Same old Home game woes

[Nicholosi]

.50/.50 cash game, typical buy ins from $20 to $100. Players are bad, should be a goldmine. 7-8 players see flop with a raise to $5.

Here's my twist on this worn out question. If you only play premium hands and push them hard when you get them, you can be a slight winner in this game. Is this the best strategy (my current one)? or Limp every hand and hope to break them when you flop the nuts? or Am I just a whiny bitch because my KK got busted by T4 off suit when he flopped trips and let me keep betting into him to the tune of 80 bb?

Seriously, play good poker or wallow in the mud with everybody else?

[grebe]

playing "good" poker doesnt mean playing "correct" poker, does it? Try to adjust your play to the situation....not just play the way the book tells you. I play in a couple different games like this, and here are a couple things I try to keep in my head while playing:

1. Big pairs are usually only good head's up or three handed max. If I fail to only let 2 other players or less see the flop (and I dont improve), I assume the worst and try to show down cheap.

2. Value bets are your friend. Bluffing is your enemy. Nobody gives a damn about your table image, so dont pretend others will give you credit.

3. Draws go up in value big time...just make sure you are drawing to the best hand (let somebody else hit the idiot end of the straight).

3. Have fun, everybody else is.

[nuclear500]

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typical buy ins from $20 to $100. Players are bad, should be a goldmine. 7-8 players see flop with a raise to $5.

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Doesn't sound like Poker to me when everyone is calling a 10BB raise. Sounds like BINGO night.

[findingneema]

1) limp-reraise
2) ?????
3) profit

[ringoquads]

Play "good" poker. Eventully over the long run you'll be a winner in a game with so many bad players. Home games are rife with tells. Read Joe Navarro's book. grabe made great points in his post too, I liked his 3rd point. Try limping with more connectors.

[Nicholosi]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

I'm up $368 over the last year in this game (play weekly), a modest winrate but better than losing. I'm just frustrated that i'm averaging $7 a week when it seems like it should be so easy to crush.

Bingo is an excellent way to describe it.

I've given up bluffing already.
I try to bet for value but often I'm behind and don't know it. Like the KK vs. T4, I couldn't put him on a 4 since he called my pf raise. Maybe 44 or a suited A but with all rags I think I'm good. Consequently, i stack off $40 thinking I have the best hand but was behind all the way after the flop.

I guess the game is just playing much bigger than it is.

[Befolder]

Yes, the game is playing bigger than the blinds and by the river you have to remember that your KK is still only one pair.

Since they play so much junk, you can't really read some of them so value bet harder w/ two pair and up, be more cautious with one pair.

The key will be to lose the least when they catch up, but get big value for your huge hands. Bet those hard.

[Javanewt]

My home game is the same way. .50/1. I've played with them only three times and am still up $260, but last week was unbelievable. They were playing crap. I'm considering limping big hands early and re-raising big to take it down or to isolate and re-raising big hands late.

I mix up my play a lot, too, so they are never quite sure what I have. I do not play junk hands such as T4o, but those are the people you want in. I pray my opponents keep playing junk like that, because I will ultimately come out ahead.

Pay attention to betting patterns. Something must have tipped you that he had a big hand. Slow down sometimes.

I know the feeling, though. My AA was cracked by a limper calling my pre-flop raise with 23. Flop gave him trip 2s. That's poker. I'll get it back [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Befolder]

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I mix up my play a lot, too, so they are never quite sure what I have.

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This is something we read that a lot of people misapply. If your opponents are bad, they aren't paying attention to how your play so mixing it up has no value. Just play straight forward. They aren't watching you like you're watching them.

[Javanewt]

I disagree. They are paying attention to what I do. They think I'm extremely tight and play only big hands, but little do they know how often I bluff. I never show unless I have to, and I'm rarely caught bluffing.

They think if I raise or bet, I have it. LOL.