I started a home game last year and it went pretty strong for about a year. There were 5-6 regulars and then another 3-4 players from a pool of another 10 players would show up off and on. Its a dealer's choice game either being .5/1 limit or .25/.25 PL. (Very little hold'em by the way which I love). I have access to free alcohol so this is always provided at the game.

However, over the last couple of months this game has basically been dying and getting canceled on a regular basis due to lack of players. I suspect that the the bad regulars got tired of losing money each week and if a new player showed up and lost they rarely came back. Plus there's always the standard changes like someone moving out of town, etc.

1. Does anyone have suggestions on revitalizing the game?
2. The pool of players has been friends and acquaintances thus far. For those people who advertise their games i.e. like in the forum sticky, what have your experiences been with new/unknown players?

id suggest adding a holdem nl night to get people more interested in coming. or pick another game everyone is interested. kind of surprised that the concept of "free liquor" doesn't get people in the door.

as for new players - i only let guys (or gals) in that have been vouched for by someone i know. they don't need to be a great player or anything i just don't want sketch balls in my house.

You gotta keep recruiting. Go to other games, invite people you like.

I've not had good results with advertising online, the game is invite only. But I encourage all players to invite their friends.

What's more important sustaining your game or not having a few strangers play with you guys?

My regular game sputtered for a while and my regulars were hesitant when I approached them about opening our game up to outsiders. After cancelling a few times, they got on board. I advertised on www.homepokergames.com, www.meetup.com, and 2p2. All sites have led to a nice expansion of our game - we have 14 guys coming Thursday. I didn't try it, but try posting your game on www.craigslist.com. One of the guys I met through one of the sites is taking over my game (since I'm moving to the New Haven, CT area).

We had one sketchball, but he realized that he didnt fit in and only came twice. IMO, the pros outweigh the cons. Guys who are looking are just regular guys who are going through the same thing as you.

Good luck.

A player pool of 8 players is actually pretty precarious. I think I'm down to 10 or so, which means we've been playing 7-handed a lot lately.

The point is to keep recruiting even if you think you have enough people at the moment. Recruit in good times to help you in the bad times (if space is an issue, start alternating the "outer-circle" members.)

I love dealer's choice, but I realize that this could be part of the problem.

What kinds of games get chosen? Is it an entire orbit, or just one hand of what the dealer calls? What are the buy-ins? How much are people typically prepared to lose?


One thing to keep in mind: If you want to attract people who already play poker, that probably means you should increase the NLHE play. One compromise is to alternate between a round of NLHE and a round of DC, etc.

My game is PLHE/PLO/Choice by orbit. The guaranteed presence of Hold'em gets people through the door. Then they get hooked on PLO, guts, or whatever.

Though it's not my favorite game, Hold'em is the gateway drug.



I think that either the stakes are too high, or the games that are being chosen either have too much variance (NL triple draw?) or too much low-level skill required (PLO8, Stud8).


Review your stakes
Review your game choices and DC structure
Recruit non-stop
Go online and post some ads. Here and Craig's list.

In the last year I've had 4 people over, 3 who still play in my group. I also got another response two days ago.

It's a good way to supplement a game pool, but face-to-face recruiting is best. Any time you go to a party or get together, float out the fact you have a game, and see who's interested. You'd be surprised.

Agreed. My games are on all 3 of these websites. We have 558 members, 12 games a week, and have had 931 games over 3 years with no major incidents.

Wow I am surprised by that. I know that poker is illegal in Salt Lake City technically. I hope nobody ever called the cops on you. I am not knocking you just surprised. Maybe if when I am in town over the holidays I can come by and check it out. Is that possible TrvChBoy?

Our games are all totally low-stakes, no rake, 21+, and have so far been tolerated by the authorites. The SLC area has been fairly tolerant of other more commercial poker operations, so we are hopeful this situation is sustainable for our totally non-commerical group.

You are welcome at our games, just apply for membership at our website http://www.meetup.com/The-Salt-Lake-...-Meetup-Group/. Please bring the girls from your avatar.

There are many many posts with the same basic questions. I would suggest searching as I gave a pretty long and detail response once.

Basically they are correct. You need fresh blood. I am up to around 50 players in my community and I only assume 10% of my players will show. So I really need to recruit a lot more. I get around 20 people, and I consider this lucky.

A) No Rake, Ever.
B) Fasinate them with great poker supplies. Dealer Button, Racks, Good Cards, Shufflers, Tables, Money Pits, Drinks/Food. Everything listed by the shuffler can be gotten through web sites cheap.
C) FOLLOW The poker guide book. I took a 30 page book and converted it into about 10 pages of rules. If there isn't a rule listed, I keep everyone happy with the best logical rule process then I add it to the rule book for next event. At no time do I have 'friends' when i host my games when it comes to rules.
D) Make up for you own mistakes. Last 2 weeks (By weeks, I mean events) i have mis-counted the money in-take. I had to go and get dimes and nickles to pay the entire pot as I mis counted 15$. My fault. So, I take the heat and come up with the money. I got lucky and was tipped 30$ that night but overall, I had to do what I had to do.
E) Keep it clean. Have everything set-up and ready to go. Follow a time sechdual. Include a poker program for your PC and relay off a projector or on a TV. Make sure players know they are taken seriously.

Everything I wrote is easy to do and will keep people coming back. You make sure you thank your players, make sure they are not thanking you.

Ken

Ken is spot on. All that stuff is great, and it's professional without being intimidating. It's a well-run party with amenities people can't find at home.

You gotta keep reminding them, too. I have a listserv I use for reminders of cash games, I use evites for the tourneys. I sometimes send text messages a couple hours before games, and for my next tournament I sent a few dozen personalized emails.

Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd, and manufactured scarcity can do wonders.

(That is, people see the responses on evite, they want to be part of the fun... and if there are a fixed number of seats and sometimes people have to wait, makes 'em RSVP sooner and arrive earlier next time.)

pfapfap,

Good call on the Evite you suggested last week. I used it for the first time for last night's game. We had 15 guys confirm - more than we've ever had. We had 1 back out due to Dodgeball Finals, 1 back out due to frustration with poker, 2 back out due to family baby being born, and one no-call-no-show. We also have a friend of a friend join us again. We had 11 guys. 1 busted early and didn't return so we had a full table from 8pm until about 1:15am when the game broke. It was great. The only crappy part of all of this success is that I'm moving to the New Haven, CT area in 3 1/2 months.

Thanks again.
-Matt

Use "pre-registration". When cashing people out at the end of the night, ask them if they want to play next week, if they do, write their name down on the RSVP list. This makes nex't week's game almost full a week in advance, and people love to join games that are almost full.

Wow, I love this idea. Nicely played.

Go play in a couple other games around town to help recruit. Be respectful of the hosts of those games (i.e. invite them but don't bring up your game in front of other players at his house, maybe you'll get lucky and host will pitch for you).

When my usual Sunday game got cancelled last week, I went to a PLO game on the south side. Saw a bar owner from the north side. When he cashed out, he told host "I wish you guys had something on the north side" Next day I went and had lunch at his bar and two days later he was playing in my game

Lose the Internet unless you are playing micro stakes, too scary.. plus I don't want young internet pros in my games and suspect that's what I would get if I advertised online.

If you're playing microstakes, then local bar tournaments are ideal place to recruit I would think

If they are "pros", they're not going to waste their time in your game unless it's 2/5 uncapped or higher.

Most internet players aren't good at all, just like "normal" players.