Partial cash outs during home game? (1 Viewer)

Crash33

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Played a family home game with relatives after dinner on Thanksgiving. My uncle is an old school guy, used to play a ton years ago, hasn't played much recently. But he said him and his buddies always played $10 buy in for 50 chips, re-buy any time you get below 10 chips, and "cash out whenever you want." I assumed he meant cash out whenever you're done playing, which is standard cash game stuff, of course. We all agreed, played a few hours, had a blast. But it turned out he meant cash out 50 chips for a $10 bill from the bank whenever you get ahead enough, and keep playing with the rest of your chips. Anyone ever seen that? Does that just mean him and his friends agreed rat-holing was a-ok? Seemed weird...
 
I’m not a fan of that ! I’ve never seen mid game cashouts. Very strange . If you want to play conservative to preserve some money in your pocket I’m good with that. Not a big deal it’s over $10 but I wouldn’t play with him again lol
 
That's just going south, which is not allowed at any casino and frowned on everywhere else. A home game with relatives at Thanksgiving though? I wouldn't make a fuss about it, this is family time not the private game you're hosting with your poker buddies.
 
Played family poker for years growing up, never with chips, always cash. And it was understood you could take money off the table or add money on the table at any point. But the games were fixed limits and there were no side pots. If someone bet more than you had, you either had to pull more money out of your pocket or borrow from someone. Different way of playing for sure, but growing up it was all I knew.
 
I’ll let people rebuy off the table (person who felts them) but I don’t allow anyone to cash out partially.
 
I’ll let people rebuy off the table (person who felts them) but I don’t allow anyone to cash out partially.
I would consider this to be the same as going south unless you’re out of rebuy chips somehow. That’s still money coming off the table before the game ends and before someone cashes out.
 
Played family poker for years growing up, never with chips, always cash. And it was understood you could take money off the table or add money on the table at any point. But the games were fixed limits and there were no side pots. If someone bet more than you had, you either had to pull more money out of your pocket or borrow from someone. Different way of playing for sure, but growing up it was all I knew.
That's how we play. Either pull money out of your pocket to call or fold.
No IOU, no I'll pay layer. Either you have it or you don't.
 
Played a family home game with relatives after dinner on Thanksgiving. My uncle is an old school guy, used to play a ton years ago, hasn't played much recently. But he said him and his buddies always played $10 buy in for 50 chips, re-buy any time you get below 10 chips, and "cash out whenever you want." I assumed he meant cash out whenever you're done playing, which is standard cash game stuff, of course. We all agreed, played a few hours, had a blast. But it turned out he meant cash out 50 chips for a $10 bill from the bank whenever you get ahead enough, and keep playing with the rest of your chips. Anyone ever seen that? Does that just mean him and his friends agreed rat-holing was a-ok? Seemed weird...
Yes, he and his friends just agreed ratholing is okay.

If a game allows this one of two things will happen

1) action will dry up once people start banking cash and the game will break sooner.

2) you will needlessly increase bank activity by cashing people out that are just going to use it again.

I played in a game that experimented with this once. It soon became a poll question every hand how much everyone wanted to start each hand on the table. After 3 hands it became absurd and was abolished.

A happy medium is the idea of a "hand cap" as opposed to true table stakes.

A "hand cap" means a player is effectively all-in after wagering a set amount throughout the hand.

Say you are playing 25¢-50¢ with a $100 hand cap.

Action gets to $6 preflop, $15 on the flop, and $30 on the turn. This means everyone in for all bets has wagered $51 and the limit would be $49 on the river.

This rule should reduce the temptation of ratholing, yet be fair for everyone. While I remember it's use on Full Tilt back in the day, it never really caught on. Guess the complexity isn't worth the benefit.
 
I wouldn't allow it just because it becomes a huge PITA for the banker as @JustinInMN said above. Also, I've used hand caps a few times when teaching new games (e.g. introducing PL circus games to Holdem players).

Last time I did this, it was $20 max per hand for .25/.50 PL, and it worked really well. Players don't worry about having a huge stack at risk when they know they can't lose more than $20, so every hand was 3-4 ways all-in.
 
This isn’t encouraged at my game but on two occasions I had new players get up 3-4x and I could tell they were about to tilt off their stack. These are the only two times I have ever offered someone to cash out their initial buy in and keep playing in the game. Both refused and both tilted off their stacks by the end of the night. It’s a friendly game and I was trying to keep them interested in the game long term and not be discouraged by the end result.
 
This isn’t encouraged at my game but on two occasions I had new players get up 3-4x and I could tell they were about to tilt off their stack. These are the only two times I have ever offered someone to cash out their initial buy in and keep playing in the game. Both refused and both tilted off their stacks by the end of the night. It’s a friendly game and I was trying to keep them interested in the game long term and not be discouraged by the end result.
This is usually what happens when players somewhat want to leave ! But hey home games you got to stay for the long haul so players should know that might as well play your game. I find in my games the last few hands of the night is when it’s a free for all lol
 
A home game with relatives at Thanksgiving though? I wouldn't make a fuss about it, this is family time not the private game you're hosting with your poker buddies.
It kinda seems worse to me if it’s family time. It’s just like saying “I’m going to take your money and keep it and you can’t even try to win it back.” That’s no way to treat Gramps!
 

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