Alrighty friends, here's a quick day-before summary of what to expect tomorrow. Apologies in advance if my attempt at providing game/betting rules are
overly high on the "assist/confuse" lifeline.
I ask my esteemed guests to arrive sometime after 6pm, but expect the game to actually start around 6:30 unless everyone is there earlier. Melbosa is of course welcome to arrive whenever is convenient for his busy self (seriously!). We should be ending around 10pm or a bit after depending on how tired anyone is.
"Dealer's Choice" is available but not "required" (i.e. if every time you have the button you want to play Holdem that's cool). Since this is the first time in a long while that we've had a home game, I will not take offense if Holdem and Omaha are all we play the first time, just to get us into a groove or whatever.*
A suggested buyin is $10.00 or so, but if you're wary of losing too much too quick feel free to buyin for $4 or $5 and rebuy if you're still having fun. Also, I've got tons of nickels dimes and quarters put aside so "cashing out" at the end of the night should go smoothly.
Stakes will be $0.10/0.20 for the more familiar non-stud games (Texas Holdem, and its variants Omaha High, Royal Holdem and Pineapple/CrazyPineapple, if chosen) which means:
-preflop and on the flop, SB (one to the left of the Button) is $0.05, BB (two to the left of the Button) is $0.10, and bets/raises are dime increments ($0.10, $0.20, $0.30, 4-bet maximum capped at $0.40).
-on the turn and river the "Big Bet" is double the BB, which means it's $0.20 to go. Typical 4-bet capping per round (i.e. $0.80 max bet), but if headsup at the river we can have the "no end to the raising" rule if ya like
For the stud games*, if we play them (7-card Stud High and Razz a.k.a. lowball A-to-5 )...
-the ante is $0.05 from everyone before the deal
-then at Third Street (after the 2 hole cards ("down") and 1 "door" card ("up") are dealt) the *weakest* hand starts with the forced bet ("bring-in") of another $0.05, or can "complete" to the full dime.
-After this player has acted, anyone after that can fold (and if all *do* fold then the horrible bring-in player wins the tiny pot!) , or they can call the current bet amount, or they can raise it exactly one level (i.e. they can "complete" to $0.10 if the highest bet right now is only the "bring-in", or they can raise it to $0.20 if it has been completed, after that it's $0.10 per level to the maximum of 4-bet i.e. $0.40)
-The player to start Fourth thru Seventh Street is the one whose "porch" (upcards showing) is the *strongest*. Obviously the "bring-in" is only on the first round (Third Street) so it's check/fold/call/bet $0.10 from here on (but double the "complete" amount on Fifth Street thru Seventh Street i.e. $0.20 to go)
-After a hand or two of practice Stud-Hi or Razz I think it shouldn't be too different than Limit Holdem for those of you who are stud virgins.
*PS: We'll hold off on playing the "Kill" game, for the first handful of sessions at least, since I want to keep it simple and fun as a first priority. Once we establish a comfort level for everyone, we can decide what new things to throw into the mix (just like I expect nobody to want to try playing Stud-Hi or Razz the first night
)
