My fair city is now allowing gatherings of up to 6 people in our homes, so I will host my first game next week. In addition to the obvious--don't come if you have symptoms or have been exposed to someone with the virus, wash hands upon entering and leaving--there's only two adjustments that come to mind for me.

I'm limiting my game to 6 instead of 8, and we have a strong snack-sharing culture that will have to be put on hiatus. I will tell people if they want to bring their own snack that is fine, but they will have to sit out while they nosh, and wash their hands before being dealt back in. We are obviously in close quarters and sharing cards and chips, but limiting the hands to the mouth to the cards rhythm seems like a good move.

Any other ideas? I host on Wednesday, will report back if anything interesting crops up.

I’d love to start hosting again but the majority of the group is not ready for a live game, even with those precautions. Don’t think it’s quite time either to put your own household at risk.

As for additional precautions, I’d require everyone to wear a mask. And definitely frequent breaks to wash hands or use hand sanitizer.

Good luck to you and your group!

I concur. I won't be playing live poker for a while yet (vague because I really don't know when I'll start) nor will I be hosting anytime soon and putting my family at risk.

If somebody forced me to host but let me make my rules:

- All players will wear a mask at all times while in the house.
- No eating, drinking, or smoking in the house.
- All players will wash their hands every time they re-enter the house.
- All players will use hand sanitizer every time they come back to the table.
- All players will maintain proper social distancing at all times.

I'd also limit it to 4 players and try to play the game outdoors on a deck, patio, driveway, etc.

In the time of COVID I've spent so much more time on internet forums than I ever wanted, and one thing I've learned is there's no shortage of men (and it's almost always men) who think their unsolicited advice is merited. And that suddenly everyone is a scientist or public health expert.

The question I posed in the title is pretty straightforward. It clearly doesn't apply to either of you, yet you felt empowered to pipe in anyway. I do not understand why it is so difficult for men to say, "Oh this doesn't apply to me," and simply move on.

There's plenty of regulars in this sub whose opinions I respect. If none of them have restarted their games, that's cool. We're all in different juristictions and have different life situations. If it happens that I am the first (or the first to admit it publicly), I'll still report back with any lessons that may help others.

Both myself, and the other person replying, chose to put our personal perspective on the issue at hand but we also did answer your question by mentioning the precautions we would suggest for anyone hosting.

Perhaps you had no interest in receiving our opinions on hosting during the pandemic but I think you overlooked the answers we gave to your question in the original post. You asked for any other suggestions or precautions. We gave them. You now chose to give your opinion on men giving their opinion and decided to say we didn’t respond to the actual question when we did. I don’t see a problem with us giving our opinion AND answering a question but I guess that’s too much for some.


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If somebody asks you "If you've brought a toaster into the bathtub and plugged it in, how deep did you submerge it before starting it?", I'm pretty sure you aren't going to ignore the question simply because you've never brought a toaster into the bathtub.

The question you posed in the title was pretty straightforward and although it does not directly apply to me since I have not restarted hosting poker tournaments, it is clearly something on which I have a great deal of knowledge - both from a poker and scientific standpoint. (Granted, my experiences and expertise are in the Georgia area, not wherever it is that you are playing, but most states are worse off than Georgia right now.) I will not understand why, instead of being so rude, people (and it's almost always people) can't just say, "Oh, that's not what I wanted to hear. You don't agree with me, but you were still able to provide some useful information because of your unique experiences. Thank you."

. Whether they are starting back up or not, their ideas and suggestions were legitimate.
I read your post,.. and then the next 2 and thought, "good info and additions"..thought how I would do it for my game and that's it.. Not sure why those responses bothered you.

Good luck with the game, looking forward to your update

One of our players is doing a gradual easing this Saturday to go along with the online home game.

The game is still going to be online, but a few people are getting together (bring your own laptop, maintain your distance, have a beer and chat more face-to-face). Limited to the 3-4 people that can keep plenty of space between them in the provided space.

That's an interesting idea. I'm not sure I'd want to travel any distance to go do what I could do at my own house, but I can see how, if done safely and appropriately, it may satisfy a little of the social aspect of the game without anybody taking an unnecessary risks. I never thought to do that...thanks.

Let me ask how do you guys tip online in the tournaments...
I normally do 10-20% live games....
On line my opinion no dealing,counting, chips, etc.. is 5% good?

Your poker group must really love winning money from you, because if this is representative of who you are then I can't imagine any other reason someone would want to hang out around you.

Good luck with your game.

OP, sounds like you're asking questions that you already know the answers to. Lighten up, an awful attempt to berate people replying isn't good etiquette.

Use a little common sense:
1. Temperature checks at the door.

2. Players bring own pre packaged snacks and drinks.

3. As stated, mandatory use of hand sanitizer before returning to table.

4. 6 max seems a little extreme imo. If you're playing on a full size table, 8 max is fine to have room to spread around.

5. If you still can't get past your germaphobic state, encourage the use of masks and gloves.

It's not that I knew the answers, it's that there hasn't been many attempts to answer the question. Instead I got things like, "You shouldn't put your family at risk." Comments like this are essentially virtue signaling. No one here knows anything about me or any of the players in my game, and I'm guessing no one lives in my city/province. Everyone's situation is different, so giving global statements about wht everyone should do isn't helpful.

If I lived in a place where COVID was not decreasing, I would not have restarted the game. But BC with over 5 million people has been in single digit new cases for a while now. Most everyone feels safe, and life is slowly returning to normal. So the pearl clutching about my family was misplaced (at best).

Your comment about bringing prepackaged drinks was closer to something I was looking for. We knew to go with no sharing of snacks, but it hadn't occurred to me to ask people to bring their own travel cups/glasses if they didn't feel comfortable using my glasses. That's the kind of tip that seems obvious in retrospect but we missed the first time. Or the temperature checks idea. That's not something any of us feel the need to go with, but it was an idea worth considering. These types of ideas was the purpose of the thread, and to the extent you decided to address it, thank you.

We play 6 max cuz the government has asked us to limit in-home gatherings to 6 people. Your response to this, insulting me by calling me a germaphobe, highlights exactly what I talked about in my first response. People itt, which has played out very different from most every other Home Games thread, have gone out of their way to be insulting. I'm not even sure if it's going out of your way, or it just is your way. Most likely the latter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jy__tBe8eg&t=31

lol?

Thanks for the laugh. Just an epic lack of self awareness. I bet your home game is loads of fun!

In the future, we will be sure to respect your wishes and show no concern about you. You may want to check to see why you overreacted, though. Many times, your responses tell a lot more about you than the person(s) to whom you are directing them.