about (call him GoodP), but usually we avoid each other.

Two of the players are married and are not doing well financially. The wife is terrible at poker, but she doesn't get stacked that often. The husband is a super-lag (call him LAGP), but not in a good way. Every time we play, there are two scenarios for him...

(1) He will re-buy multiple times and never win.

(2) He will re-buy multiple times, get lucky and build a huge stack, then donk it all off on top pair or some idiotic draw.

At the end of the night, it usually comes down to GoodP, LAGP and myself. LAGP will not stop playing until the game gets heads-up. It is a race between GoodP and myself to see who will stack LAGP first. LAGP will almost always end up losing ~$75-$150, which he really cannot afford at this time. The sick part is that LAGP wants to play a cash game format whenever we get together.

Although we have a nice liquor selection and sometimes home-cooked food, every time LAGP leaves I feel a little gross inside. I love to play poker and especially love to win, but I don't want to be taking a player's money consistently if I know they cannot afford it. If LAGP lost less or won occasionally, I would feel better, but this is never the case.

Not inviting LAGP to the game is not an option because he knows the other players well.


I discussed this with GoodP (who feels similarly) and we had the following options:

(1) Only play tournaments with low starting chip stacks (we used to play ~30BB tourneys which tend to go pretty fast). We have to have low initial stacks because the other players are not used to tourneys that last more than 1 hour [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
Pros: Tourneys limit LAGP's losses to the $10 buy-in and LAGP's style may actually help him.
Cons: With 8 players, it may take a while to finish a tourney from their perspective. I would like to be in the action too if I get knocked out early. Starting side action while the tourney continues is not an option with this group of players.

(2) When it gets down to 3 players, I could say I'm getting sleepy and want to stop playing.
Pros: If LAGP has money left, he will get to go home a winner (or at least not a loser).
Cons: The night might end early. I have to lie [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

(3) Introduce limit holdem.
Pros: This will definitely limit his losses for the night.
Cons: I tried to explain LHE to other players but they were reluctant because 'it seems too complicated' [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] (I tried showing them Seven-card Stud... they looked at me like I was trying to explain quantum mechanics.)

(4) Lowering the stakes.
Pros: It will reduce LAGP's losses.
Cons: They want to play at those stakes.


Do any of you have other ideas? Has this happened to any of you before?