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There are plenty of gambling games you can play at home, and some of them are just as fun as a night out.
Sometimes I just want to throw a few bucks on the table and have a good time with my friends. That’s why I put together this list of gambling games you can play at home. I’ll cover easy options for casual players, games with a little more strategy, and ideas for setting limits that keep things fun without making the stakes feel too serious.
1 – Bet on Sports
One sure-fire gambling game you can play at home is sports betting. Most of my friends are sports fans, and it’s always more enjoyable for me to watch a game if I have an Andrew Jackson riding on it. The best thing about gambling on sports with your buddies is you can play for any stakes you want. It really doesn’t have to be cash at all. In fact, it’s worth way more than $20 to see my friend “Big Tim” mowing my yard in a tutu and tiara and Facebook agreed. We’ll always use the lines posted by a popular sportsbook to ensure things are kept fair, and typically we bet on games that we’re planning to watch anyway.
Another huge advantage of betting with your friends when you bet on sports is that you aren’t charged a vig like you get charged when betting with a sportsbook.
While it’s easiest to use against the spread betting, you can also make over/under wagers on games. Let your imagination guide you, prop bets on any NFL Sunday are a great way to have an absolute blast.
2 – High Low
When I started in college the opportunity to play euchre for money started dying off. Luckily, I found a group of guys playing a new game to me. They called it acey-deucy, and this is how it’s played. You can play for any stakes you’d like, but we played for quarters. But don’t let the small stakes fool you; I often won $50 or more in a single 2-hour session. Everyone who is playing puts a quarter in the pot. Whoever is dealing shuffles a standard deck of cards and places two cards face up in the center of the table. Play goes around the table to the left. Players can bet any amount from a quarter up to the amount in the pot. You must bet at least a quarter when it’s your turn to play. You win the bet if the next card falls between the two cards on the table. When you win a bet you take the amount you bet out of the pot. When the third card falls outside the two cards you lose, and put your bet in the pot. If the third card matches one of the first two cards you have to put double your bet into the pot. Here’s an example of how the game works. The dealer places a six and a jack on the table. You bet $1 into a pot with $3 in it. If a seven through 10 is the third card, you take back your $1 and collect $1 from the pot. If a two to five or queen to ace is the third card you put you $1 in the pot. If the third card is a six or a jack you put $2 in the pot. After each hand, the three cards are placed in a discard pile and two more cards are dealt and the next layer to the left bets. This continues until someone wins the entire pot. Then everyone antes again, the deck is shuffled, and play starts with the next player to the left.
This is a fun game you can play when you have four or more people who want to play, and you don’t have to play for high stakes. You can even play for pennies if the smell of copper doesn’t nauseate you.
3 – Poker Night
I regularly play in an at-home poker game that a friend of mine began hosting a few years ago. We play spread limit Texas Hold’em with everyone ante-ing $1 before the deal and every bet is between $1 and $5 on each round. Everyone buys in for $50 or $100, and we have a good time playing. No one has to worry about losing their mortgage payment, and when players bust out they can buy back in or stop playing and watch the action while enjoying a cigar. Similar to the other gambling games on this list, you can play for smaller stakes and it doesn’t reduce the fun of the game. You can play for pennies, quarters, or dollars. You certainly may play with coins or cash, but we prefer playing with poker chips. We use $1 and $5 chips because they match the stakes we play for. However, you can use chips and have all of them worth the same amount, based on your stakes. If you’re playing for quarters, just make all the chips worth a quarter, no matter what color they are.
I’ve played five-card draw, seven-card stud, and Omaha in home games. And even though it isn’t poker, I’ve also played in a few home blackjack games for decent stakes.
4 – Euchre
Euchre is a game where four players split into two teams of two and compete for tricks. It’s a trump based game, and takes no time at all to learn. Although it’s not usually associated with gambling. In high school I played euchre for money a great deal. The stakes are up to the players, and I usually played for $10 a game plus $5 a euchre or $20 a game and $10 a euchre. I rarely play euchre anymore because my wife insists on being my partner when we play and I’m very competitive. It drives me nuts when she doesn’t use proper strategy, so for the sake of our marriage we don’t play often. She remains the best in spite of this one shortcoming.
5 – Weekly Pool of Games
This is another of the easiest ways to gamble at home. It doesn’t require much skill or knowledge so it’s a blast for everyone involved. And it doesn’t have to cost much to play. You can use any stakes that everyone agrees to, but commonly between $1 and $20 keeps it light and friendly. You put together a group of games in the upcoming week that’s evenly divisible by the number of people in the pool. If you have four people in the pool, you pick eight, 12, or 16 games. Each bettor pays the same fee and everyone receives the same number of teams from a blind draw. At the end of the week the player with the most wins gets the pot. If two bettors have the same number of wins they split the pot.
This works years round, because there are always sporting events running. You can go throughout the year using the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA football, and NCAA basketball.
Conclusion
The next time you get together with a group of friends, try one of the fun gambling games you can play at home I’ve listed for you here. Make sure everyone understands the rules before you start playing, set the stakes at a level where everyone can play, and have some fun. Some of these games you can play when you get together, and others you can play on a schedule. It doesn’t matter which game you play or how often you play, as long as everyone has fun and has a chance to win. A couple of the games listed on this page involve strategy, like euchre, poker, and high low, but betting on sports and doing a weekly betting pool don’t require any skill. A few people are able to bet on sports better than others, but when you use the point spreads it’s usually a break-even activity in the long run. Most importantly, these 5 gambling games you can play at home are meant to be fun. By keeping the stakes in the friendly range, you will no doubt make memories for a lifetime. Gamble on.
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