HiLo games, to declare or not to declare

Playing in different home poker games, I’ve run into lots of variations on the HiLo structure. HiLo, of course, splits the pot with the best high hand and the best low hand. But what is the best low hand?

In the Thursday game, all games are HiLo declare, Any Low. Here any five cards can make a low; the best low hand is A,2,3,4,6. In Any Low, straights and flushes don’t qualify as low. In this game you must declare whether you are going High, Low, or Both ways.

In our Wednesday game, we generally play an 8 or better low. This, of course means that you must have five different cards with eight or lower; five different cards from A,2,3,4,5,6,7 or 8. The best hand is A,2,3,4,5 which is called a wheel. Straights and flushes can still be low.

The other night, a new player wanted to play Any Low, no declare. In this variation, the cards tell the story. The best five card low, and the best five card high are determined at the showdown. The best low hand is A,2,3,4,6.

Switching from one low variation to another can get confusing, and cause a player to miss-read the hand.

The picture is a hand of Rocky, a poker variation.

Big Top poker is a 2-2-1 game

At our Wednesday night dealer's choice game, one of the most popular games is a 2-2-1 community game called Big Top. This game keeps everybody around for at least a couple of bets because you can fill out with any five starting hole cards.  You generally want to wait for the top row of community cards to get exposed to see if you connect. By then you are often sucked in for the next three bets because you "could" hit. The game builds some nice pots because so many players hang around.

This game is often one of the rotation games in our monthly mixed game, where we do a complete round of the table with one game. The stakes are a little higher there, so it can make some monster pots. Check out the link to an article that shows the details of dealing and playing this poker variation.

Somebody invited you to sit in on a poker game, and you are a rookie...

Most people follow a progression as a poker player. Most learn the basics from a relative at home. Probably the first times were for match sticks (do they make these any more?) or chips or for pennies. The next common step is to be allowed into a family game, usually penny ante, played on holidays and other family gatherings. Next, in the logical progression, is a regular poker night game among friends, co-workers, etc. That was my route. Today it's as likely that a youngster's second or third step is to play poker on-line. Then might come casino action.

Let's say, that you are invited to sit in as a sub in somebody's home poker game. You are nervous because your only experience is the family penny ante, and not much of that. Maybe you've watched a lot of WSOP or WPT games on TV, but that is no preparation for a dealer's choice game. The dealer's choice game is a special social and competitive event. The first few times you have to get used to: playing with people you don't know well, getting a feel for the house rules and styles of play, and then there are the sometimes bewildering poker variations that they'll enjoy springing on you!

Here are my tips for getting ready and dealing with this new experience:

• Introduce yourself, admit you are a rookie, and then relax and soak up the experience.
• Expect to lose at first. You might get lucky and win, but chances are you'll be a contributor for a while. Think of it as tuition.
• Play tight at first. You'll sit out a lot of hands, but it is easier to pick up the games and game patterns if you can focus on watching.
• Ask questions, but not while a hand is being played out.
• Usually somebody will step up and offer free mentoring and wisdom. Might not always be good advice, but remember it is a social thing too.
• Get a copy of "Poker Night", by John Vorhaus and read it cover to cover. Won't make you an expert; that comes from experience. The book will put things into perspective and help you develop a playing style that experience and observation can polish.
• Read up on poker variations, but wait until you are known in the group and are confident in the rules of that variation. There's nothing more fun than a new game. There is nothing less fun than starting a new game and not being able to run it out properly or not know what to do when things don't go smoothly.  If you are going to introduce Bughouse Poker to the group, make damn sure you can run the hand out confidently.

In time, you'll stop paying a regular tuition, and graduate into pulling in your fair share of pots. If you can't seem to get out of school, then you might consider a different thing to do on poker night.

Poker night is about having fun, playing poker and occasionally cashing out the night as the biggest winner. Good luck!

Daniel Negreanu tells about poker tells...

Daniel Negreanu is one of the most engaging pros on the poker tour. He's famous not only for playing poker successfully, but for talking about poker as well. In this video he gives five poker tells:

5. Player's eyes dart to his chip stack after the flop ... sign of strength?
4. Player moves his hands to his chips before it's his turn ... sign of strength?
3. Player splashes the pot ... sign of weakness?
2. Player talks gibberish ... sign of weakness?
1. ?

Here is the link to the video on YouTube.

It's Wednesday, and tonight we play our mixed game

In the mixed game we focus on one game for a round of the table. We always start with Omaha 8 or better. First we determine the first dealer of each round by dealing each player a card; high card is the first dealer. The dealer antes 5 chips and starts the game. If there are nine players, we play nine hands of Omaha in the round. The dealer always antes 5 chips.

The player that wins the high hand in the last game of the round, gets to select the next game. The first dealer starts the new game and around we go.

We end the night with the player before the first dealer, so everybody has payed in the same amount of antes, and everybody has been in each position for each game.

Unlike dealer's choice, you get to play several hands of one game, and get a feel for it. Then we switch off before it becomes boring. It may be just me, but isn't a whole evening of limit hold'em boring?

Wish me luck!

Welcome to the game

We play every Wednesday night. We alternate games to keep it interesting. One night it might be dealer's choice. Another night, it could be our mixed game. Once a month we run a Texas Hold'em tournament. We've been playing for years and our game has evolved. I'm always looking for ideas for our game. This will be a place to talk about poker game variations, discuss our game, look into poker strategy, and generally discuss poker - the home game variety.