In your perfect home game, what is the mix you want?

I'd like a 8-10 person game with about 3-4 solid players that keep you on your toes and force you think and play your A game instead of just playing on auto pilot.

I'd also want 1 maybe 2 maniacs to help keep things interesting and be a solid "catalyst to action".

Then sprinkle in a couple of fish with maybe 1 or 2 decent but not good players and you have a perfect storm of action and just plain good pokers.

My ideal table, in general across the spectrum of poker variants, is more like 7 players, something like this:

• me
• 1 legitimately good player
• 2 break-even or modestly winning ABC-type players
• 2 non-winning but not entirely clueless players
• 1 total donator

I could also do with 1 ABC and 3 non-winner/non-clueless players, instead of 2 and 2. The legitimately good player and the total donator are the ones I don't want too many of. Then either the game becomes too tough or too fishy. I'll tolerate the occasional maniac, but he's not part of my ideal setup. I can stir the pot myself if need be.

Perhaps just as importantly, at least 3 or 4 of these players need to be the type to buy into the game reasonably deep and stick around for a while. This ideal situation doesn't do me much good if myself, the good player, and the ABC players are the only ones with real stacks.

1 Maniac to my left
3 Loose passives to my right
3 Nits to the maniac's left
1 ABC/TAG across the table
1 Hero printing monies!

Give me 8 players, 2 really good, and 5 who like to drink, joke, have a good time, and have trust funds.

Ah yes the feeder fish. Very important. One thing we are lucky to have in our occasional home game is a few card junkies that aren't very good but play til the game breaks.

I already have the mix, 9 guys who think they are better than me and believe they can read me like a book. Unfortunately 4 of them are right.

8 players max. 2 donators, 2 fish, the rest above average to great. Keeps me on my feet after the donators/fish have busted out.

This player mix is the stone cold nuts:
2 extremely loose aggressive players with hand history who have decided they're going to war with each other and get into a leveling battle of 3bet 4bets 5bets and 6bet all-ins with ATC and act oblivious to the presence of the rest of the ring
1 cute girl who plays ABC and gets paid off on the river by flashing a smile
1 guy who is there because he heard there is free beer
1 guy who is there because the shark he borrowed money from is at his other game
1 jean robert bellande who has just came back from his car to grab other case money to reload into the game with
1 phil hellmuth in oakleys and all black who announces with pride that he's only playing 1 hand an hour and somehow down 2 buyins to all these donkeys
1 engineer or programmer who studied math for 8 years and never learned the most basic of people skills
1 kamikaze maniac who is determined to go down in a blaze of glory by the end of the night but is probably taking at least 1 or 2 people with him

5-6 other people there to have fun. Drink a beer and shoot the shot. I don't care of they are better or worse than me. For a home game a good environment is the most important.
I don't host a home game to win money. That's what casinos are for. At casinos I want a whole different lineup.

2 or 3 super-nit ABC players to my left.

The rest full of gambl00000rs.

I feel no need to be challenged in poker. I like winning money. If we're creating my ideal game, then there's no next level, so no need to progress.

Ah, the nit or two on the left...nice thought. That is a great way to play, and if you play more aggressively, they love it too!

It's like having the button three hands in a row! Also plenty of free orbits, since they telegraph when they're folding the blinds.

Just some people who can play something other than hold'em

Good answer!

Yeah, I wanna change my answer to that.