LHE or NLHE or Dealer Choice - Home game?

pismeyer · #1 01-28-2007, 10:46 AM

I usually play tournament style when I host a home game, especially if I get 8 or more people to show up. On the invitation I send out I mention that if less than 8 people show, it will be a cash game.

My question is what type of cash game should it be?

Let me make it clear that my home games are usually loud, fun, and crazy at times. Most of the guys know the rules of tournament play but some do not, some have never played poker in their life and are wanting to learn just so they can have a night out once in awhile. (Yeah, we're married engineers and architects with no life - LOL).

Dealer choice games are always fun and interesting and the games are usually "luck box" specials. Not a whole lot of skill involved to play.

NLHE - always scares everybody (for some reason). I'd like to play with .05/.10 blinds with a $20 max buy-in. However, as mentioned before the guys have a fear of losing there money all at once. My standard response is "YOU CAN FOLD!!".

LHE - I'm leaning towards this a lot more recently. I like limit hold'em with blinds at .25/.50 and a capped 4 bet raise. I've seen some good size pots with four or five players staying in all the way to the river. Some of the guys think it's too boring, while me and a few others like it.

What do you guys prefer for your cash play games?

Thanks! P [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

akebono · #2 01-28-2007, 02:21 PM

Our cash games are always Dealer's Choice. One or two orbits per dealer. Some of my players would rise up and hurt me if I tried to to a full night of LHE. We've done full nights of NLHE before and it's the most popular game by dealer selection. I think you have to allow for people to take a break from HE every now and then and do something a bit more wild. Badugi and Triple Draw are my personal favorites to bring out in the DC game.

pfapfap · #3 01-28-2007, 03:16 PM

It sounds like maybe you don't have the proper balance of people. I've found NLHE to be the most popular by far (I can't stand live 25c LHE), but how about this... instead of running a tournament, run two tables with different games.

PantsOnFire · #4 01-28-2007, 04:19 PM

Two ideas.

I would push for NL holdem a bit more. Perhaps make your .05/.10 game with a $10 max buyin. If people have $50 in their pocket they should be good for the evening. Also, you could go for Pot Limit Holdem.

Second, PL Omaha can be a lot of fun. You can use the same .05/.10 game and $10 max buyin type of structure.

pfapfap · #5 01-28-2007, 04:48 PM

Oy. If people are wary about losing their chips in NLHE, I'd avoid PLO.

akebono · #6 01-28-2007, 05:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
It sounds like maybe you don't have the proper balance of people. I've found NLHE to be the most popular by far (I can't stand live 25c LHE), but how about this... instead of running a tournament, run two tables with different games.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess the wrong balance is a matter of perspective. LHE is my best game and the one I play predominantly for real money. I'm a NLHE donkey and I know it so I don't really like playing it that much. I also don't like tourney play all that much and only use tourneys to populate my cash games.

I like the idea of rotation and dealer's choice because it levels the playing field and maximizes the number of people who might want to play. I wouldn't want to play NL with a bunch of specialists all night and they definitely don't want to play LHE with me all night. ( Well some of them might but then we'd have a 3 handed LHE game all night which isn't all that fun either.)

jjshabado · #7 01-28-2007, 05:35 PM

I started with a regular .5/.10 NLHE game with a $5 first buy in, and 5$ rebuys. That worked pretty well since nobody felt uncomfortable with the amount of money at risk. After some of us got to know more about poker and became more comfortable with large raises we kept the same structure but would allow $10 rebuys once there was a bunch of money on the table (so that rebuying players weren't short-stacked). With 5-8 people we would often get $80-$100 on the table by the end of the night. It worked well for us where we had some really serious players and some people completely new to the game.

pismeyer · #8 01-28-2007, 06:46 PM

I'm pretty sure these guys would not like PLO.

They're so used to tournament play, I'm thinkin' NLHE (small stakes) would be best. I've read in other forums that .25/.25 blinds played with a $20 max buy-in is a good start. I'm doubting any of the guys I play with are willing to risk all of their chips, but if by shance they do, I'm hoping $20 isn't going to kill them.

P

pfapfap · #9 01-28-2007, 06:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I guess the wrong balance is a matter of perspective

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mean to say that those who want to play LHE are the weak link, just that because he has a bunch of people all of whom prefer different games, it's not a good balance. Your post more or less backed me up on that. So I guess we have the same perspective. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

ottsville · #10 01-29-2007, 11:23 PM

I've got a bunch of old guys I play with that like the dealer's choice games, but I'm much better at holdem. What I was thinking of doing was playing a $5 nl game for an hour or so at the start of the night and then switching to dealer's choice later. My plan is to get these guys introduced to NL on the cheap(for them) and then playing what they like afterwards. If somebody is really opposed to playing NL, they can come later in the evening.