Exclusive Netbettor Texas Hold'em Article:

Of all the emails we receive from our visitors every week, 90% of them center on one of the three following questions.

•  Is it really possible to gain an edge at Texas hold em?

•  Is Party Poker rigged?

•  What's the best way to set up a home tournament?

Let's tackle these first two questions. First, yes—you can be a long term winner at Texas hold em. Second, no—Party Poker is not rigged (or at least we have zero reason to think it is, based on our results).

The third question is a little tougher, since the best way to set up a home tournament depends on a variety of factors. For the purposes of this article, however, we'll set forth the guidelines that we think work best for a typical poker night.

1.  Keep the blinds moving.
It's my opinion that the best home tournaments are those where the blinds escalate fairly rapidly. I feel this way for two reasons. First, rapidly escalating blinds will give the poorer players a better chance of cashing—and if you're playing a friendly home game you should do what you can to ensure that everyone gets to experience the thrill of winning at least once in a while. The bad players will frequently go broke in the first orbit or two when they call a huge bet when holding 95s (which they called with in early position) on a T93 flop. That's fine—after all, you can't save a guy from himself. But these players are as important to the game as everyone else, and if they consistently lose they'll find other ways to spend their Thursday nights. This will leave you battling it out with four Phil Ivey wannabes for a $50 prize pool.

Keep the blinds escalating, folks. When the blinds get big relative to the average stack size most of the advantage that a good player has over a bad player is negated. Consider: You're in a heads-up tournament with Doyle Brunson, you each have $1000 in front of you, and the blinds are $200-$400. In a case like this I like your chances about as much as I like Doyle's since both of you are going to move all in pre-flop with any hand containing a Queen or higher—and once you've moved in there's nothing left to do but kick back and see what the board brings.

Of course, no home tourney is complete without some Phil Hellmuth type who kicks and screams at the idea of jacking up the blinds after every orbit. “That's BS!” he'll exclaim. “Raising the blinds that fast doesn't reward superior post-flop play!” You know what? Screw that guy. Tell him to toss his $20 in the kitty and shut up. This isn't the WSOP. Home tourneys should be fun, they should be short, and they should give everyone at least a sailor's chance of winning it all. And that means, amongst other things, not doing anything extra to stack the deck against the bad players. They have enough of an uphill climb as it is.

Secondly, rapidly escalating the blinds means you can usually get in more then one tournament a night. Now we've all been that guy who gets dealt pocket Q's on the first hand, gets raised all in by some joker with A9o, then watched in horror as an ace hit the river. Then, as if this isn't bad enough, you're now forced to go watch reruns of Sports Center on the far side of the basement while the rest of guys whoop it up on the green baize. We accept this as part of the game, but if everyone's sitting on $5000 and the blinds are $10-$20 it's easy to lose interest in poker, since the tournament probably won't end until around the next Ice Age.

2.  Keep a second table handy.
This is a God send for the guys who bust out early. Have another table around where the guys who bust out can play on the side while the main game is still going. Not everyone wants to sit around and watch the endgame.

3.  Keep it friendly.
Tempers will flare at the poker table; that's just the nature of the beast. Still, there are things you can do to keep the game fun for everyone. First, no sunglasses or ipods at the table. Just as every home tourney has at least one clown who wants to start with $20000 stacks and $5 blinds, so does every home tourney have a token goofball who struts in with his Oakley wraparounds and headphones. As the host you have a responsibility to tell that doofus to put his gear on the couch and sit down at the table like everyone else.

Second, don't pass any ‘no drinking' rules (exceptions occur if either you or one of your friends has a drinking problem). Unless your buddies are true barn animals (and I have a few of these myself, so don't feel ashamed) a couple Heinie's aren't going to compromise the game. Yeah, every now and then someone's going to forget to post a blind, or act out of turn. Big deal. Correct the problem and move on. While some of the players will want to take the game seriously, not everyone is there to sip bottles of Ice Mountain and scour their opponents for tells.

Third, make it clear that you, as the host, will have the final say in all matters related to the game. If there's a dispute which can't be cleared up then it's your right to step in and announce how the problem will be resolved. Nothing brings a game down like having a whole table bickering for 40 minutes about how to deal with an exposed turn card.

4.  Use quality gaming supplies
If you're going to be hosting a regular game then it is in everyone's best interest to acquire a quality chip set and decent playing cards. For more info on poker chips, check out our poker chips page. When it comes to cards, don't jerk around with the porno deck you use for your bowling league, or a set of your mom's paper bridge cards with the pictures of sailboats on the backs. For one these cards can be easily bent, and while nobody may be intentionally scoring the deck the game can sour quickly if half the guys know that the four of clubs was the last burn card while the other half have no idea. Also, a quality set up is easier to shuffle and easy to clean. To this end I recommend a set up of Kem brand playing cards, although any plastic (but not ‘plastic coated'!) will do. A decent set up should cost between $15-$20, but they'll last forever.

5. Experiment with different games
Yeah, everyone loves Texas hold em. But there are other games—most notably Omaha high—which are an absolute blast to play with a bunch of friends. Omaha is typically played pot-limit, although pot-limit games can be a drag in home tourneys since somebody always has to keep track of the pot size. I've played no limit Omaha in home tourneys, and it's usually a hit—even if it's not quite as good of a game a pot limit.

6. Keep the buy in low
Obviously ‘low' is a relative term. Whether you're a doctor or a college kid in the dorm is going to impact what limits you're comfortable with. As a rule, however, keep the limits such that the players with the lowest income will feel comfortable playing. If you want to play higher then set up another time to do so; but don't suddenly switch your established game to a limit that gives your friends the jitters. A lot of guys will feel uncomfortable raising the stakes, but will be reluctant to say anything. If there's any question about how your friends will react to a change in the buy in amount it's best to keep it where it's at.

6. Have Fun!
As you've probably already deduced nothing annoys me more then dealing with some red-ass who wants to turn a friendly home game into a cut throat competition. If you want to play ‘no quarter asked, and none taken' poker you can always go online, or hit the big game in your local casino.

The Netbettor home tournament guidelines:
Here's a quick rundown of what we think is the best way to run a home tourney.

Eleven players or less:
•  Start everyone with $1000
•  Start the blinds at $20-$40
•  Double the blinds every 15 minutes (keep a kitchen timer or stop watch with an alarm handy).
•  The first person to bust out becomes the house dealer, while the second guy who busts out is in charge of shuffling the deck that's currently not in use (note: this only applies if you don't have a second table for side games).
•  Prize money is awarded as follows: 1 st place gets 50%, 2nd place gets 30%, 3 rd . gets 20%.

Twelve to Twenty players:
Every thing stays the same, except change the prize money to the following structure: 1 st place gets 40%, 2 nd place gets 30%, 3 rd place gets 15%, 4 th place gets 10%, 5 th place gets 5%.

Hopefully this will give you a good foundation for building—and maintaining—a fun and friendly home game. If you have any more questions feel free to email us. Just quit asking us if there's a ‘cashout curse' at Party Poker!

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