Hi guys—

So about a year and a half ago I started up a home game in Vegas that was mainly just myself and the employees I work with. It has since then grown to include a few dealers and some others who are also in Gaming/Gaming licensed.

I’ve generally had just one rule to invites— new invites can’t be professional poker players. If you have a job, even if you are a big poker enthusiast, you’re good. Mainly, my letting everyone know this rule was in place is part of what got them comfortable to come. That they weren’t just the one fish in a pond of sharks.

The $1/$2 game is a great game because (1) we have a Shufflemaster Shuffler, (2) we have a professional dealer, and (3) it is unraked to keep it completely legal (again, many of us are under Gaming, so the game can’t be illegal in any way). Because the game is unraked, I just tell all new players to “tip generously to the dealer” instead and this works well for both me and her. Players definitely pay less overall with higher tips vs normal tips + rake.

However, we’ve recently lost a few players due to their company having layoffs and I was wanting to grow the game’s pool a little more. So my question is:

1) If I were specifically looking for poker enthusiasts that were not poker professionals — how would I reach out to them to invite to my game?

2) How much do things like Bad Beat Jackpots matter to typical home game players? Since these are the things that often get tied to rakes, I’m curious if these kinds of things are common in home games.

1) This is a problem specific to Las Vegas, I suppose. How many pros play 1/2, though? I would think they are either new to the life, or have been unsuccessful, so maybe it is not important to keep them out. But your boots are on the ground on that aspect of your game, so I'll defer to you.

2) We have had a BBJ for the last few games, but we pay at the end of each night. That is important. Any BBJ that carries on from game to game, in a home game, I would consider rake. I would be less likely to play, unless I played almost every game (is this a weekly game?), and unless I totally trusted you. Are new players going to trust you? I would not expect them to, so they will consider this a rake.

Pm me. Ill play. I play 20+ hours a week but I also have a 40hour day job

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Keeping player funds between sessions may also blur the lines between the game being legal and illegal, so tread carefully. My players do not care for or expect a BBJ in a home game, so I'd recommend just not doing it.

The best way to expand you game while keeping a similar vibe to what you have now is to encourage the people in your game to ask friends to play.

1) You bring up a really good point... While it is true our game plays more like a 2/5 at time, there probably aren't a lot of pros that would bother, necessarily.

2) Also good points on the BBJ. Thanks!

That's basically the expectation right now. I do have some perks that were mainly for promotion, but nothing like a BBJ. Plus I think you're point is well taken on watching out for legality revolving around something that carries over from one game to the next.

It doesn't give me the option to PM you, my guess is that I'm too new and it is to reduce spammers.

We have a typical unraked social game .25-.50 mixed NLH and a little Omaha Hi. We do have a BBJ rake of .25 for all NLH pots for over $5.00. Anyone in a hand can win. Host gets no cut more than any other Winner/loser. We usually have the same bunch every Friday with a few semi regs. IDK if this goes against LV/Nevada social gaming law or not. As long as everyone has an equal chance to win is seems OK here locally. Anyway we are more of a club and authorities here are really more interested in raked underground games and not that much about those really. Good idea to check out official and unofficial local attitudes in LV about stuff like BBJ