Home Poker games are their own unique breed of Poker.

 

The fact that you are in control of the rules means that the game can be bent and twisted into a completely new form, without any regard for the basic rules that have already been set in place.

 

The less experience you and your friends have in playing Poker, the more unrecognisable the game will become. Here are a few pointers to highlight why the first home game you play may be slightly different to the poker game that you will be playing online.

 

I’m sure that you can relate to a few of them – we’ve all been there at some point.

 

It doesn’t matter when players act, just as long as they do.

 

Do you like your hand? Don’t wait about, get your bet or raise into the middle as quickly as you can.

 

When you are playing online, the action moves from player to player in clockwise direction. However, at your first home game everyone realises that this is just a useless formality that takes up valuable playing time. This isn’t some sort of high limit Baccarat game with strict rules, so it’s all okay to set a few of the minor details to the side.

 

As long as you are sure that everyone has made a bet or something along those lines, you can carry on with the flop, turn or river. Job done.

 

No betting on the river.

 

People that bet on the river are really annoying. Let’s face it, you’ve paid a ridiculous amount of money on the turn in the hope that your hand will improve, and so now you just want to turn the cards over to see if your hand has held up.

 

For some unknown reason, online poker rooms have placed an annoying betting round after the river card. Do away with this rule at your home game and just turn the cards over. Nobody is going to share any beers with the guy that moves all-in on the river, especially if you aren’t sure whether your bottom pair might still be ahead.

 

No raising before the flop (well, you can, but nobody is going to like you).

 

Just as nobody likes the guy that bets on the river, people are going to hate the guy that raises before the flop. You haven’t even seen the first 3 community cards yet, so how the hell can you be raising so early on?

 

Everyone wants to see a flop for as cheaply as possible, so there’s no need to try and push them out of the hand before it even gets going. There is nothing worse than calling the big blind and finding some idiot making a 4 big blind raise after you… that’s not real poker.

 

In your home game you can bully that sort of player into submission, but online it seems to happen on every hand. It’s just no fun that way.

 

You raise it to $10? I raise it to $12.

 

It’s micro bets galore in your first home game. At the online tables, you have to make re-raises that are equal to or greater than the initial raise, but that can get pretty costly pretty quickly.

 

We all know that you are better off throwing the rules behind betting and raising out of the window for your home game, otherwise the pots are just going to get far too big and you are going to end up losing all of your money on one hand. Nobody wants to see that happen, so allow yourselves to bet small amounts of money – it’s the way forward.

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