Cash Game New Game every week? (2 Viewers)

[Sisu41]

I'm planning on running 5 Friday night games from now until the end of January. I'm thinking of playing a new game for each game. Has this been done before?

 

[AlbinoDragon]

Are you thinking of a new mixed game for each one, as in Omaha this week, stud next week, and so-on? Also, are you thinking of introducing a new game each week or having the game exclusively that one for the session?

If this is the case, how do your players feel about this idea as they are the ones who will be sitting through it? Unfortunately I have a group of very un-interesting players that I can't get to play anything but hold'em. If I were to hold an Omaha night, my player pool would almost exclusively vaporize for that week. If I did this unannounced, I'd have disappointed players leaving pretty quickly or overriding the idea by griping about it until we played hold'em.

I'd worry about alienating players with this idea.

If you are thinking of introducing a game a week (or session) that could work. Play an orbit or two of the new game once an hour so people get their feet wet then slowly incorporate it into the regular rotation of games you play. I've seen many cases where folks here have introduced mixed games to their players this way.

 

[Sisu41]

I was gonna do one game exclusively. My players are pretty flexible from what I've seen, they've played PLO and Crazy Pineapple, so I figure other games won't be too tall an order.

 

[CraigT78]

We tried this. On Archie night the game was over in 15 minutes.

 

[Sisu41]

So I'm thinking the 5 games I want are
Crazy Pineapple
Stud
Omaha 8
5 Card Draw
Short Deck

 

[Sisu41]

All will be played NL except PLO8

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

All will be played NL except PLO8

When youre teaching people new games, play limit or pot limit. And stud/draw games are very rarely played no limit.

 

[Sisu41]

When youre teaching people new games, play limit or pot limit. And stud/draw games are very rarely played no limit.

ok, if I do limit, how much should I make the limits if I do .1/.1 blinds regularly?

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

ok, if I do limit, how much should I make the limits if I do .1/.1 blinds regularly?

Limit you can usually increase the blinds and itll play similar, but I stress that when teaching a new game you don't want people going broke! 10c/20c is fine, or if its playing too small, 20c/40c. That way betting is still limited but people have skin in the game.

And I gotta say, when youre just starting out and teaching people what poker nights are like and how to play the game, might be better to stick to one game for awhile. I have friends who would probably be bored of stud night and then would skip the next few.

 

[maloviz]

I wish you luck in doing this. I'd love to play some circus games but my normal group of players are also adamant about not playing too many poker variants. We play plo every once and a while but they give me funny looks when I say we should play anything else.

 

[OzzieJim]

When I tried to introduce mixed games to NL Holdem fanatics I took two approaches:

1. A short-stack cheap turbo tournament before the cash game. So for instance I did a $10 PLO Tournament that was designed to last about 2 hours before the main game, just to get people acquanted with it. I also hosted a $50 gtd freeroll + $10 rebuy HORSE tournament that players loved, and I didn't sweat putting in $50 of my own money because I knew I would win

2. One hand an orbit. To teach my players Stud we replaced the once per orbit holdem bomb pot with one hand of Seven Card Stud. Stud works great for this format because everyone would be ante'ing up for the bomb pot anyway, and dealer position doesn't matter.

These are my two go-to's for teaching new games to players without needing them to either sit there for hours or invest meaningful amounts of money.

 

[OzzieJim]

Limit you can usually increase the blinds and itll play similar, but I stress that when teaching a new game you don't want people going broke! 10c/20c is fine, or if its playing too small, 20c/40c. That way betting is still limited but people have skin in the game.

And I gotta say, when youre just starting out and teaching people what poker nights are like and how to play the game, might be better to stick to one game for awhile. I have friends who would probably be bored of stud night and then would skip the next few.

The general rule of thumb I have seen is 8x the blinds for FL.

So .10/.10 becomes 0.40/0.80

I would say the caveat to this is FL blinds have to be somewhat meaningful. NL players trying FL games seem to get in the mindset of "Well I'd call that for 1BB" instead of "I'm wasting money with a bad hand and no implied odds"


Coming from what plays as a pretty big and splashy 1/1 game to an impromptu 2/4 FL Mix session I had pretty much every player in from first to last betting street and usually capped every time. When I made it 5/10 it started to become a little more "normal"

 

[tabletalker7]

So I'm thinking the 5 games I want are
Crazy Pineapple
Stud
Omaha 8
5 Card Draw
Short Deck

I would consider regular Omaha instead of Omaha 8. Your other 4 games are a single pot win where Omaha 8 splits with hi/low. Could alienate people who are not used to split pot games

 

[Sisu41]

Yeah good point.

 

[OzzieJim]

Could also be a good idea to teach them Razz or A-5 Lowball draw first so they can understand A-5 low without the added complexity that comes with O8.