Poker Chips are Important
If you’re in the midst of starting your home poker game and researching your start-up costs, be sure to invest in some quality poker chips. Don’t be cheap here, quality is critical. Most chips you see like in a Target or Wal-Mart are usually the 11.5 gram, clay composite chips. The same goes for the chip sets that go for $80 – $140 online. Good, quality poker chips are 10 gram, clay chips.
You want to invest in the minor details of the game that’ll keep people buzzing about your game. “He has these real nice chips.” People will some of these details as they first sit down at your game. They’ll think “wow, nice table, nice chips, great set up.” You want to create this buzz and by doing so, your game will get busy this way.
When I first started my game, I spent about $100 on some shiny, holographic chips on eBay that were clay composites. Although they were flashy and looked cool, I soon learned that this was not the way to go. After going around to other poker games, I saw that I needed to upgrade to all clay poker chips. Paulsons are your highest quality, all clay poker chips that you’ll find, but they can be very pricey, $1400 – $3000 for a set of 1000, and I’m sure some go for more than that. I decided to money and move down one level below Paulsons. I spent around $800 for a set of a 1000 and they were still all clay. This rate also included a custom logo on the chips which matched the theme of my table. And only crazy poker chip enthusiasts would have been able to distinguish between Paulsons and these chips.
Poker chip customization is important because believe it or not, some people will buy generic chips online and bring them to poker games to cash. With a custom logo, that’ll make it much more difficult for such players. And of course, you need to have your own trademark 
Be sure to invest in the finer details of your home poker game. People can tell when you do and that’ll make it all worth it.
Allen Cunningham vs. Phil Ivey
This is another great hand between Phil Ivey and Allen Cunningham. Allen Cunningham makes a great laydown.
Anyone can make a great call. But that’s what separate the boys from the pros, the ability to fold
Phil Ivey vs. Patrik Antonius
My friend just sent me this video of a huge hand ($807k) between Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.
That’d be a tough laydown for Patrik. I’m guessing Phil Ivey took so long because he’s trying to figure out what kind of ace Patrik has. I doubt he’s scared of AQ, but he has to figure with him taking so long, Patrik is a little nervous and thinking that his trip aces may not be so good. I personally think Phil took a too long in making his bets. I think he could have gotten more out of Patrik had he acted a little quicker. Patrik might would have even pushed back had Phil not taken so long. Of course, I’m not the pro here, so they probably should just ignore what I said, lol. But I just thought I’d put in my two cents
Tony G vs. Phil Hellmuth
Everyone thinks this guy is an asshole, but I actually kinda like the guy ;p
Don’t dark check!
5 Quick Tips to Start Your Home Poker Game
Here are some quick tips you can do to start preparing for your home poker game.
1.) Start researching all the home poker games in your local area. Go play at those games and scope out what you should and shouldn’t be doing for your game. Mimic your game similarly to those of the successful home poker games in your area.
2.) Get to know the local network of poker players. Network within the local poker network and see if your friends play poker. Start talking poker and make your name known within the poker network. Find out what stakes the locals like to play and how often they play.
3.) Talk to the guys that run the local home poker games. What are their thoughts? What do they like and don’t like about their game? Probe their knowledge and experience. People love to talk about what they do and know. Take advantage of that.
4.) Research the expenses. Research how much it’ll cost to have your own poker game. Research the costs of a table, chips, chairs, food, beverages, and whatever miscellaneous expenses that’ll make your poker game stand out. Develop a budget and don’t mind to spend on quality. Maintain quality and trust me, you’ll make ten times your investment.
5.) Start hosting a friendly, regular poker game among your friends. Just a free, friendly game will start marketing itself among the poker network, especially among the young players that attend college or school. It’ll be easier late to make the switch over to a more formal, regular poker game.
And there you have it. Some quick tips to get started on your home poker game. In future posts, I’ll go over each of these tips in more detail. So what are you waiting for? Go at it!
Bad Call
I decided to go play at friend’s game the other night. The stakes were pretty low, .50/$1. Anyhow, I’d been playing pretty tight all night. Been getting shitty cards too, but finally, in late position, I see a decent hand, AQo and get somewhat excited. This loose player (we’ll call him Player 1) raises to $4 preflop. He’s a pretty loose player and is just one of those players that plays the game to get lucky. Any face card is good, any potential draw is good, one of those type players. With that in mind, I decided to just call, pretty confident that he’s holding some K9o, A9o, something along those lines. The player (another extremely loose player that we’ll call Player 2) to my left calls. The flop comes QJ9 rainbow. With these 2 players in the hand, I’m pretty confident my hand is the best hand and am hoping to double up on this hand. Player 1 goes all in for $17 and I call. Player 2 raises to $50. So now I’m sitting and thinking, hmmm…. twice so far, I’ve seen this guy make a huge raise on a draw. I start to think about potential hands he could have, KQ? Q10? J10? Then it crosses my mind that he could potentially have 108. Then I think, “wait, there’s no way he has 108. He didn’t flop a straight.” So I go all in for $5 more and turn over my AQ. And of course, he turns over 108. What’s worst is that Player 1 turns over Q10 and hits his straight on the turn.
Oh well, what can you do? “That’s poker baby!”