Last night, Saturday July 28th, I was asked to play in a tournament style home game. The game was put on as an add on to a birthday party for the guys. All the players were completely new to me, but the others all knew each others style of play. As we waited for the party to end, clean up and the players to arrive my goal was to listen to the people who were waiting. I enjoyed listening to several players and some of their bad beats, and quickly found out whom was a player, and whom was an internet poker player. (On a side note, I have found that internet players that play for play money will stick it out until the end with ace high, or if they hit a small pair. I like to use this to my advantage, and raise with top pair and good kicker to make them fold or make that one bad mistake that costs them a lot of chips.) The guys have monthly tournament games, that bring in 40+ players, and have thought about starting a heads-up tourament, which I think would be a lot of fun. I was glad I was finally invited to play considering I have heard about this game, and wanted to test out my skills against others whom I didn’t know.

Within the first 10-15 hands I wanted to observe and watch what people were playing, so I asked to show their cards, but also wanted to put down a sick bluff, hoping to get called, or in a better case win and still show nothing. This was a strategy that I was hoping would help me later on down the line when I had good cards. With me in seat one, seat two and three were automatically in each hand when the blinds were small. They played almost everything they were dealt. Seat four was tight and aggressive, but never believed that you had anything, so he called out everything with middle and bottom pair. Seat five was very tight, but when he had top pair and better, he would only raise the pot 100 chips. (We started with 2300 chips) He also was an ATM, (automatic call machine), and the other players were loose and played premium hands, and were not defenders of their blinds.

Around hand 12-14 I was dealt 89 of hearts. I was the big blind and checked my option. I like to see the flop as cheaply as possible with suited connectors hoping to hit a monster. The flop turned out Ks, Kh, 6c. Being one the first people to play, and was checked to, I studied the board, counted the chips in the pot and put in a raise of 70% of the pot, which was roughly 140 chips. I like to see where I am at with a pair on the board. Only people who have hit it should be playing, but I have seen many times that a person with ace in their hands will continue to play….. Player four stayed in the game with me. I had decided right away this was going to be my bluff hand to setup the rest of the night if lucky. Turn card showed 2c. I fired another bullet at the pot, around 175 chips. Player four stayed in. At this point I knew that I was beat, either he had a king, or he hit the 6 because the two didnt scare him. River was a 5s, and again I fired out a raise, but not enough to scare player four compared to what was in the pot, which looking back was my problem and I could have won the pot with a much bigger bet. I turned over my bluff and got a bunch of laughs and what were you thinking questions, but the bait was then set.

After the bluff I tightened up and only played premium hands. If I was coming in, I was not limping, I raised each time, and made my bets the same amount as the others. Most of the time I won just because I raised, but when we did show our cards, I made sure I had the best hand. I also made sure that when the non-defenders were in the blinds, and limped in, I would raise with any two cards to steal the blinds. I quickly had the chip lead after two-three blind raises, but didn’t play big stack poker against the small stacks. I wanted the small stacks to beat themselves and either blind themselves out, or get into a pot against someone else and let them double them up. Finally, seat two, three, five and six were in a big pot. Seats three and six were all in, and with a rainbow flop, turn and river, and was checked out, seat two showed pocket 8’s as the winner. The cards on the table included from seat three were Q4, which I had learned much earlier that he would play anything, seat 5 turned over A2, and seat 6 had K3.

From here I started bluffing again, and with a healthy chip lead I wanted to put all the pressure and make the other players make a decision for all of their chips. Of the 6-7 hands that I raised the pot 1200 t0 2000 chips I was only called once. I had suitted qj, and player 5 went all in with AK and didn’t have enough for the 600 chip big blind, and it cost me 250 chips and I doubled him up, but quickly beat him the next hand. If I had anything good, I raised. One interesting hand started with my getting dealt 76 of hearts. I raised pre-flop and was called by seat two. Flop came out 765 rainbow. Being first I checked, and seat two instantly started talking about how I didn’t hit the flop. A mistake that I picked up right away. Seat two was actually a very good player, watched every person play, but when checked to him he always made a huge play at the pot, which I noticed. His play was kinda cocky, but he was getting some cards here and there, but only showed his cards to his brother (seat three) when he had hit the flop. When I noticed him showing his cards to his brother I knew he had hit the five on the table. But I had two pair heads up, which is a monster, and checked to him. He raised 800 chips into a pot of 1600 and I went over the top and called all in. He hesitated for a couple seconds and made the call, throwing down K5 and stood up with joy. When I turned over two pair he looked over at me in disgust, and knew he was in trouble. Turn card came out another 7 giving me a boat (full house) and the river came out a five, which was sick. He got very excited because he had thought he won with a boat and I only had two pair, but we showed him his loss and started play again.

Head-ups against player four was a lot of fun. Player four was the best player at the table, made some sick lay downs with top pair which impressed me. I played very aggressively, making some wild calls, and trying to keep him guessing what I had. After several hands, and winning most of them, player four had very little chips, and I asked him if he wanted to split the pot. He was the home owner and the person who put the game together and bought everything. I really didn’t care about winning, but just getting my buy in back, and wanted to show that I was a good player. We split said goodbye and drove home and thought about some of the mistakes that I made. The only one that I regretted was the big bluff at the beginning and not putting more into the pot. I didn’t bet 1/4th of the pot, so technically it was an automatic call for him in terms of pot odds.

My big bluff at the beginning and raising the pot the same amount as the bluff made the other players think that I was bluffing at many pots when I wasn’t. Once they figured out that I wasn’t bluffing and was showing them the winners, my style of play changed.  I started trapping and bluffing again. This landed me a huge chip stack and with non-defenders and small stack players waited for premium hands, I was able to play very aggressively and win lots of pots. It was a lot of fun! Another decent win for a home game player!

Click on the left in the category poker to read other blogs. Thanks and wishing you the best in your home game!

Every Wednesday night I play in a local home game. The stakes are not real high and it is played as a small buy in tournament. Each week my confidence is very high, as I have won more money playing than probably anyone else. But learning these players and watching them learn the game better has become the most fun of the game, and now a majority of the players have different strategies. So reading them and knowing their betting patterns helps me take advantage of their game.

For example, my father holds the Wedensday night games with friends and family, and probably the next best player in the game. I have seen his progression, but his patience level isn’t where it should be, and plays a wide variety of cards that either make him win, or loose quickly. But as poker players know, many times the worst cards win. I believe that my dad bluffs to much and gets caught and donates his chips to other players who have a tight persona. Last week, my father did something that I haven’t seen yet with his game. When the flop turned over 2 of the same suit, he would bet 100 chips (not 100 dollars). Most players in the game would instantly fold and gave up and didn’t understand what he was doing. Each time there was a possible flush, my father would bet it hard. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have anything that could have won during most of these plays at the pot.

You have to remember one major rule in amateur poker. When you over betting the pot and making huge raises at small pots, the raiser is bluffing. “If they playing aggressive and strong, most of the time they are not.” It’s usually the opposite play, small raise means strong, huge raise means weak.

Another example of this was in Season 3 of High Stakes Poker on the Game Show Network. Phil Ivey, popularly known as one of the best poker players in the world caught pocket kings before the flop and raised the pot. The pot was initially raised by Brad Booth with two scrub cards. I have watched, and re-watched HSP numerous times because I think it is the best poker show on TV, and have watched Brad Booth play many times on TV and online against many people. When the flop came out, it didn’t hit Brad but he made a 300k dollar bet. Phil with a huge dilemma didn’t make the call, because he either thought Brad had Aces or had a backdoor flush or straight. When you look at the amount bet versus the pot size, and thoughts above, one would think that pocket kings was the best hand and hard to crack. I have went over this hand very carefully, and would have made the same call as Phil. 300k is a lot of money to loose, and knowing the style of play that Brad Booth uses, which I think is 85% bluffing, that should have been an insta-call. That isn’t the style of play I admire, in fact I think Brad’s game is easy to predict, and with patience you could do some damage. But you wouldn’t see me sitting down at a large cash game with him for sure!!!

Good luck and check back soon.

Welcome to my poker blog.  This hopefully will help others who play Texas No-Limit Hold ‘Em in local home games play better and win more money.  By no means will this help you win each time, but my Wednesday night poker year and a half has given me a lot of experience with small pot / tournament style play for a couple bucks here and there.  And this experience, when played correctly and sound, will help you play better poker.  Since I tivo every poker game on TV, here and there I will probably bring up things that I have caught on TV and also on poker sites such as Full Tilt Poker.