| 18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
header-bg

How to Host the Perfect Poker Home Game: More Games = More Gamble!

In the next article of our How to Host the Perfect Poker Home Game series we’ll show you how to break free from the shackles of No-Limit Hold’em.

It’s a big, gambley world out there if you know what games to play. These three games are easy to play and guaranteed to inject some action into your home game if you’re stuck in a Hold’em rut. As the numbers get higher the gamble quotient goes up. Once you get to number three you might as well just put your stack in the middle blind.

#1 – Pineapple/Crazy Pineapple

6128 10K Omaha HiLo

Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple are two of the easiest ways to dip your toe in the mixed-game pool. That’s because it’s played almost exactly like Hold’em. In both the sane and mentally unstable versions of Pineapple each player receives three cards.

The difference is:

  • In Pineapple you must discard before making your preflop action
  • In Crazy Pineapple you must discard before making your action on the flop

In both games, if you fail to discard by the appropriate time and act with three cards, your hand is dead. The concept is easy. By giving players an additional card you’re going to see big hands more often, infusing your home game with some much needed action.

Strategy Tip: If the rest of the table is playing Pineapple like it’s Hold’em, tighten up and make a monster before putting your chips in. Because of the extra card you’ll need a bigger hand on average to win than you would in Hold’em.

#2 – Pot-Limit Omaha

Pot-Limit Omaha is arguably the game that strikes the best balance between action and poker skill. It’s also easy to learn if you play Hold’em. The only differences between PLO and Hold’em are:

  • Each player gets four hole cards
  • You must use EXACTLY TWO of your hole cards, with three community cards, to make a five card hand (If there are four clubs on the board, you still need two clubs in your hand to make a flush)
  • The game is played pot-limit, instead of no-limit

In pot-limit games you can only bet and raise a maximum of what’s in the pot. If you’re just opening the betting it’s easy to figure out (just count the pot) but when there’s a raise or two in front of you it gets more complicated.

Trick to calculate how much you can raise: Take the last bet and multiply by three, then add the pot and all other bets. That total is the maximum you can raise to.
Example: There’s $100 in the pot and the big blind has led out for $50 on the flop. Another player has raised to $150 and now you want to raise pot.
Multiply the last bet ($150) by three and add the pot ($100) and all other bets ($50). Raising pot here will mean raising to $600.

Even if you fancy yourself a PLO shark, you should check out our PLO Rules. Seriously, it will help you not to suck at PLO.

#3 – Sviten Special

The Swedish are the only people on Earth sick enough to come up with a game like this. Developed in the underground card clubs of Stockholm Sviten Special is a split pot game that’s essentially a mix between Five-Card Omaha and Five-Card Draw. The gameplay is the same as Omaha, except there’s a draw after the flop where you can exchange up to five of your cards. etting continues on the turn and river but at showdown the pot is split between the best board hand (Two hole cards and three board cards) and the best Five-Card Draw hand (The five cards in your hand).

One-Card Draw Rule

If you choose to exchange only one card, the dealer will turn over the top card of the deck, letting all players see that one card. You have the choice to take that card, or receive the next card in the deck face down. This is an action game and it’s not for the faint of heart. Check out our comprehensive Sviten Special Rules and Strategy to get yourself up to speed.

Works Best Shorthanded

Because each player can use up to ten cards during the course of a hand, you may find the deck depleted when playing with five or more players. There are two easy ways to deal with this.

  • Limit the number of cards you can exchange
  • Reshuffle the discard pile from previous players’ draws

More articles on How to Host the Perfect Poker Home Game:

Additional Home Game Tools:

Related Articles

Unibet Poker Open 2023
Unibet Open Bukarest 2023 – Here we go!

Unibet Open Bukarest alkoi pari tuntia sitten, pahoittelut että blogi pääsee vauhtiin myöhässä. Syytetään Lufthansaa, joka onnistui eilen jättämään matkalaukkuni Frankfurtin kentälle. Nyt on laukku saatu tänne Bukarestin Marriottiin ja…

November 30, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Suomalaisten chip count, Event 1

Ville Mustonen 65K Aleksi Naski 265K Samuli Hietala 330K Jarno Jokiniemi 85K Max Avela 260K Kai Lehto 105K Feras Abid 130K Topi Palenius 95K Atte Franssila 85K Markku Vihavainen 50K…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Voitonjako on selvillä

Ensimmäisen sormuskisan WSOPC Event 1, voitonjako on nyt selvillä. Turnauksen palkintopotti on 183.360€, ja 47 parasta pääsee rahoille. Turnauksen voittaja kuittaa mukavat 38.510€, ja min cash on 1.100€. Tällä hetkellä…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
WSOP banner
WSOP Schedule 2020

The 2020 World Series of Poker kicks of in Las Vegas on May 27th. With a time frame of more than 7 weeks and 100 tournaments this will be the…

August 21, 2023 | Arved Klöhn
WSOP banner
Pikku tauon jälkeen jatketaan

Pidettiin pieni tauko, nyt peli jatkuu tasolla bb ante 4K, blindit 2K/4K. 111/573 pelaajaa.

July 25, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
melvin shroen live reports from The Festival in Nottingham 2023
PokerListings set to do Live Reporting from The Festival Series in Nottingham (13-19 February 2023) 

Melvin Schroen - Live Reporter For the first time in the history of The Festival Series, an event series is being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham.…

March 22, 2023 | Melvin Schroen
PokerListings Awards 2022
PokerListings Operator Awards – Winners 2022

Since 2020, we have been awarding the best poker operators and innovators in the poker business with our PokerListings Operator Awards. Every year the operators are nominated and awarded in…

January 11, 2023 | Bjorne Lindberg
Oliver Hutchins Wins the Trophy in the €500K GTD PPC Malta Main Event (€71,000)

Oliver Hutchins Wins 2022 PPC Malta Main Event United Kingdom's Oliver Hutchins won the trophy in the €500,000 guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event for €71,000 after a back and…

April 7, 2022 | Jason Glatzer
All Poker News

Comment on that

Your message is awaiting approval