Anyone ever play bad... on purpose?

Yup. Time to run a few bluffs, make sure you are fun to be around, etc. I would never lose money on purpose, but I'll take some high variance lines, make some speculative PF calls, etc.

I'm quite boring and take the game seriously so I've always been awful at being "fun" at the table. I feel like any attempt would just be transparent and annoying like how I feel when I notice other good players intentionally doing it to the fish. Definitely the biggest hole in my game. Good advice though I gotta change something for sure.

If you take the game seriously, remember that "customer service" is part of the game. If you aren't keeping your customers happy, they'll go do something else for fun (or get rid of you during their fun), so even if it is a chore to be social, it's also a chore to study optimal strategy. Put the work in.

I pretty much present as a gregarious rec player, even though much of it is, if not an act, at least a magnification of one side of my personality. That and high-fiving the guy I get in a flip with, especially if he sucks out with the worst of it, are enough to cover a lot of near nitty ways.

I was introduced to a group of low limit tournament players who played once a week by a friend. I won 9 out of 11 weeks and was told by another friend that they would soon ban me. I argued that variance would catch up to me and I could easily lose 5 times in a row. The last straw was me coming back from one chip on the 12th week to win the tournament. I was politely asked not return as I was too "lucky".

I was happy go lucky and giving action when I should have folded but it did not matter. I even stopped looking at my cards before the flop and would call any min raise made. It did not matter. So my advice to you is to not just play bad; make sure you lose on occasion if playing in the game is important.

Can u go there and have a few drinks about 10% of the time - Enough to loosen up your play substantially

Or just go on tilt a little bit?

Pretend like you're on tilt?

I always give action in good PLO games. That's easy enough.

If it's NL just call really wide in position for a few sessions.

Bobby Baldwin discussed this in his book, can’t remember details. Eventually he of course just moved to Vegas.

If it’s not natural for you to splash around in big multiway pots while yukking it up with the boys, just keep taking their money until they ban you.

At the extreme end of the bell curve we finally got the in-casino private games, with Doyle complaining on Twitter that Bobby allowed them.

On the end, you have Daniel & Hellmuth.

Tomshooter's story is the real cautionary tale here — even deliberate bad play didn't save him because they were judging the outcome, not the effort.

The underlying issue is that home games run on social glue, not just cards. People don't quit games they're losing in — they quit games they're not having fun in. If you're serious and grinding them, but bringing good energy, showing genuine interest in people, and not making anyone feel stupid for their plays, you can usually stay in a game indefinitely even as the clear winner.

The guys who get banned are usually the ones who make it obvious how badly they're beating everyone, or who make every hand feel like a business transaction. The "playing bad" instinct comes from the right place, but the real fix is leaning into the social side rather than your hand selection.

Sometimes it’s okay to start off by playing it safe. But you have to do it carefully and keep the stakes low.

Play an unorthodox strategy that looks spewy but does not give up too much EV

Examples -

Limp only preflop
Flop cbet 10% pot or 200% pot only
Coldcall 3bets from BB (actually GTO)

Or come up with your own. If you execute it well, people are going to label you a whale without realizing how good you are

Have they said anything about you being a nit? Others have been banned that you're aware of?

How did u get into the game?

It's a good question for me: About the etiquette for private games and how to behave when you're there if you're a pro.