Dilemma: Experienced online player vs casual home game buds

[Death Valley]

"$10 home tournaments"

u r the only one who cares

[KingOtter]

First of all, I would care about $10. Trashing the stakes because they're below your standard is myopic.

Why not play cash games instead of winner-take-most tournaments?

I have a game I host most months of that variety.. then I can donk off some money to the main donator and then he distributes it among the rest of the players.

[beermankirk]

If you take alot of money out of the game, the following week, mention that you won, and bring $20-$40 in snacks, and booze. This will make everyone more than welcome that you showed up.

[WaywardAce]

Whenever I find myself playing socially with friends I know I can run over, I experiment with different playing styles and allow myself to drink while I'm playing. My friends know how serious I am about poker and that I never drink at the table when involved in a serious game. My drinking at the table is a confirmation that I'm mainly playing them for fun. That being said ..... I do not soft play them. I still play to win ...... but losses or falling victim to suckouts don't mean a thing, in this particular game, it's all about fun. The main thing, is not to be a jerk. Be gracious in winning and be sure to compliment them after a well played hand on their part. By the tone of your post, it seems like you're being cool about everything, so you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

[PantsOnFire]

[ QUOTE ]
If you take alot of money out of the game, the following week, mention that you won, and bring $20-$40 in snacks, and booze. This will make everyone more than welcome that you showed up.

[/ QUOTE ]
This too is a much better suggestion that softplaying.

[Phenom604]

Thank you King. Criticizing the stakes ads nothing to the conversation.

$10 means nothing to me, but winning the $80 first prize can mean something to the friends I play with who are unemployed students.

[Phenom604]

I like the suggestion of using this opportunity to work on my live reading skills, while ignoring my cards. I can give EV to my buds, but possibly gaining skills to be used in the long run; and in more competitive situations.

[OziBattler]

I understand the OPs dilemma.

OP, is it an aggressive blind structure? I play in a monthly homegame which is pretty crushable if we played a long game but the group prefers fast games so we play 2 games per night. Blinds are really aggressive (15mins per level) and each game is usually done in two hours and plays like a turbo especially since its pretty casual so when the table is full we only get in a few hands per level so a luckbox is required.

basically an aggressive blind structure hands a reasonable amount of your advantage back and you get into pushbot land pretty quickly and then its a matter of luckboxing or not getting luckboxed.

what Im saying, is that you could consider suggesting changing the blind structure to make the game faster and action packed thereby reducing your advantage and ability to outplay them.

also if you get a rep for being a nit then whilst blinds are cheap in the first few orbits just try
a. limp in with all but the worst hands regardless of position (be sure to show your rags when you win so they see you played junk)
b. if you cant stand limping junk then limp in blind and only look at your cards if you have to [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I also drink alot whilst playing my homegame and that is a good test of my drunkern autopilot. hehe.

[Phenom604]

Games we play are fast.

Structure: 10 min levels, with the next level starting at the end of the last hand. Starting stacks of 15,000 with the levels of BB being 200, 400, 800, 1600, 2000, 3000, 4000, 6000. It does become a pushfest at about the 4th level if you don't increase your stack.

I also make a point of drinking at least a few beers a game to try to fit in, even though I use to not drink and only worry about playing my best game.

I've tried to make my #1 priority have fun, and be welcomed back. #2 is to play the best I can, as when you are competing with your buddies, you still want to put on a good show, as long as there are no feelings hurt. For the most part no one takes the losing too seriously, but I did notice one buddy of mine getting sick of me winning.

[Clancey]

I was in your shoes a few months ago. I am not exactly an A+ poker player(far from it actually), but out of my group of friends I am the best player. Hell, a couple times I have had to tell people they have a winning hand at showdown (they will have a "weird" straight v 2 pair or something). I started out winning most of the time and it got to the point where when I showed up they would joke and say "want us to just pay you now?"

So after I heard that, I just started bringing snacks and beverages each week with the winnings I won. At the same time, I try to improve their play. Some of them are really interested in becoming better so I try to tell them what they did wrong and why I played my hands the way I did.

I never realized how little the common person knows about poker(before I played a hand of poker with real money I read Theory of Poker, Hold'em for advanced players, and SSI). Just try to educate them without being rude about it, and be good company. I win about 80% of the time and yet they love having me.

Good luck, just remember they are your friends, don't call them donks!!