The Value of Home Game Experience

Posted by Poker Nut @ 12:00 AM, Wednesday Jul 30th, 2008

The value of home game experience depends mostly on the type of game you play, with games for chips only, or very small cash games you cannot truly get a feel for playing the game at higher levels.

If you play poker for no money or very little money, you will find that the subtle tactical plays which might work well in a bigger game do not work in the slightest. This is because it doesn’t matter greatly to your opponent if they call a raise and lose. This makes bluffing fairly obsolete.

This is one of the main reasons people play poker for reasonable amounts of money. It means that people attach importance to the decisions they make, and go to great lengths not to make the wrong choice.

If you tend to play home games for an amount of money that is at least partially important to other players to win or not lose, you will find the experience you gain is much more valuable. You have opportunities to make careful pre planned moves in this instance which cause your opponent to make the wrong decisions, and that is the real skill which lies behind the game of poker.

That’s not to say that small stakes poker has no significance, because it can be a great way for people to learn the basics of the game, so it does have some value to amateur players starting out playing poker. If you are in this category though, look to play bigger games once you have learnt the ropes, and you will find your learning curve really begins to move in the right direction.

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