Read Home Poker Rules

Rules for Home Poker

You just wouldn't believe some of the arguments I've seen sprout up in so-called "friendly" poker online games. Probably the craziest one of all was at this dollar-limit game when I was nineteen years old, maybe twenty. It started when a cranky old Californian named Frank growled, "You didn't ante!" "I sure did!" objected Baker, a kid my age who nobody ever called by his first name. "Look, Baker, you didn't ante! You can't play that hand unless you ante," Frank persisted. Well, the quarrel got loud, real loud, and before anyone knew what was happening, old Frank picked up a coke bottle and hurled it. He explained later that he was just throwing it against the wall to show Baker he meant business. The bottle struck Baker high on the forehead. He tilted back and slumped off his chair. We gathered around him and, for a moment, we thought he was dead. We were in a basement. The kid who was banking the game ran upstairs to get his brother, a pre-med student. The brother seemed at a loss. "Could be a concussion," he said, feeling Baker's scalp. "Maybe not. Hard to tell with head wounds." This guy was going to make a hell of a doctor. Luckily, Baker groaned and started to come around. The future doctor asked, "What happened, anyway?" Three of us spoke at once: "He forgot to ante!"

How to Handle

This is my conception of how a home poker game should be handled. If it settles any arguments or keeps anyone from being bopped in the head with a coke bottle, then I figure this chapter was worth writing. In earlier articles, I talked about two of the very important disputes that come up over and over in poker games. One is sandbagging, which is when you check a powerful hand (or possibly even a bluffing hand), get an opponent to bet and then raise. Some folks think that's bad manners, but I say it's good poker. If you all agree not to allow sandbagging in your game, fine. That's the rule you'll have to abide by. But if sandbagging is allowed, or (more commonly) if nothing has been mentioned one way or the other, then check-raise is a powerful weapon that should be used whenever it's profitable.

Bluff in Game

The second thing that causes a lot of disputes is whether you should bluff your friends. Yes and there can be no compromise here. When you're in a poker game, everyone is the enemy. You should play your friends just as hard as anyone else. Once that's understood, there won't be any hurt feelings. Here are some other answers to recurring home-game questions. Can a player call for just the amount that's in .front of him or does he have to match a bet to win a hand? Not only can a player call for just the amount of chips or money he has remaining on the table, he should not be allowed to bet or call in excess of this. The practice of going into your wallet to cover a bet has no place in any poker game, public or private. You should play only the chips on the table, always. Must you "burn" a card before dealing? The most important thing is that you stick to whatever the rule is. The dealer should never have a choice about whether or not to burn a card. Dealer's choice is a common form of home poker. In it, the dealer can select what kind of poker game he wants to deal (i.e., down the river, five-draw, etc.). Don't games like high-low split, where players declare in turn, and jive-draw give the dealer a strong positional advantage? Yes, and that's why it's better to have each player choose a game and then play it for a full round, rather than just one hand.