Strange home game rules you have run into? (7 Viewers)

Rhodeman77

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I prefer to play home games over casino games for the most part. But every home game is different and many have strange rules that come with just that game.

So what are some of the off the wall rules you have encountered?

I used to play in a game that fined players for any mistakes. Misdeal, $1, acting out of turn, $1, flipping over a card when folding, $1. Farting at the table $5. All the money went to the bad beat pool.

I started playing in a new game last week that has one of the strangest rules. The game is Hold’em or PLO dealer’s choice as he deals. The dealer can look at his first 2 cards and decide if the hand will be Hold’em and stop dealing or keeping dealing 2 more cards and play PLO! :eek::banghead:

They have been doing it this way for a long time and feel it is fair since everyone gets to do it. The chips are a mix of dice chips. I had to bring a cut card last night to get them to use it. If the game wasn’t so soft I wouldn’t play it, but I’ll put up with some silliness for an easy game.

So let’s hear some crazy stuff!
 
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I have a friend who plays if you make a mistake you get a strike. If you get three strikes, you get slapped in the face. The person who calls the third strikes is the slapper. The slappee can choose forehand or backhand. o_O

I've personally never seen it get past two strikes.
 
That's pretty stupid.
It is, and they don’t even realize it hurts them as dealer to stop and call Hold’em. Their ranges “should be” much tighter, but they play suited (gapped) connectors and weak aces a lot. So it is very easy to trap because they are always going to raise. Last night I’m in the cutoff with QQ when the dealer said Hold’em. I didn’t have to worry about the hand being limped at all. I just called, he raised, the rest of the table called and I made it $40 and the dealer called still. Flop was trash and I bet $50 and now he folded.

I have yet to choose Hold’em. Even with AK and AQ off suite. I figure I would be to readable. AA-QQ would be about it and I will be opening very large if/when I do.
 
Not sure if this type of "straight" is a real thing in some crazy game I've never heard of, but years ago I had some friends who insisted that J Q K A 2 should be considered a straight, or K A 2 3 4, or any combo where the Ace is not the first or last card in a straight. We played that way for a while but eventually dropped it, thank God.
 
When players in the blinds/button busted, they moved the button way up resulting in players skipping their blinds completely. I said "whoa whoa, you were just under the gun you can't skip your blinds" their response "In our game you can, it's just luck of the draw" :banghead:

Not so much a house rule but played in a friends game that was T3000 and blinds went:

25/50
50/100
150/300
200/400
300/600 etc :banghead:

Chips were naturally White = 25, Blue = 50, Black =100, Green = 500. :banghead:

My friend's poker group is made up of some pretty green guys. So I gave him some plastic cards and cut cards to upgrade a little bit. The table captain grabs the cut card and says "Nice try, you can see the bottom card when you put the deck over it" :banghead:
 
Some of the rules in this thread...

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Played one game long time ago with some old timers who were ADAMANT that you can't check-raise period. I understand that back in the day, check-raising was either not permitted or extremely frowned upon, but that was decades ago. Hell, even The Cincinnati Kid had a check-raise at the end of the movie.

But I shouldn't complain too much. We were playing 5 card stud sometimes and these guys would call the max bet of $5 when I had an Ace showing on 5th street and they couldn't even beat that.
 
Not sure if this type of "straight" is a real thing in some crazy game I've never heard of, but years ago I had some friends who insisted that J Q K A 2 should be considered a straight, or K A 2 3 4, or any combo where the Ace is not the first or last card in a straight. We played that way for a while but eventually dropped it, thank God.
@chipjoker had a player at one of his games that must have learned to play in that game you are talking about. He called a hand down and then announced that he had a "wrap around straight." He left shortly after. Honestly though, he must have grown up playing some form of Rummy.
 
Played in a 3-pair game NLHE tournament and cash game for a month with this other group I semi play with now. They made up this rule fairly recently where a 3-pair is placed between trips and a straight. Luckily everyone absolutely hated it and stopped doing it for good.

Another weird rule that's more common with them is that any min raise/reraise is the amount of the BB. Like when I played in 0.10/0.20, I raised pre to 0.75 total, BTN then reraises to $1 total.
 
@chipjoker had a player at one of his games that must have learned to play in that game you are talking about. He called a hand down and then announced that he had a "wrap around straight." He left shortly after. Honestly though, he must have grown up playing some form of Rummy.

that's pretty much the same way it became a thing in our game. My friends and I had probably been playing poker for a few months, one guy called a hand down and announced a straight, when he turned over his hand some of us looked around confused. From that day forward it was named "The Dave Straight".
 
We play under a very large mango tree that fruits 4 months out of the year. If you get hit in the head by a mango each player owes the victim a fiver. Some people may consider that strange.
I’m sure I’m just out of the loop and this is some some pop culture/meme/show thing (because I’m always perplexed when people ask about other very obvious incidents), but is this for real? If so, have been mangoed/fiverred yet?
 
I played at this one game with mostly poker noobs. The game was self-dealt. Not only did they insist on using a dealer button, but they had two other buttons for small blind and big blind. They would move all three buttons around before each deal. :wow:
@BonScot are still doing this at your game? I guess it might help the drunks know where they are.
 
I 've heard of a game (and that was all I wanted to hear about it) where players are allowed to "come from the South":D, ie they can buy-in for any amount up to the max but still not put it all on the table, but rather any portion of it in their pockets. :rolleyes: Then, they can put the rest on the table at any moment, but not during hands being played, supposedly.
Once they 've put it on the table, they can't go back South supposedly (again), but who can observe and implement this, with chips legitimately in people's pockets anywyay?
Needless to say that chips used there were invevitably un-customised mass production chips:dead:
 
I played at this one game with mostly poker noobs. The game was self-dealt. Not only did they insist on using a dealer button, but they had two other buttons for small blind and big blind. They would move all three buttons around before each deal. :wow:
@BonScot are still doing this at your game? I guess it might help the drunks know where they are.
I always make sure to use all three buttons among inexperienced players and/or drunks. :D
We always use a dealer button though, including in the most serious games I 've played in.
 
any money pass the line is binding, say its 1/3 and someone makes it 12 and next guy puts in 3 without noticing the 12 , he can't take the 3 back he has to either complete the 12 or fold leaving the 3 in the pot. makes u Pay attention
 
I 've heard of a game (and that was all I wanted to hear about it) where players are allowed to "come from the South":D, ie they can buy-in for any amount up to the max but still not put it all on the table, but rather any portion of it in their pockets. :rolleyes: Then, they can put the rest on the table at any moment, but not during hands being played, supposedly.
Once they 've put it on the table, they can't go back South supposedly (again), but who can observe and implement this, with chips legitimately in people's pockets anywyay?
Needless to say that chips used there were invevitably un-customised mass production chips:dead:
This isn't against the rules in any game I've played in. In fact it helps the host. You can even buy more than the max buy in, just cant have it on the table or add during a hand.
 
This isn't against the rules in any game I've played in. In fact it helps the host. You can even buy more than the max buy in, just cant have it on the table or add during a hand.
Is it really enforceable from your experience?
 
One of my players says that in his games back in the day, if you only showed one card at showdown the other wouldn't count. So your kicker could lose to a lower kicker if you didn't show it at once. The reason was that he was so fed up with people delaying the showdown by just showing one card. I understand his frustration, but that's going a bit too far IMO.

Is using a dealer button frowned upon? I've never not used one.
I always use a dealer button. If that's weird, then I'm weird.
 
any money pass the line is binding, say its 1/3 and someone makes it 12 and next guy puts in 3 without noticing the 12 , he can't take the 3 back he has to either complete the 12 or fold leaving the 3 in the pot. makes u Pay attention
This is dumb. Sure, they should be paying attention...but even casinos (that I have played in) allow you to take it back if you didn't put 1/2 the bet or more out there.
 

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