Home Poker vs. Casino Poker

I'm hosting a home tournament tonight. Ten of us will compete for a total of $1,000 -- $700 for first and $300 for second. I'm cooking a spicy chili and loading up the frige with high alcohol content beer for the game. Hey, since I'm hosting I might as well try and get everyone else drunk so I'll have some kind of an advantage, no?

Each of the guys coming has a different style of play - and I know them all. I know how each of them plays, having played with them many times before. This knowledge goes both ways, however, as they know my playing style too. Even the players who aren't very observant would type me as a tight/aggressive player. And the best players probably also know what types of hands I'm more likely to be bluffing with. There may even be someone who has picked up on some mannerism or another that betrays the true strength of my hand - aware of things that even I'm not fully aware of. I hope not. But that's one of the risks of playing with the same group of guys over a long period of time. They learn how you play. I mention this because it clarifies for me why an optimum casino playing strategy is often so different from the strategies we employ at home.

Many players, otherwise solid good players, confuse the two to their own detriment. I'd like to explore that for the remainder of this column. Have you ever heard an experienced player say that he never plays the same hand the same way twice in a row - or words to that effect? I have. The notion that good players need to mix up their play in a casino to throw people off is a common one. And, from my experience, especially at the lower and mid level stud games that I've been in, it is usually a mistake. It is, simply, a survival from the home game scene that generally doesn't belong in a public poker room.

You have (As7c)Ad in a home game. If you always raise with it on Third Street then, eventually, even the dense guys you play with will know, with certainty, that if you don't raise you don't have a pair of Aces. They'll know that you're either drawing for a flush or holding a small pair with an Ace kicker. Similarly, if you never raise with any hands like (6h9h)Ah or (5c5d)As or (QsKh)As then your poker playing pals will know that if you do raise you have the pair of Aces and they should fold.

In short, among players who have a long history of playing against you, if your game is completely straightforward and therefore transparent then you will hardly get any action when you have a solid hand. You might as well play with your cards exposed.

But public card rooms are generally so different from your home game experiences that a very different strategy is called for. In a public card room, many players who'll sit down with you have never seen you play. Others have seen you play a dozen times but they play against so many people that they're unlikely to remember anything about you. And another group of likely opponents are so bad that even though they have played against you dozens of times and may remember that you are generally tight, they will not have the discipline or the clarity of action to take the necessary counter measures against you. They may "know" that you have the goods but they'll call you anyway.

So my advice in the typical low and medium stud game in a public cardroom, with few exceptions is NOT to play your hand a different way every time. Generally play your hand the same way every time - betting for value when it is called for, folding when you think you're beat on the early streets, drawing a card if you have the right odds to do so, and making those bluffs that make sense based on your expectation of winning the hand or improving to a winning hand on later streets. Don't waste bets that aren't justified by the cards you have and the cards you think your opponents have. Don't worry about your image. And don't worry about throwing people off with deceptive plays. Generally speaking, they'll fail to observe and remember sufficiently to catch on to what you're doing anyway.