Wild Home Game Tips to Beat?

[Beks Nice]

Hey there everyone!

I need some advice from more experienced (winning :D) fellow poker guys and gals.

So we recently gathered quite a juicy home game with some friends and acquaintances.

I feel like I am mostly better than the field, except for 1 person who also respects my game and so we avoid getting in spots with each other.

To give some context, the game runs at $0.25-$0.50 with 50BB buy-in no-limit no-max buy-in.

Almost immediately people get in big pots and money starts getting on the table. Re-buys cool-off at about $2000-$3000 of total amount on the table. Usually it’s 6-9 people playing.

Blinds stay at 0.25-0.50, so it’s not out of the norm to have 1000+ big blinds in your stack. When you raise 10BB – everyone calls. When you raise 20BB – half of people call. When you raise 30BB – that’s where people start thinking. After a 30BB raise it’s not out of the norm for people to 3-BET or go all-in (if they are shorter-stack) with anything from 4-5s to AXo. AK/AQ or JJ+ pre-flop is pretty much a monster.

Due to chatter and banter – hands don’t really get dealt super fast so there is a limited number of hands you can play in a session.

To give further context on what type of players are playing:
I (hero, almost chip lead with 1000+ BBs) open KQo on button around 15BB, UTG (villain ~400BB) calls, some other people join in. Flop: K 4 2 rainbow. I continue firing, UTG calls, others fold. Turn: Qh (2 hearts on board). I bet for value. He calls. At that point he has around 200BB left. River – 8h. A bit concerned but I still bet 100BB, he goes all-in 200BB, I call. He shows 6h3h for a runner-runner flush. This player would do the same with a huge amount of hands. And pretty much half of players there play similarly. I got in a spot with another player with AK and pretty much got the full value on a King high board and the villain had KJ. So he pretty much paid every street just because he spiked the king with a ‘jack kicker’, and that is top of his range lol.

My question is: what is the better approach to exploit these wild games? Tighten the range? If I were to tighten the number of hands I’d actually play will be extremely low. I am not particularly good, but in these home games I usually end up winning, so just want to take more advantage of it when possible.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[KitsuNoir]

I’d try to find a way to speed up that game. When playing fish like these, take ’em to Value Town. No bluffing, nothing fancy that depends on thinking opponents, and no Hero calls. If they bet it, assume they have it. If they’re chasing gut shots and sub-nut runner-runner flushes, you’re getting EEEEEEENORMOUS implied odds on your speculative hands. If you can get in cheap, set mine and try to hit gin with medium suited connectors.

You also have to give ’em some play otherwise they may decide they don’t need you playing. Just don’t give as much as they do.

“I am not particularly good, but in these home games I usually end up winning…” You don’t need to be “good”, just better than they are.

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