Hi fellas,

Today, I officially launched my first friendly home game and I just wanted to make this thread to influence the poker gods in its success.
No, I'm not superstitious...

Living in a small european town (40'000 people) where poker isn't trendy anymore, I know it will be hard to find enough players so that's why I need some cheering here

Also, since I'm a beginner in the "business" (it's unraked), any piece of advice is warmly welcomed !

Have a nice and poker-y Sunday !

Best of luck!

This is the right forum for you. Lots of free advice and answers from former and current players and especially hosts. Ask fairly specific questions to get better than general feedback. Don't be afraid to ask about "basic" stuff. There are very few folks who "Troll" this forum. So ask away and good luck putting together a good home crew.

Hey, thank you for support guys, I knew it would have an influence since 5 people of 25 in the Whatsapp group answered positive, so we can play tonight, good start for our game !

I read "a lot" of threads in this forum yet and it gave me some good inspiration to launch my own game.
My goal is to build a core crew of about 5-6 dedicated and passionate players who would play at least once a week, and some other people who would join from time to time.

The question that I could ask here again even if it was asked before not so long ago :
what are the best ways to recruit players, knowing I don't have any FB or other "social" media ?
I told my guest they could come with their wife/husband and also to tell their good friends if they can guarantee their integrity.
Live poker is prohibited outside of casinos where I live (except for friendly home games) so there isn't any "bar league" or official poker club in my area.

Knowing all that, seems difficult to recruit people, especially when I need my guest to be trustworthy enough to invite them at my flat.

for security with new players, get a cell phone # and if possible, have someone in your group who is on FB "friend" them, so you can have a photo. (I've never had problems, but a friend of mine does this.)

Fun

Same here, home poker games in Northern Europe, in a town of 30.000.

I have created a league, 6 times during 2016 we meet at my place and play.

We play cash.

Winners pay 10% of their winnings in a pot. When 2017 comes, we will play for that pot.
The winner will win a entry to a bigger casino tournament. If they win, 10% of their winning will go back to the pot.

I serve food and drinks on the house.

I have KEM cards, a table I build myself and OK chips.
Just fixed 9 really good chairs too.

We meet and play every 2nd month, a saturday in the end of the month - starting at 3 and end by midnight.

Friends and friends of their friends get's invited.
This year I have had the limit of 9 players.

Next year I might go 2 table (there is more than 9 that want's to play).

Players seems happy and comes back.

I hope my story helps a bit.

Cheers!

Not sure basing an opinion on just a photo is really the best, but I guess you meant at least I can make sure the guy is not a known douche to me

I like this idea very much, I might reduce to like 5% since I want our game being weekly but then I might organize a nice tourney with good guaranteed money.
Thank you for the idea and cheering, sir !

If for some reason there is an issue with him and need to go to the police, or just shame him in social media, would you rather say, "IDK, average build, average face, basically looks like every other guy in town" or "Here's his photo"?

I understand some of us here are playing for very small stakes, and can't imagine someone robbing our game, but others of us here have thousands of dollars on the table or in our pockets for every game. And those of us that are casino regulars have a fair bit of working capital scattered around the house as well.

I post occasionally in my city's subforum, and there were a couple dudes who said they're new to town, looking for a home game. I respond, saying send me a msg, tell me a bit about yourself, and give me your cell so I can text you the details. Never heard back from them. Makes me glad that I asked.

FWIW I started playing in 10c/20c games with a $20 BI. It was actually a thing when we went to 10c/25c, which in retrospect is hilarious. But fast forward a couple of years, well, let's just say I've come a long way, baby.

If you play weekly just have everyone put in $5 at the door and play for that in a tourney or something a few months later

also, maybe rotate who is the dealer each week, passing the deal around really slows up the game, start with people who will be better dealers, so the rooks can learn before their week comes

Obvs have a rule set on hand, nothing keeps new players away like bad rulings

Well , yes, incompetent dealing does slow up the game. But the only way to get better at dealing is to deal cards If they are regulars they will get more adept sooner or later. At least that's been our experience at our long standing weekly home game. If you have folks willing not to play a session, designated dealers is not a bad way to go.

Another option would be for a portion of the session's profits to go into the pot for some future game. In other words, only the winners would pay a percentage for what they profitted. Losers and break-evens would pay nothing.

It would be much easier to charge than taking a rake each hand. You would have to know how much each player bought in for to calculcate the winnings.

This is exactly what I do - I track when players buy chips in a simple excel spreadsheet and when the night is over I enter how much each player have.
The spreadsheet calculates who have been winning and how much they should pay.

FWIW, If I was looking for a game wrote in a subforum about it and was approached with a PM basically asking my cell# and stuff I would be scared off as well thinking it was police or something.

I told him the parts of town where our hosts live, the stakes we play, the relative skill levels, age range, as well as the fact that most players are not 2+2 types so he'd prob do just fine. That it's mostly a beer and donkey poker evening. I also gave a wee bit of my poker resume, so that if he did want to talk strat afterwards I'm always up for it. If you think I'm gonna give out my address (where again, there's plenty of money lying around) cuz he has a handful of posts on a poker forum, you're insane. (There actually are two regular LLSNL posters who live in my city and I'd invite them in sight unseen, cuz after 10K posts, you can kinda get a sense if a person has a basic level of maturity.)

And if you really think the police are trolling 2+2 to entrap home game poker players, you either live in Saudi Arabia, or you need to lay off the weed. (And I would never advocate that, it's medicinal, no doubt.)

I prefer zero side action. I don't like the idea of someone holding some of my money for a year end tournament or whatever. It just muddies the water. What if one of us moves out of state, or dies, or the game fizzles out? I'd rather just have a cash game with 100% payout and each session start fresh with no loose ends. Maybe it's my OCD but that's my 2 cents worth.