One of the people I play with has his own explanation: “It’s called the river because if you’re still in at that point, you either go with the flow, or get swept away.”
I don’t know if it’s the true explanation, but it made us laugh, and seemed pretty reasonable besides.
When I’ve played for money, we’ve most often just put $20 in the kitty before the game; and since we’ve usually had at least eight people playing those games, the kitty contains at least $160. Of that amount, the winner will get all but $20, which goes to the second place finisher. In other words, if you can manage to be one of the last two players in our games, you will at least get your buy-in back.
Texas Holdem is not an “all or nothing game”. I love limit Texas Holdem and can’t stand tournament hold 'em.
In my old game, we usually played “pot limit” with a .10/.20 blinds (in Omaha and HE) or .20 bring-ins in 7 stud.
You’d be surprised how fast that can get you to pushing in $20-$30, cash. We also played no limit cash games. Usual buy-in was $20, but everyone came with more than that. Some of us kept $40-$50 on the table. Yeah, people play differently when that stack of chips in front of them actually represents money that can be cashed out. Even that is pretty small potatoes to a lot of people, but we were students.
Still, the biggest game I ever sat in was 5/10 hold 'em in Atlantic City. That’s NOT a big game by most people’s standards, but it’s not hard to win or lose $300-$400 in a couple hours.
Check raise is a sneaky tactic to be sure, but is allowed in our poker room. It allows the blind to be able to raise. You are first to act, you check to see the other players strengths, someone bets, you now know you have some competition. It levels the playing field for the person with the blind. The button is the most powerful position because you can see everyone else’s action before you make your own. I’ve even often seen checks go around the table most of the way, then raised several times before the action is complete.
We had a guy get very, very mad because he asked a guy if he was holding pocket aces, the guy said yes, first guy folds, second guy was full of crap. First guy made a huge scene, accusing the guy of having no morals, etc, never play with him again, blah blah blah. I just laughed. Lying is so common in poker they came up with a new name for it, BLUFFING!
That cracks me up. Why on earth would you expect someone to just tell you what they are holding? Although, I did that once. Friend asked rhetorically during heads up between me and him, “What are you holding?” after I raised him after the turn. So, I told him, “Two pair, 10 and 8,” which is what I had. He didn’t believe me, of course, he just looked at me for a second or two then just rolled his eyes a bit and said, “Whatever.” He folded and I showed my cards.
Everyone thought it was pretty funny, especially since he would have won (he had two pair Jacks high).
If you really want to talk about “etiquette” or “controversy”, actually declaring “I have such and such” and not having it is commonly called “angle shooting” and is considered sleazy and amateurish.
If a guy is angle shooting first and goes, “whattayagot?” that’s one thing. Then, you can make shit up.
See. . .in most card games (and all rooms), if your cards touch the “muck”, the discards, your hand is DEAD. No ifs, ands, or buts. Even if you toss them down face-up so that everyone can see, they are DEAD. So, to say something like “I have the straight” and SEE if the guy just tosses his hand away isn’t clever. It isn’t bluffing. It’s just being a jerk.
It’s not even in the same stratosphere as check-raising.
We play no limit Hold’em with a $10 buy in, blinds double every round. But, since we also like to play more than one “tourney” per night, it’s winner take all - with a caveat. Once the action gets down to 2 players a 15 minute clock is started. If nobody has all the chips at the end of that 15 minute period, the second place player gets back his buy in. This gives the chip leader more incentive to finish off his opponent quickly, gives the short stack some incentive other than delaying the inevitable, and means the other players aren’t bored to tears while the final 2 play cat and mouse. Splits don’t happen very often, though. By that time the blinds and minimums are usually so high that the short stack is in serious trouble anyway.
I haven’t heard a straight answer yet. Here’s one for you (of which I don’t know): why do they call A-2-3-4-5 “the wheel?”
For newbie players, IME, all one color chips makes them play less and raise less because, I believe, they are thinking about the actual size of the stack in nominal terms and not the actual value of the stack. I like using different values because table space is limited at the games I play, even at the casino. I hate it when I knock down my stacks.
For an all-in game, buy-ins are $10 at my place. This rule is in place to make sure that the less wealthy of us can stay in with various hands. However, this tends to slow the game down because people are cashing in for chips. Usually, some friendly razzing will make the other players buy-in for more. I never buy-in for than $20 (unless I’m at a casino, then it’s never more than $100, or table min). $20 seems to be about standard for our group of friends, except for the maniacs who will easily cash in $100.
For limit games, we cash in for $20 and go from there. If you have to dig into your pocket for more money, it better not be for more than like $3. We instituted this rule, again, for the less wealthy of us.
We experimented with a no “all-in” concept, but that just got crazy and out of control. This one guy, who makes more than everyone except me and this other dude, still complains about using an all-in concept. He says that we’re all big boys and that we can use IOUs, and we all play with each other, blah blah blah… Except, two of the players will easily bring $500+ to a game. Now, try betting against that wallet. These guys have absolutely no fear of losing any amount of money (yes, they are gambleholics). They would cash-in for $100, but then start pulling out hundreds to buy the pot.
Anyway, the rule is, you can only bet with what you have on the table. This also eliminates any accounting errors when people are trying to cash back their chips.
For tournaments, it’s $20 buy-in, splits are 80-20 if less than 10 people. 90-10 for 8-9, and 100% for 5-7 (don’t play tournament with < 5). If 10 or more, then it’s always 70-20-10.
Also, tournaments of 8 or more start at $1-2 for the blinds, and move up every time someone is knocked out (e.g. $2-4; 3-6; 4-8; 5-10…). When it’s heads up, the blinds move up $5 after each player has been on the button once during that blind amount.
I’m a little surprised at that one. In my experience people digging in their pockets are at least mildy “on tilt” and more apt to lose more than win it back. Maybe I just play with poorer players (me included). Plus it’s always more a friendly game than anything else and we want everyone to stay involved if they don’t mind digging deeper. Most often is $20 up front with the occasional guy digging out another $20 or so, not $100-500, though.