Fun or Finance - Crossing the Line

I hope I'll be forgiven for the relative lack of blogging as of late. After an initial bad run in my PLO experiment I decided I'd be happy saving my money rather than spunking it online and I'm taking a little break. Truth be told I've not really 'enjoyed' playing online poker since I had to stop playing on PokerStars. I know some might say "you can find a game elsewhere' or 'Full-Tilt is just as good' etc, but to me none of them really are and when you're putting serious hours in enjoyment becomes a significant part of the game.

So anyways, that's a little background which brings me to the purpose of this particular blog entry. Although I've stopped playing online for the time being, I still have an itch to get in the game. I think if I were in Stoke I'd be at the Circus quite often this week, but alas the Isle of Man has little live Poker to speak of. That was until a few of us from work got talking during a little drinking session last friday at the local watering-hole. This was when the idea of having a home game was brought up...

Initially I wasn't impressed as I played a baby stakes home SNG here a few weeks ago and couldn't have been more bored. However the guy in question wasn't talk about a typical £10 donkament, he wanted to experiment in a 'modest stakes cash game'.
OK, so he has my attention at this point, I'm all ears.

Now it's important to note at this point that the person I'm speaking about I know is a good player and his circle of poker playing friends often get together to play some fairly folklore soaked Dealers Choice games, so i was airing on the side of caution. Anyways, his idea was to play an NL Hold'em game only, no variations but £1/£2 with a 25p ante.... I think my arse dropped on the spot. That would officially make this the largest live cash game I'd ever played in. After discussions on who might be invited and their penchants for out and out gambling I decided to sign up, although I'm wondering if this is a good idea. Thinking about this more logically I'm wondering if the size of this game will affect my performance, £1/£2 is alot bigger than $1/$2 nevermind having the 25p ante thrown in on top! I'm figuring I'll take 2 buy-ins (£400) and hope for the best.

But this poses the question in the blog title, where does a supposedly fun home game cross the line and become something much more? Needless to say I'll do my best to socialise with my workmates but I'll be taking the game extremely seriously. Or maybe i've bitten off more than I can comfortably chew on this one? Game is this weekend, report will come later lol.