My girlfriend is having a home game with her friends. Some of them don't know how to play. We will be about 12 from the looks of it.

Most of the guys there know how to play. So it's about 50/50 in terms of who knows how to play and who doesn't.

-50/50 men and women(they all know each other, ugh).
-Which leads to alot of chatting.
-No time constraint.
-People will drink.

How would you organize this ?

Figure out how much they are willing to gamble with. Then my suggestion would be to have a small buy-in tourney.

12 is a tough number - really to big for a single table - but if you go to two single tables, then your playing shorthanded. While not the end of the world, it breaks up the social aspect and shorthanded play is different than full table.

Nonetheless, a small-buy in tourney may be your best bet, offer one rebuy. So if they are willing to gamble say $10. Then have a $5 Tourney with a Single Rebuy if you bust.

Before the tourney actually starts - give a brief poker lesson. not strategy per se' but go over how blinds work, how to declare a raise, where to put your chips, etc... The 15 to 20 minutes you spend on this stuff early on will reap large rewards in speeding up time later on.

See if they don't mind you dealing the whole time. Again, it will rapidly speed up the game and it will give the others a chance to "see how its done".

The alternative would be to have a low stakes cash game. It doesn't need to be hold'em, but for newbs, it is a user friendly game to learn. Don't bombard newbies with a lot of new games though - stick to maybe Hold'em and/or Stud and go from there.

Sarge

Thanks for the input.

I have so much change that a cash game is something to consider.

screw it for money - if its 50/50 - play strip and dip.

If you knock out the oppitsite sex you have to have "relashins" with them....

Plus you get to see some boob.

+1

If you're doing it mostly for fun, put a small bounty on those who know how to play. It could be cash or a dare or a couple of shots, whatever.

My only advice (having been there) is don't be a rules nit. Those who don't have much experience will be intimidated and don't want to make mistakes, especially if they get flamed for doing so.

If you're doing this to try to teach them how to play.....gl.

If only half the people know how to play anyways, I`d even consider playing 12-handed on one table if you have one big enough to fit all. The people who dont like to play many hands cause they`re not sure of anything dont have to post blinds as often as on a shorthanded table and have more downtime overall to get a bit of a feel for the game.
Furthermore, all 12 are together, which is much better atmosphere-wise. It seems there arent gonna be any hardcore gamblers, just mostly people who want to have some fun...
And fwiw, I`ve played 12-handed at a casino once, wasnt completely ridic.

I see you made a comment about getting out you crown royal bag with a bunch of change. I hope you plan on taking that change to the store and buying some poker chips and not using that change for the game.
You can buy a case of the dice chips for under $50, it is a worthwhile investement for your game. It will improve everyone's experience.

buy a poker case with chips and cards thats the primär thinks :P

cash limit hold'em.

Seriously.

Blinds 0.25/0.25, limits of 0.25/0.50 (0.25 pre and flop, 0.50 turn river).


Since you have so many newbs and females, limit is good because people won't have to worry about busting out early, getting bullied, or losing too much. This is important.

I agree.

New players tend to get bored with tournaments rather quickly.

No limit cash tends to bust people rather quickly.

Heheh I do have poker chips already. Thanks for all the suggestions, I'm really leaning towards a cash game.

After reading everyone's thoughts and suggestions, I think you should go with a 12-Handed $0.50-$1 Limit Holdem Cash Game (Blinds $0.25-$0.50).

If players get bored, they can stop at any time and drink the night away. Throw a High Hand Bonus in there. Throw $20 of your own money to the newb with the highest hand of the night.

I think those are great ideas.

Use as many quarter chips as possible, preferably not using dollars at all. That way "it's just a quarter!" but at the same time "wow, look at all these chips I get to scoop and stack!"

We ended up playing a SNG for 5$ with rebuys since we we're 9 and the other guys weren't comfortable playing a cash game for some reaosn. I did not want to create a fuss and it actually went well in general.

We started with 7k in chips and blinds were 100/200 which I think might have been a little high from the get go, I'm used to start with 100bb...

It was a limping festival of junk hands, i had to make big folds in certain spots, leaving me with a very marginal stack size. Shoved KK, got called with 89s, kind of strange since he HAD to know he was a huge underdog. He hit the straight on the river and that was it for me, 1 hand after the rebuy limit. (the hand before, a card was exposed which pretty much spoiled my hand)

I hate home games, I hope it's not the same in casinos because it's so ridiculously loose. It was fun and all but I never seem to win in home games nowadays. I played approximately 30 hands before busting out and I don't feel i have much edge in that kind of game. I'm able to tell pretty much exactly what they have;their range is so damn narrow once they start giving very obvious tells. I did it on 2 occasions just to bamboozle them, but
overall, it really amounts to the cards you get in that 30-50 hands session that will enbale you to get to headsup. (unless you are so damn bad that you completely miss extracting value with your AA, 3 damn times in 15 minutes)

Can't wait to play again this week with my regular poker friends, just to lose again :P

[X] tl;didn't proof read
[X] My thanks again for the great ideas.

.

===
One day you'll look back and laugh OP.

Nice job with hosting though - 7K is a bit large for a newbie group...

I wish I would have suggested giving them more of a taste - not a full plate.

Maybe its me, but half the fun of having the homegame is just hosting it in the first place, putting on a good game and a good time for people - regardless of my own individual results.

Sarge

the second statistic does not surprise me once i heard the first one.