ok, these once in a while games usually have wierd rules. It didn t surprise me that the guy that went south had to leave early.

I got invited to a cash game a couple weeks ago in a very affluent neighborhood near Nashville. Upon arrival there were sandwiches, drinks etc. I was very excited about the prospect of a very profitable evening. We then sat down and were asked to BI for $20, (sigh) and as the cards were being dealt, it had come to light that not ONE person knew how to play any poker game other than 5 card draw. After an hour of teaching these 7 well off business men how to play NLHE I gave my stack to the hosts 14 year old son and kindly excused myself so I could "put my two children to bed." I have no problem with introducing new people to the game AT ALL, I was just bummed that it wasn't explained to me during the invitation process that not one person knew how to play. I still would have gone, but with different expectations.

BTW .... if you find yourself in one of these games that lets players take money off the table at will the appropriate strategy would be to play with your full stake on the button and then reduce your stake as you get to worse positions to the point where you are playing your big blind as all in for the blind.

You have the right to cash out whenever you want, just don't be expected to be invited back.

There is a guy in our local bar game that buys in for 20-40 many nights, maybe 100 on a good night, and if he gets his stack up above 200 he snap leaves. It of course is in terrible taste and while I don't mind it because it tilts everyone else at the table it can also sometimes break a game if someone takes particular offense to it.

Of course this hit and run specialist considers himself a professional poker player because he's living on welfare and poker is the only thing he does.

This thread reminds me of the old days pre texas holdem where we player dealers choice and all games were limit. We had one guy that would sometimes put chips in his shirt pocket when he was up. It took us a few games to explain that you had to leave them on the table. We had another guy who had two different stacks of chips. One stack would of course be his buyin, the other stack his up money. he would play looser when he was up and would tighten up when his up stack was getting low.

While I'm a bit shocked that they knew no other games besides 5cd, I think jumping from that to NLHE is risking killing off that game group.

Maybe they'll fall in love with going broke 3 times in the first 30 hands....

"appropriate" because your expected advantage over other players in games that you are in..... is so low OoP that you have to be close to all-in, for the first three seats?

I understand your point, but as a true playing strategy for such a game, I don't think that makes sense.

Now, if you're saying that your best ROI in a game is a short-stacked strategy.... then that would be true from every seat, yes?

" the right" to do so? "allowed" ??

Sure, as long as you don't ming the group's right not to invite you over again..... or, perhaps, invite you the first time.

Home games are NOT the same as B&M. A home game can be run in such a manner, but don't assume that you have no responsibilities to the host, when you're invited to a home game.

You certainly can choose to be self-centered... but that just makes you a boor.

I am the organizer of a Poker Meetup group.

Here's what I put in the write-up for a cash game:

...Also, if you're new to cash games - blinds never go up and you can cash out and leave at any time. We do stick to the NO HIT & RUN rule, which means that if you just won a very big hand, the common poker etiquette is to stick around for a while before you leave.

Here's a quote from an article on the subject:

SUMMARY: What is a Hit and Run Player

A hit and run in poker is when a player wins a sizable pot and then immediately flees the scene. This type of behavior is frowned upon because it disallows the other players at the table an opportunity to win back any of the money that they lost. There is no rule strictly against a hit and run, but that doesn’t make it right. http://www.bonusespoker.org/poker-strategy/hit-and-run/