Chopping Blinds In A Home Poker Game
3 October 2009Chopping Blinds In A Home Poker Game
One poker rule that will be familiar to anyone who has played live poker in a casino, but is new to people who have only played online poker, or poker home games, is chopping the blinds. Chopping the blinds occurs when the entire table folds around to the small blind. In a casino, when this occurs, usually both the large and small blind take their blind back without playing the hand. If you are playing poker in a casino and you don’t chop the blinds when it gets folded around to you, other players will often get angry.
Why Chop Blinds In A Casino Poker Game?
- To Avoid Paying Rake – Casinos take a rake every time the pot gets above a certain amount. Poker players don’t want to pay more rake than they have to, so why play a hand where both players have junk and it is a crapshoot ?
- To Speed Up The Game – Most players don’t want to sit around and watch the two blinds, with hands like Jack-5 and Queen-7 check down all 4 streets in blind vs. blind action. It slows down the game, and, for the casino, limits the amount of rake you can take
Should You Chop The Blinds At A Home Poker Cash Game ?
This is basically a matter of personal preference. If you play with experience poker player who want to move the game along then chopping the blinds at your home poker game is a good idea. If you play with a bunch of new poker players who are having trouble understanding the game as it is, and will get upset if the chopped blinds come to them and they have a great hand, then you shouldn’t chop the blinds. However, since most home games don’t play for hours and hours on end, people don’t like to waste time on small pots where the big blind battles the small blind. If the other poker players will go for it, you should lean towards chopping the blinds at your poker game.
Never Chop Blinds In A Poker Tournament
Chopping the blinds only applies to a poker cash game. Chopping the blinds in a poker tournament isn’t fair to the non-blind players. After all, that could be the one hand where you have Aces vs. Kings and one of the players is going to bust out. In a poker tournament, never split the blinds.
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