Many poker home games across the world feature a group of friends happily sitting around a kitchen table drinking beer, joking around, and playing a competitive game of cards. Just like poker on television, however, these games can get stale if you let them. Although repetition allows some players to become inherently better than others, it can also alienate lower quality players or those who just like change. Here are a few ways that you can mix up your home game.

Play multiple varieties of Texas Hold’em. As fun as No Limit Texas Hold’em is, there are several ways to change the game up slightly. The first is to play Limit Hold’em, where the amount a player can bet or raise each hand is pre-determined. This is the kind of poker you’d expect to play if you’re a beginner at a casino and makes for an interesting change-up for one evening. Host a Limit Hold’em tournament and then come back to PokerBonuses.com and tell us what you thought.

You could also elect to play Pot Limit Hold’em, in which any player is allowed to bet any amount up to the size of the pot. As is the case in Limit Hold’em, the mathematics of poker becomes much more vital to a player’s success or failure. The greatest poker players on Earth have mastered No Limit, Limit, and Pot Limit Hold’em. Each learned, like you, from the ground up.

Play multiple varieties of poker. If you’ve never played Omaha or Stud, there’s no better place to learn, in my opinion, than in a home game. If you’ve never played before, we have “how to” guides for several of these games on the home page of Poker Bonuses, so print them out and bring them with you to your first Seven Card Stud home game.

I think that many home games would inherently enjoy the game of Omaha. It affords players an ample amount of action post-flop, when every player still in the hand will have multiple ways to catch cards. You may find yourself laughing with your friends even harder when everyone’s flush draws hit on the river.

Play a ring game. My home game used to play cash only, as opposed to a structured tournament, and I had a blast. It’s a lot more lax overall, as the pressure of blinds doesn’t come into play. You could set a maximum amount that any player is allowed to buy in for that makes sense at your home game. I find that $25 is usually enough for players to have a good time. Whether you do $0.25/$0.50 Limit or $0.10/$0.25 No Limit is up to you.

Playing for cash also allows people who have other commitments and a life outside of your home game a chance to come and go as they please. If they’re working late, then they can just show up when they’re finished. If there’s something distracting on like football or baseball, then a cash game may be the perfect environment so that when something exciting happens on television, you’re not killing precious time during a blind level.

Invite new people. If you have a friend or a friend of a friend who likes poker, then invite them to your home game. Just like when you sit down at a poker player amidst a sea of unfamiliar faces, having a new player at your table forces you to examine that person’s play, understand their tendencies, and then adjust your play accordingly. Inviting new people to your home game, whether you’ve met them before or not, is critical to increasing your ability to understand the game.

Use multiple tables. If the number of people at your home game is 12 or more, consider using multiple tables and splitting the group evenly. Having a live multi-table tournament is just like playing in the World Series of Poker. When you reach your final nine players, combine the survivors into one table and play down to a winner. It’s a lot more action than you’d see at a nine or ten-handed table and will help you fine-tune your game for any big tournament you ever play in live or online.