Crazy Home Game Rules

[frob23]

So yesterday I met the GF's family for the first time. I am up visiting people in the northeast. Within 30 minutes of getting to know them, someone was asking if I played poker. A short while later, we had a 6 handed game going.


They had quite the list of home-rules. But it wasn't too hard to adjust. The rules included:

1. ante: $1 (except hold'em which still played with an ante... just $2)
2. no checking: fold or bet if you are first to act
3. position rotates DURING the hand. UTG acts first on the first round of betting, then UTG+1 acts first on the second round, etc.
4. minimum bet is a dollar, flat betting was common, in theory the game was NL but it played like limit because most bets were $1-$2
5. they included a game called 4-by-4. Everyone gets 4 cards, four more cards are dealt (one at a time) in the middle, you can use any of the 8 cards to make the best 5 card hand

There was more but I am typing this on my phone and my thumbs are getting tired. When I get home, I will tell some more fun stories from this game and observations.

We have had a crazy home game rules thread before but we need a new one. So everyone feel free to say some of the weird non-standard rules you've seen in private games.

[grimReaper]

I once played a game called criss-cross omaha. Crazy game. It's omaha, but two boards are dealt at the same time. You can use either the top or bottom with normal omaha rules, or use 3 cards from your hand and any column of two cards.

[frob23]

It was a fun time. There were a couple older guys but there were also 2-3 players under 30. There was a kid right to my right. I figured he was 20ish. It turned out he was 16 and still in high school. We talked a bunch and he made a comment that I folded a lot. I think I folded a hand like [Q-7-3-3] (suits are probably not right but the ranks are) in the 4x4 game. He looked at me and said, "You must not play a lot of poker because you fold a lot." I told him that I played a fair amount and that I usually don't fold that much; I was just getting really bad hands. I then showed him the hand I folded (acceptable practice in this home game). He looked at it and said, "I would have played that!

There was an older guy to my immediate left. He was the only person with a clue. I didn't mind having him to my left because he wasn't abusing his position and it gave me great position on the 16 year old and another clueless guy... an older drunk guy whose daughter was also in the game. Across from me, I had the drunk guy's daughter (who didn't know much about poker and would ask her boyfriend for advice -- which was always nice because it let me know pretty much exactly where she was at). Next to her was a guy in his mid 20s who seemed to have a basic idea of hand strength and was playing tight but he was holding on to too many medium strength hands and losing money that way. He was calling down with two-pair type hands in the 4x4 game, for example. And hand values were way inflated in that game so two pair wasn't a good hand at all.

I enjoyed the game a lot. The forced betting was a bit annoying and made drawing hands, except for super-strong ones, nearly impossible to play. I doubled my money in the hour or so that I played and then I got up and left. Since we were playing with cash, not chips, I think most people believed I left a loser. I handed out some ones a couple times in exchange for a $10 with people who needed more ones. And my stack didn't seem to "grow" much. I kept the money stacked neatly and under my phone so it looked like I was short all the time.

The hardest part, the alcoholic chain-smoking at the end of the table. I quit smoking in November and used to love to chain-smoke while playing cards. Since the private tournaments I used to play in have ended and there aren't a lot of places to play live, those places I do play live don't allow smoking. I haven't really had to face that reminder in the time I have quit. But I remained firm and didn't smoke.

Oh and the double ante for Hold'em... that was the older guy on my left's insistence. And I know why although he had a bullshit excuse for the rest of the table. He was trying to discourage Hold'em from being picked by everyone in preference to games where he had more experience and the edge and also games that had more betting rounds (which led to larger final pots). I think he expected me and some of the other younger people who said they played poker to be most comfortable with Hold'em and he wanted to keep as much of an edge as he could.

[gamer4life27]

Hello,

I have played this game it is called omaha. one of my favorite game. You can use top and bottom in this omaha rules, and use 2 cards...! i like this..!

Sabreena - Perhaps you are being mistaken. This may be a variant of Omaha, but it is defiantly not Omaha. But will have to introduce this to our cash game as it seems like a very interesting game.

[allena]

Hello,

Yes You are right "gamer4life27"... i totally agree with you...!

[johan75]

Hi,

Yes exactly, These are crazy home rules...!

[frob23]

Well, Omaha is pretty standard for my games. It's not really popular with my family.

We did add PL 4 by 4 to our rotation (that 4 by 4 game mentioned in the OP except played with blinds and pot limit).

Most of the other stuff from that game, I am glad is in my past.