2 Decks in play for Cash Games?

[Rottersod]

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When I am in my 4-6 player game we all like to talk in between hands while one player shuffles and deals. It's never been any big deal and we get in plenty of hands/hr. Our games have never lacked for action.

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Are you mostly regular players who play a lot all week? This would make sense then. It seems at my two weekly games, people are itchy to get in as many hands as possible. They come here to play. We still get plenty drunk and stoned and [censored] a whole lot, but it's during all the fast and furious poker action. Hell, last week I suggested a break when half our table went outside to smoke, and those remaining were all, "MUST! KEEP! PLAYING!" I wonder how the tone would change with one deck.

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Yes, in my 4-6 games we are all regulars with 1 or 2 people rotating in and out each night but the same faces.

[Rottersod]

I'll hi-jack my own thread for just a sec:

The other night we were playing our usual NLHE when one of the biggest contributers suddenly announced he wanted us to play O8. After giving him a bunch of reasons why we didn't want to change we agreed to play it for 2 hours. That was 2 hours of sheer boredom for me watching pot after pot get chopped or quartered but this guy tells us after that he wants us to play O8 part of each game from now on. And it's not like he was ahead in that game but he didn't lose nearly as much as he would have at NL.

[garcia1000]

Seriously, is it that hard to shuffle and play at the same time? It takes two seconds to look at your cards, and 20 seconds to shuffle.

[Small Fry]

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I'll hi-jack my own thread for just a sec:

The other night we were playing our usual NLHE when one of the biggest contributers suddenly announced he wanted us to play O8. After giving him a bunch of reasons why we didn't want to change we agreed to play it for 2 hours. That was 2 hours of sheer boredom for me watching pot after pot get chopped or quartered but this guy tells us after that he wants us to play O8 part of each game from now on. And it's not like he was ahead in that game but he didn't lose nearly as much as he would have at NL.

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Unless he's a decent O8 player if you study up a little on this game you will just crush him. If he is decent then even more reason to study up a little. Personally I think it's fair that if you get to play a game where you have an advantage (I assume this since based on your reference to him as a big contributor) then you should be willing to play a game where he thinks he has one. Again I make the assumption that he wanted to switch because he thinks he is a better O8 player, but maybe not. So do a little studying and take all his money. And then before you know it you'll all be playing razz....lol

[markuisis]

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I prefer using one deck. In my home games, I'm usually the dealer and would use the same dealing/shuffling procedures used in the casinos.

The players in my game prefer using 2 decks to speed up the play. My rifle. rifle, strip, rifle, cut is pretty fast.

The problems I have with the two decks are:

1. The shuffling takes place out of sight from most players. Or at least some are distracted since they are in a hand and don't notice.

2. Most of the players can't shuffle off the table without cards being exposed during the shuffle.

3. A large portion of the time, I need to ask if the other deck has been shuffled and people forget if they did or not, causing a re-shuffle.

4. If the person shuffling happens to be in the current hand, the cards don't get shuffled anyway.

So eventhough I like the one deck, one dealer method, I let other players do the shuffle to keep them happy and the game going. I trust that my friends won't try to cheat. If the people in your game aren't trustworthy, then use one deck or don't play.

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agreed

[pfapfap]

I'm fairly quick with the deal and shuffle, often finishing one hand and getting out another while the second deck is still being worked on. Thing is, I don't want to deal all damn night and I sometimes don't want to deal at all. But I can't ask someone else to deal all night either, so two decks with alternating dealers works well. There are a handful of us who can manage a deck well, so we basically bounce off each other, handing off the deck when we want a break. Works fairly well. I'm there to socialize, too, but all of us want to get our poker on, and rotating the deal to everybody would make me go insane.