Advice/etiquette for starting an informal home poker game

zhen_rogue

Greetings all:

I've had a lot of feedback from my co-workers and friends about how we'd all love to start a bi-weekly poker game.
I'm thinking of getting the ball rolling here, but since i've never hosted/organized a game, i'd like some input on getting started.
Advice, recommendations, etiquette, things to remember, etc. are all appreciated!

Here's what I know so far:

Attendance will likely be 4-7 people on average.
I have a 500-piece set of metal-core composite chips (is this enough for 7 people?).
Dealer's choice will be the format (5-draw, 5-stud, 7-stud, follow the queen, high/low chicago, baseball, etc.)
Ante = ? (maybe 25c to start?)
Spread limit = ? (25c - $5 to start?)
Buy-in = ? ($20 to start?)

I'm wondering how best to "cash out" at the end of the night as well.
Since I assume everyone will buy in with a $20 bill, I guess I need to hit the bank and get some rolls of change and a bunch of singles?

I've never played in an organized poker game for real cash before, so thanks in advance for making sure I don't make any mistakes that would have led to me being shot at the table in the old west.

Djeet

designate someone as "the bank" this could be you as host, or a trusted player, or a third party (g/f or wife present but not playing?). have them take all the buy-ins and write each buyin down on a slip a paper with a running total, and hold all the cash with this list until cashout. this reduces the chance of the bank not having the funds to cash everyone out. no one but the bank handles the money.

as long as everyone is playing by the same rules (no matter what crazy house rules you have) then there should be no problems. you might want to find out what each players policy is towards windfall wins. most people i play with would be pissed if a player went a won a bunch of money in a few hands, and then wanted to cash-out before giving the table some opportunity to win back some. we'd have the grace not to say anything, but that would be pretty lame. and repeat offenders might not receive the next few text messages announcing a game.

if it's a mixed smoker/non-smoker crowd, determine beforehand how smoke-breaks are going to be called (as a non-smoker i dont care for smoke breaks and would prefer to ante everyone in a fold them when they miss their turn).

have at least 2 clean decks before you start a night of play (3 if you got a bunch of newbies). 500 chips is enough for 7 to play, you may have to figure out how much money is going to be at play and figure out chip denominations beforehand. if your game becomes popular you will need more chips though.

having some small bills to make change is nice, but usually when other players get knocked out and it's late, the last 3 or 4 players will decide they're done and cash out their twenties and play a few rounds with the remaining change, or toss it in for beer money.
playing cards with naked or scantily clad ladies (on the cards) will slow the pace of the game. :P

EggyToast

Generally you check with the group to see what they prefer overall, regarding two important things -- play style and game style. If you want to set it up as an "event," with a buy in at the start and a cash out at the end, you should look at tournament rules. It can be a lot of fun and doesn't require the same group each time. It also means that the cashout at the end is easy -- people buy in, get their chips, and *thats it*. So someone can't go broke, and generally different people win.

If your group dislikes the idea of tournament style rules, I'd still recommend having a set gametype per night. That way, all players can develop a strategy and get used to the game that's being played, as well as other player's strategies, without it changing each game. When it changes each hand, it tends to be more confusing and it turns more from poker into "let's bet on what the top card is."

Finally, I agree that having someone win big and then take off, cutting off the game short, is in poor taste (which is why tournament rules are popular), so you can either have limits -- such as a maximum win amount per night (say, 100% of the buy in) -- or have a non-cash-out policy. In other words, if you're up on one night, you can get your $20 back and keep the chips in a "bank" so you don't have to buy in for the future.

If you have a group of uneven skill levels, and don't want to use tournament rules, I would suggest a max cash-out equivalent to the buy-in, and have a chip-bank (just a note of paper that goes with the chips) for winners. It encourages more fair play and less hustling of newbies, and prevents someone from leaving with everyone's money. If someone wins big enough so that they can carry their chips over to the next night, they can cash out another $20 on the next night. In other words, one person should be able to cash out no more than $20.

Of course, this means having "the bank" be responsible is important. It also only works if the group is going to be pretty regular. If the group is going to change around a lot, I strongly suggest looking at tournament style play, as it's clean, quick, and everyone knows what's going on.

DiscGrace

Make sure you have set rules for when the ante cost rises - each time a player goes out, every certain amount of time, whatever. If you have more than one table of players that will combining when their numbers are reduced, it's important that they are playing by the same ante rules.

Sarcastro

We play with a 20 dollar buy in, 6-9 players. There is one additional buy in per person of 10$ if someone gets knocked out early, no buy-ins once you're down to three players. Third gets 10$, Second gets money back, winner takes the pot. Last man standing.

Make sure you use blinds (big and small) to keep the ante flowing, otherwise play tends to get too tight (no one bets unless they have the nuts, because they can keep waiting for good cards with no penalty)

Occasionally when we have other stuff to do, we set a timer, tuck it out of sight and the chip lead at the end of that hand takes the win.

Works pretty well.

musanman

highly recommend playing a tournament style game because $20 is not enough for a decent cash game

you could play two $10 buyin games where each players gets like 2k in chips, start the blinds at like 10-25 and then go up from there. It sucks when you go broke, but we would do rebuys for the first hour (another 2k chips for $10) to help people who do stupid shit early get to enjoy their stay if they're willing to pay.