Do a search of 2 + 2 and read every post by Limon.

How much were you tipping?

Online, you can cherry pick the table and the seat. In a private(ish) game, you have to take the whole of the game in mind, and decide if the whole thing is +EV. It makes no sense for the organizers to do all the work, then let you skim the cream.

Help get the game started, and help keep it going.

Suggest a round of Night Baseball.

Sweat the TV sports and pretend you have money on them.

There is some solid advice in thread. If the suggestions sound like work, they are probably worthwhile. But know that maintaining an invitation and a seat in this game is *work*.

Maybe it's my field, but I'm always surprised at how many people aren't normal.

Excessive brown-nosing is pretty lol, but being able to hold a conversation with the people who decide your future promotions and salaries seems like a no-brainer to me.

I think the ability to bury yourself in a mobile electronic device really hurts the dynamics of awkward social situations nowadays.

I went on a business trip with a few people my boss's level and a fewer few people my level. One boss-level guy gets stuck with the plebes because they couldn't seat us all together; he's obviously a little resentful and all my peers aren't helping by texting the whole time. So basically I ask him about what he did at his previous company, and that was an hour an a half of conversation. He got to feel like a boss-level fountain of wisdom, and I learned a ****load about wet macular degeneration. EZ game.

It seems like the only way to enjoy playing live poker is to enjoy being around people. Maybe there is some super game-geekness that I lack. You sit next to leo doc in a 20/40 game, I'm guessing you can't stay awake long enough to run him out of interesting stories.

The other thing I never get about some poker players is looking down on people who can afford to lose in the game. Sure, if the guy is a super degen and mortgaging his life to get in action, he's a loser scumbag (or someone with a disease). What about someone who can flat out afford to play 30/60 and does so for fun? You're here for profit, and he considers a couple buyins a reasonable entertainment expense. At least some % of those people have stories to tell and advice to give.

This is so basic. Even in cardrooms, most of this is correct. (It's OK to seat change occasionally, so long as you aren't obvious about what you are doing.)

When I play poker, I'm the one who wants to keep the game going. I can't count the number of times I kept 15-30 games going 3-handed at Hollywood Park because we knew people were coming. I was a terrible 3-handed player at the time. (I'm only slightly better now.) I made a ton of money in that game, and I'm sure I lost money playing 3-handed.

Except, you know how much easier to get a bad player to sit down if you have a game going than to get people to stay around and then round them up to start a new game? I suspect I actually made a lot more money from the games I kept going than I lost playing 3-handed.

It all comes back to you anyway. If you are a nice person who everyone wants to play poker with, if you make the game pleasant, and yes, if you don't come off like someone who is trying to wring every penny out of the game, people will like you-- and they will like you even if they know you are a better player than they are.

As for learning to talk to people-- this is a really important skill anyway. How do you meet people to date? I assume you talk to them and try to make yourself interesting to them. I assume you learn what they are interested in and try to get interested in those things too. I assume... well, maybe I assume too much.

But if you know how to talk up a prospective date, you know how to talk at a poker table. Do the same things-- learn their interests, and then talk about them. And even if you are lost in the conversation, be nice and friendly at all times.

Go for runner runner perfect perfect 1000 times and eventually you bink.

I find it weird that you find it weird. Answering wouldn't help you to give me better advice, so I don't see the point.

All good advice in this thread. To sum it all up simply, stop being a nit.

I used to play in a private game.

I was the biggest winner and I was pretty tight but I was always invited back with open arms.

We typically played two to three times a week. I always showed up on time. We always had a designated quitting time which we usually stuck to. The rule was if you were a big loser quitting early was okay. I never left early.

I typically don't drink when I play but with these guys I would bend the rules a bit and try to appear like everyone else.

During football season I would make small bets with them. These guys were the worst handicappers so whoever they liked I was more then happy to take the other side. I'd actually show a small profit every football season.

Lastly I'd play more hands then I normally would in a casino. I'd give more action before the flop but I'd minimize my losses early on. If you're playing with the same people you have to give action to get action.

Also learn to play fast. Don't tank on tough decisions. Don't Hollywood even a little bit. If you have to cry call the river just call/muck and move on. Learn to talk while you play. If you play quickly and without appearing to think much, you look like you give more action than you actually do.

Thanks. Taking too long to make decisions is a complaint I've heard actually. In all games, though. Not just this one. I have to do a lot of rangemath on rivers. I don't know how other good players just do it instantly.

You just don't actually do the math. You've been in Situation X before, because you've played hundreds of thousands or millions of hands and you just have a feel. It's kind of like how they say some of the best players from a generation ago don't know/do the math, but they got it right anyway because of experience.

Honestly, if you're doing the math and it's super close, it doesn't matter which way you go, so just call and move on.

re: limits, it may not help get advice but it gives a much better picture of the game and there is a difference btw how much you'd tip the casino person you select depending on whether this is a $1/$2 game or a $100/$200 game.

re: tanking, can you give an example of any hand with your river thought process when faced with a big decision? Most "rangemath" I've ever done has been away from the table and then adjusted at the table for specific reads/situations/info.

Also tanking is a nl thing so I'm now assuming this is a nl game? Not sure if you realized but you posted in a limit forum.

This is solid advice whether you're in a home game or a casino.

That's correct. And it's also solid advice for another reason.

Most people who play limit like the game in part because it is fast. I can't count the number of fish who have told me they prefer limit because "no limit is boring". Part of that boring nature comes from the fact that players legitimately think longer in no limit (facing bigger bets and shoves, figuring out bet sizing), but part of that comes from relentless Hollywooding and unnecessary tanking in that game.

People hate Hollywooding in limit. They don't like it when you sit there and make everyone wait for even 15 seconds while pretending you don't want to fold when you clearly do, they don't like it when you delay your raise with the nuts, hemming and hawing for 1 minute, in a situation where your opponent has to call no matter how long you tank, and they don't like "card funerals" where you sit there unwilling to muck your cards when your hand is clearly beat.

Limit players-- including especially fish-- want to see lots of hands per hour, lots of action, and a quick pace. Obviously, every once in awhile I am put to a really difficult decision and a take the time I need to, but 99 percent of the time you should act instantaneously-- and I do.

Agreed.

On the river I hold JJ and the board came Kh Th 8, 9, Ah

Auto-pilot may be to call vs this Villain. However if I take a moment to construct his range on every street, the only hands I now beat are of the 'WTF?' variety. Thus, I can find a fold.

It's actually a Crazy Pineapple variant where we play PF limit, flop pot limit, turn no limit and the river is either all-in or fold.

Crazy PI, the J's are a snap fold.

I recently started making homemade gelato. Haven't tried it on a poker game, but in pretty much all other situations people are very disappointed when I can't be there. YMMV, it's hard for me to tell how good at this I am.

So you want us to tell you have to act the way people like? I think a life coach may help

Keep reading the words "life coach" and inside my head the words "scam artist" keep coming through. Sort of like "certified financial planner" minus the churn? Could be some bias on my part. None of the rich older people who populated the home games I played ever mentioned how much their life coaches or financial planners helped them. Real estate investments, every one mentioned that. Could be sample bias or something.

Financial planners are fine when they want to be financial planners. My wife and I used one and were very happy.

I had a friend who was a "financial planner." Mostly it was a way for him to kill time until he got accepted into business school. I would not have hired him in a million years.

I imagine life coaches are the same way. Find someone who wants to help people and you're going to get more than you paid for. Find someone who's looking for a quick buck and you'll get less.

https://m.appredeem.com/vid/vid.php?id=727305

don't know how to embed that as a video, but yea...

also, bump w/ results? update? did you get back into the texting/rotation?

Too soon to tell, I will update when it's more clear.

Game yesterday for the first time in awhile. Amazing lineup.

I heard about it today. Nobody texted me. The hostess I bribed didn't text me.

fml

move onto hostess #2? and how much did you bribe her?