So I play in a meet up game regularly. There are about 1000 people in the meet up group so it's pretty common to see some random people.
Last night we were discussing a different home game that takes a rake (while advertising it's rake free). That game is much bigger and has an armed guard. Well last Friday the armed guard couldn't make it and the game got robbed at gun point (coincidence right?)
While talking about this a guy in our game asked "does anyone have a gun to protect me if that happens here?". No one really answers. Also someone said something like "why risk robbing this game at best you would get $5-$10k.". The same guy jokingly said "worth it."
Fast forward 2 hours the guy busts $600 he brought and heads out.
I asked if anyone knew him well and got a few shoulder shrugs and "he's played 3-4 times.". So then I ask if we can lock the door (table is right by the front door).
No one called me out or anything, but a few people said "ah he was just joking."
What would I do? Find a more exclusive, social game.
A thousand person invite list is essentially a random call to the entire area. It seem quite likely there will be small sub-groups then end up organizing private, selective games to avoid the sorts of problems that come from such a large list of invitations.
You could also organize such a game on your own. It sounds like there is an extensive list to pick from.
I used to organize a poker meetup. With randos we kept the games very small (blinds under a dollar, max BI $100 at a time). For higher stakes we did invites only.
The first time I was invited to a 2/5 home game I was pretty nervous, but the game had been running for years so I decided to check it out. Not a ton of security but I'm comfortable with it.
I assume the guy asking about anyone carrying a gun was joking?
