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Poker Bragging Rights and Banter

Everyone enjoys a home game. Be it the hopeful amateur or the world renowned champion, the camaraderie of sitting with your best buddies, often over a few drinks, is how many of us began playing poker. But how do you bring that feeling into a multi table tournament or online grind?

Take a look at the few ways you can carry the atmosphere of a home game wherever you play.

1. Lasts Longer

Who doesn’t love to be one-up on their friends. After all, the school playground was where we spent some of the best days of our lives. Though there are very few places to get the better of your friends that are more enjoyable than poker. One of the most popular ways to do this is to bet that you will definitely last longer than them in a specific tournament. Laying out a few bucks each and the eventual “last man standing” collecting the pool is often a source of hilarity that lasts longer than the tournaments itself. Several high profile tours have woven the friendly “last longer” into a key element of their marketing. We would also recommend trying this last longer challenge online. Maybe you can set up a prop bet alongside itas it can help you play to your virtual peak rather than fall into the traps you might make if you were playing without knowing that your friend is secretly watching your every move.

2. Prop Bets

Whether it is railing them or taking part yourself, proposition bets are some of the most fun you can have in poker. Some of the most amusing stories in the game come about because of preposterous prop bets. Whether it is players betting that they could run 70 miles in 24 hours, turn vegetarian, stay awake or punting that they could tread water or complete sports challenges, poker players love to gamble. Ranging from mental to physical challenges, the notion of a prop bet is to gamble that you can complete a challenge and bet against your friends to this effect. The sky is really the limit with this fun game on the fringes of the actual game of poker. Get ready to unlock your inner daredevil!

3. Endurance Challenges

Time and poker go together like wine and cheese. With many live poker tournaments lasting over 12 hours these days, endurance is a must. Time at the online felt is no less challenging with many sessions lasting from mid afternoon until well into midnight. Marathons online that have seen online professionals spend days without sleep, poker players have always loved to stretch the boundaries of their endurance. Just make sure that you’re hydrated and healthy if you want to come out on top, and take care of your body either side of any endurance challenge.

4.  Selling/Buying Action

While entering poker tournaments is probably the most fun you can have, there are inevitable downstrings and upstrings to playing a schedule, after all, it’s called variance. One way to give your friends a fun sweat for some reflective glory and to effectively minimise the money you spend on expenses is to sell pieces of your action. Professionals do it all the time, but there is plenty of excitement to be had in buying 10% of your friends tournament entry if you’re unable to play. Likewise, should a friend contribute 10% to your buy-in, it’s a proud moment to be able to repay that faith in your ability with interest when you hand over 10% of your winnings from that tournament to them. Some of the biggest tournament wins came when players decided to sell pieces of their action.

5.  Swaps

Swapping a percentage of your entry is somewhat like buying and selling action, but not exactly the same. You should ideally be swapping pieces of your action with players who are better than you, but it also helps if they are friends. Swapping a percentage is when you agree to pay an amount of your winnings and your friends agree the same. Other than being a welcome buffer from the pain of bubbling a tournament, it also allows banter to fly around if two of you make a deep run and are both competing with each other to see how much they’ll be paying the other out upon the conclusion of your combined efforts.

6.  Rankings

You’re wrong if you think it’s only players at the top of the Global Poker Index who wonder how highly they’re rated in the poker industry. The Hendon Mob is the world’s biggest poker database and it’s now run by the GPI team. Through the Hendon Mob database, you can look up your ranking in the country of your origin, as well as your city. You can see exactly where you and your friends rank, no matter where you’re playing. You can now turn each tournamentinto an excuseto gain ground on your favourite rivals.

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