February 2012 Open Thread - Page 7 - Home Poker Games

Hoss1193 · 02-07-2012, 11:06 AM

Back home for good.

Was a 47-hour trip from Bahrain...most of it spent in airports rather than flying. Italy, Spain, Norfolk VA, Detroit. Whew, glad that's over with.

Just realized I need to change my avatar location again...

Aidan · 02-07-2012, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugthefish

It's more fun when you do that

amen!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoss1193

Back home for good.

Was a 47-hour trip from Bahrain...most of it spent in airports rather than flying. Italy, Spain, Norfolk VA, Detroit. Whew, glad that's over with.

Just realized I need to change my avatar location again...

Welcome home!

rescued · 02-07-2012, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schmendr1ck

This is something that I always struggle with: AA in EP. Thinking players in my game know that I'm positionally aware and that I don't raise crap from early position, so an UTG raise narrows down my range considerably. However, I hate the EP limp-reraise because it screams, "I HAVE ACES!!!!!" and there's always the chance that no one will raise and you'll be playing OOP against 4-5 limpers.

I've thought about two approaches. One is to raise speculative hands from EP a small percentage of the time. Another is to pick a specific trash hand (e.g. 62o), play it from EP like a BPP, and show it when I win the hand as advertisement.

Thoughts?

Yes and yes. It balances your ep opening range. If you only play big hands up front you are essentially playing your hand face up. Easy to exploit.

jzpiano · 02-07-2012, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schmendr1ck

This is something that I always struggle with: AA in EP. Thinking players in my game know that I'm positionally aware and that I don't raise crap from early position, so an UTG raise narrows down my range considerably. However, I hate the EP limp-reraise because it screams, "I HAVE ACES!!!!!" and there's always the chance that no one will raise and you'll be playing OOP against 4-5 limpers.

I've thought about two approaches. One is to raise speculative hands from EP a small percentage of the time. Another is to pick a specific trash hand (e.g. 62o), play it from EP like a BPP, and show it when I win the hand as advertisement.

Thoughts?

Or play the 72 game like I do and have everybody assume you have it all the time and never get credit for a hand. Maybe it has something to do withtl the fact that I don't mind losing 30 bucks with it to win a few on the times I do win. Pro move.

**Schmendr1ck** · 02-07-2012, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rescued

Yes and yes. It balances your ep opening range. If you only play big hands up front you are essentially playing your hand face up. Easy to exploit.

In my game, I've never really bothered balancing my EP opening range too much because most players are pretty loose-passive preflop. But lately, a couple of better, more aggressive players have joined the game, and this is one of the adjustments I need to make.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzpiano

Or play the 72 game like I do and have everybody assume you have it all the time and never get credit for a hand. Maybe it has something to do withtl the fact that I don't mind losing 30 bucks with it to win a few on the times I do win. Pro move.

I have a couple players who would love to play this prop, so I'll bring it up next time. If they don't want to play, I'll just play the hand anyway and be sure to show win or lose. Unfortunately, there are a couple players in the game who never give me credit for a hand, so this will make it impossible to bluff those guys. I'll need to catch a few more hands than I did at my last -200bb session.

**Schmendr1ck** · 02-07-2012, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoss1193

Back home for good.

Was a 47-hour trip from Bahrain...most of it spent in airports rather than flying. Italy, Spain, Norfolk VA, Detroit. Whew, glad that's over with.

Just realized I need to change my avatar location again...

Welcome back, and looking forward to meeting you in July!

The Meal · 02-07-2012, 01:34 PM

I'm of the opinion that the earlier your pre flop position, the less fancy you want to play (against the whole field). In that light, I'd balance the AA line of limp/3(+)-betting with a hand that can actually catch good, then not showing down my play until it comes up in natural conditions. If I only limp/3bet with AA, I'd select one suited connector (personally, I'd take exactly 98s as the times I flopped big with that hand would not overlap with the flops that were huge for AA). If I l/3b with KK+, I'd balance with 3 sets of sc's (65s - 87s).

Likely more thought than the typical home game needs, but it's more fun to post about these things when trying to optimize.

gedanken · 02-07-2012, 03:07 PM

One way I like to think about AA in ep is to play it in a way where you don't CARE if people know that's what you have. Unless you're playing pretty deep, a limp+3b can get enough chips in that there is NOTHING your opponent can do to overcome your preflop strength and the SPR. He simply won't outflop your pair of aces often enough to justify calling the preflop raise. The number is around 12% of stacks if you're going to flip AA face up and pot/pot/pot in the dark.

If you balance with a few sc's like the meal suggests, this is even more powerful.

In a tough, aggressive, deep, full game, you should be VERY tight utg. Also make larger bets in ep to shorten the effective stacks and reduce the impact of position.

badhabit · 02-07-2012, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aidan

Hope the weekend treated everyone well, and the Good Ship docked where it was most needed.

We recently had a journalist sit in with us as part of an assignment from a student newspaper. As you don't often see home poker in any sort of press, I thought you might find it interesting. I think it captured part of our group quite well!

Link

Good read, defenitely cool to see a piece on a home game, especially one in my backyard! I'm on the edge of East Rock towards Hamden, so you can't be that far from me. I think I actually got extended a second-hand invite to this game from Precept2 a little while ago, but my nittyness/exam I have this month prevented me from saying yes to a weekday game.

Do you run the game year round? If so I'd love to join you guys sometime after my exam. Been lurking 2+2 for couple years and probly going to start posting some in HP now that I'm playing in Precept2's league.

Aidan · 02-08-2012, 11:20 AM

We play every couple of weeks or so. Still trying to balance 2p2ers against non-regulars and work mates, but edging towards a full table rather than not! I don't have as sweet a setup as Precept though. Send me a PM once you're free.

wesrwood · 02-08-2012, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badhabit

Good read, defenitely cool to see a piece on a home game, especially one in my backyard! I'm on the edge of East Rock towards Hamden, so you can't be that far from me. I think I actually got extended a second-hand invite to this game from Precept2 a little while ago, but my nittyness/exam I have this month prevented me from saying yes to a weekday game.

Do you run the game year round? If so I'd love to join you guys sometime after my exam. Been lurking 2+2 for couple years and probly going to start posting some in HP now that I'm playing in Precept2's league.

I will also prolly start hosting more often soon if I can get more people to show up

dugthefish · 02-09-2012, 06:03 AM

Quite night...

badhabit · 02-09-2012, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wesrwood

I will also prolly start hosting more often soon if I can get more people to show up

Cool, I'll be free for more games once March comes around. Especially if you're hosting in New Haven, as the prospect of a game without having to drive 15-20 min is quite appealing.

Also, I'm the new guy that luckboxed the last league event at Precept2's (/brag), have we sat at the same table or been introduced yet?

Aidan · 02-09-2012, 10:24 AM

Will have a full table for Saturday's NLHE game - first time I haven't had to email out the "only x seats left!" email a couple of days before hand. Three people making their first appearance, a 2p2er and his partner, and a rando who saw a flier around work.

Im thinking of having a PLO night. Am I crazy? (in before ldo). Was thinking of trying it with $10 buyins as an experiment - the usual is $25. The mixed FL games has been a success, but a couple of people have commented that they find it hard to get into a rhythm when switching between games. Obviously the reputation of a "home game wrecker" concerns me, but i could try to limit it by first inviting only the goodish players to see how it plays over a night in regards to rebuys, stack depth etc. Thoughts?

wesrwood · 02-09-2012, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badhabit

Cool, I'll be free for more games once March comes around. Especially if you're hosting in New Haven, as the prospect of a game without having to drive 15-20 min is quite appealing.

Also, I'm the new guy that luckboxed the last league event at Precept2's (/brag), have we sat at the same table or been introduced yet?

I was the first guy who busted out last time. I host in West Haven. Im trying to run some tourneys between now and mid march. Im playing a bunch of big tourneys at Foxwoods in March and hopefully going to Vegas for WSOP so Id like to play as much in the meantime so I can start playing better again