08-23-04, LearnTexasHoldem:

Check Raise Ethics Cont...

Question: I found the earlier question on this very interesting. You answer was correct of course, but I thought I'd give a bit of 'historical' perspective. Giving away my age, but even though I'm new to online poker I learned the game as a kid some 50 years ago. In my home, a weekend home game of 5-7 players was fairly common. Most of the players were middle-aged or older (so we're talking about folks born roughly 100 years ago +/-), and many were immigrants though long in this country. The games were always draw or 5 or 7 stud, and hi-low was popular. Don't even know if holdem had been invented back then. I watched games, fascinated, as far back as I can remember and was allowed (occasionally) to join in about when I became a teen-ager.

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Anyway, in those games, check-raising was taboo! I remember well because I did it once early in my 'career', and had my hand folded and got a long lecture to boot. The whole point of this is that there is a tradition of check-raising being unethical, and it goes back to friendly, small stakes home games (at least). Ironically, bluffing was ok, if you didn't do it too often. Now personally, I think check-raising adds to strategy, and therefore to the enjoyment and 'fairness' in *any* type of poker, and 'banning' it in holdem especially would seem foolish to me. But in home games, whatever the majority of folks want/are willing to play is what matters, as long as the house rules are made clear in advance.

Ike

Tennessee

Answer: Thanks for taking the time to share your experience on this subject Ike.

I agree with you:

1. If it is a home game, they can decide whatever rules they like -- however crazy the rules may be.

2. The check raise has become a big part of holdem and I consider it essential so I would encourage new players to not ban it in their home games -- especially if they ever have hopes of playing outside their circle of friends.

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