So I made a post about this game in the homepoker forum but was advised to post here to get more on strategy on how to best play this game.

So basically the game is 7-9 handed. Initial buyin is 100$ but the way the game plays it quickly grows where most people are 500$ deep or more.

It is dealers choice of Holdem, Omaha or 5 card Omaha. All are played pot-limit, including Holdem, except for preflop, when opens are allowed to be up to $25 even if there's less in the pot.

There are no Small Blind or Big Blind, however the dealer has to put 5$ in preflop. If anyone else wants to call they have to call the 5 or raise up to $25. The dealer has the option to check or raise if everyone just calls 5 . You also have the option when you are the dealer to put more then 5$ in with as much as 25$ to force others to call 25 or raise.

My first question is it an advantage to put more then 5$ as the dealer or should I just keep it at 5$? Is there any advantage as the dealer to which game you should choose? I have an advantage in every game vs the field but my best game by far is holdem.

Really appreciate some advice from you guys on this game if you have any questions about it let me know and ill answer as best I can.

Welcome to the forum, OP. That is, indeed, a very odd game.

When the stacks are low, I would definitely always pick hold-em and would only put in $5 as the dealer. Making super-short effective stacks nullifies your positional advantage. Also, PF equities run much farther from each other in hold-em than in Omaha, so Vs will be able to make much bigger mistakes pre by playing much more dominated hands.

Once stacks get deep, these issue become less of a concern, and the types of mistakes your Vs make become more important to deciding what game and what dealer straddle (effectively) size is best. Still, $500 stacks effective is still only 100"BBs," so the game still isn't very deep. I suspect that there's rarely, if ever, a time when putting in extra money blind adds to your EV in this game. I'd probably just keep it at $5 and just raise often when it limps to me.

As for what game, once we're not playing silly short effective stacks, that depends on the skill variance between you and the field. It's not just what game is your best, but also what is their worst. Lets say you are a 7/10 at hold-em and the field's average skill is 5/10 and you're only a 6/10 at Omaha, but the field averages 3/10. You actually have a greater advantage at Omaha in that scenario. Also, the worst game of the guy directly to your right or the biggest donators matter more than the worst game of the field in general.

So it is weird. The best way to think about this game is like a mississippi straddle game. Which means if you’re in what would normally be SB (UTG here), you’re going to have to play incredibly tight.

It’s tough to say what our best open size should be. We are playing 20 bb poker at the start effectively. A large open strategy is putting in a lot of $ for just $5 of still live money to go after, and smart opponents will just effectively jam or fold against it, so we kind of bone ourselves when we have decent hands in MP. OTOH, a raise to $15 should get frequent action from BTN, though at such small stacks this may not be a problem (since if you raise to 15 and he calls, bet 20 and he calls, you can just put the rest in on the turn).

Three bet a ton on short stacks. This is probably going to be where your edge comes in against the average player. And raw equity will be good enough to determine your 3 bet range. Good example: at 200 bb, maybe 88 works better as a call of said MP open in the CO because there’s a lot of value to playing postflop and 3 betting risks a large 4 bet. But here, you probably want to fold it against EP raises and 3 bet it against the LJ/HJ/CO. Obviously the actual ranges come down to rake / stack depth / what our opponents are doing (ex: we should be a lot more careful even if we are just 20 bb effective vs the opener if we have deeper stacks behind, we should be tighter if rake is $5 max vs $2 max, etc).

One thing to note about getting it in liberally, assuming $0 rake, is that we don’t actually need to be > 50% to make money. At $100 effective, say LJ raises $25 we 3 bet all in he calls. We just need 48.8% for this to make us money. And also, sometimes they fold too, and we just win $30 immediately (a great result).

Good example: someone opens 20% and calls off 80% of that to a jam at $100 effective. Game tree is easy: 20% of the time we win $30. 80% of the time our EV is our equity * $205 - $100, which to break even is worth -$7.50 (30*0.2 + -7.5*0.8 = 6-6 = 0). So for that, we only need 45.12% against a 16% range.

If I lazily use this as 16%:

66+, A7s+, A5s, K9s+, Q9s+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QJo

Then we can jam with:

66+, A9s+, KJs+, ATo+, KQo.

We maybe take it easy with the 66 due to bad removal and being at the bottom of this. But you can see that we can be wicked liberal with our 3 bets at shallow stacks. Even against non-crazy opponents.



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Of course, it depends But in general, starting at $100, I'd put in $5 as the dealer. Personally, if I was shallow, I'd call a PLO game. Much higher variance, but much easier to build a stack. Once deep and comfortable vs. the table, put in more than $5 pre (depending on stacks) and call the game you are best at.

I'd love to play this game!

Definitely never put in more than $5 as the dealer. You should be losing money from the BU in this format unless your opponents are atrocious.

I'd probably always call Hold'em with short stacks and with deep stacks it depends on the other players. I could be wrong but I don't think there would be much edge in Omaha short-stacked since the equities run closer and you're playing mostly a pre-flop game with very short stacks

Interesting that I'm the only one who wants to build my stack playing PLO and then tighten up with NLHE. PLO is so easy short.

Sure, it's easy, but it is very high variance.

I guess that's my point I'd rather gamble with $100 -- playing tight, actually, but good PLO. Yes, high variance, but I think much better than chipping way short at NLHE.

Of course, if others are playing PLO, you can just use their "turn," and it does depend on their stacks, skill, etc.

Been doing very well at this game. Most of the guys love the 5 card PLO game and I hate it because of the variance but im doing pretty well at it. Im still playing Holdem when its my turn to deal. Thanks for the advice any other advice would be nice

Been killing this game won over 6400 last 2 sessions. Glad i went from only online to mixing in home games. Think I could have been a millionair if i had played in this game the last 20 years lol. Im still putting 5$ on the button although they raised it and now allow people to put up to 50 on the button which I think is a big disadvantage if this was a holdem only game I really could have made a ton more but 5card PLO does have a ton of variance. Anymore advice on how to attack this game would be appreciated.

sorry to bump this thread again still doing well in this home game (game is running 3-4 times a week now). Would really appreciate anyone elses input on how i should adjust my strategy and what game to pick with the dealer being the one who puts in the blind.