I've renovated a poker room and am almost ready for the grand opening.

Something happened at a home game a couple of weeks ago that prompted me to post a "House Rules" placard in my poker room.

A group of us get together to play 50NL and usually play from 8pm-3am. A guy came to a Thu night game and played 3 hands over the course of 2 hours and was up over 7 buyins (aces twice and a boat for decent pots). Anyway, at about 10pm he suddenly said out of the blue, "I'm gonna cash out, cause I have to work in the morning". Someone jokingly replied, "We all work in the morning... I'm up at 5, he's gotta be at work for 6... What time do you have to be at work?" He replied "I used to start at 2pm but now I work the morning shift and have to be in at 10am". We laughed and teased him saying "Well then, you better leave right away if you want your 12hrs for your 5hr shift"

That was fine, but what seemed to dominate the conversation after he left was the fact that he stuck around and hung out for an hour after he cashed out.

That "incident" promoted me to consider posting a house rules plaque in my poker room. One of the rules addressing "Hit n Runs"

Not online, or at a casino, but specifically in a home game.... When a player is up (or after winning a significant pot) what is an acceptable window to give notice before cashing out? Personally if I know that I can only play till a certain time, I say it at the start but if I'm getting tired or for whatever reason and feel that I'll be checking out before the game breaks, (and especially if I happen to be "up"), I tend to give 45mins to an hour depending on the time. If it's 12:15 I'll say that I'll be leaving at 1 and if it's midnight, I'll leave at 1, but if it's 12:30 I'll usually round it to 1:30 to make it easier to keep track.

Anyway, what is the etiquette for this to not be considered a Hit n Runner like this guy was labelled? (Because he said he had to go, yet stayed an hour after cashing out)

Also, what other common house rules should I post?

One idea was "rabbit hunting will cost a big blind"

He played for 2 hours. That's not a hit and run.

In a "true" home game situation I would imagine that H&R plays are rare. One scenario I can see is:

an infrequent winner rolls up a huge profit early on and wants to keep it.

A player like that I am going to give a fair bit of leeway as over the course of several nights they are going to be giving it all back anyway. I let it go because it's good for the game if a poor player can look to a large score every once in a while rather than a string of small losses that equal more money than the "big" win.

Even in casual games with a regular group of players that takes place outside of a "home" (but is still rake free), I have not experienced any true H&R situations. At worst, a player will announce they are playing one final orbit. But that call is usually independent of a big pot being won.

I certainly would look a little sideways at a player who, after accumulating a large stack quickly, cashes out due to "getting up early", or "it's late", etc., and then hangs around as you describe. To me, the ribbing and jibes you describe would be enough to let a thinking player know he/she is off-side.

As for a hard and fast house rule regarding something like this, I think it is anathema to the spirit of a cash game. You should be able to cash out whenever you like, imo . . . otherwise you are fostering the idea that "players cannot leave with their money" among some of your guests. I know this is not the intent, but unintended consequences . . .

In a typical home game situation the problem with a hit and run is not that the money is leaving ... its that the player is leaving. You got a small group of guys to come over and play some poker for the evening. Each one planned around this happening. If players keep leaving early it breaks the game (or people play shirt handed) Now I planned on playing poker for the evening but the game only went a shirt time because people were leaving early. Next time you invite me .... I just may have other plans because I don't to waste my evening.

Now of course sometimes a player busts out and leaves and this can have the same effect. But if most people are coming in for a reasonable buy-in we can tolerate the occasional player leaves because he busted out early because we understand that it happens ... its not planned .... the player was obviously trying not to bust out.

The hard and fast rule you should apply to Home Games is simple .... if you make the game less fun for the other players you aren't getting invited back. Now that doesn't mean that you need to take the guy off the invite list because he leaves early once, but if it is having a negative impact on your game .... simply ask yourself "am I better off with him or without him?"

Our policy is that the game will run from 7 to 11 or 7 to 12 or whatever, and everyone is expected to play the entire game, unless they either (1) announce an earlier departure time when they arrive, for whatever reason, (2) they hit their stop-loss threshold, (3) they are contacted about an emergency they need to attend to.

Hit N Runs are rude but a rule against them is far worse. Just let the occasional ******* smash a big pot and walk out. If you try to have some "must play 3 more orbits rule" you're going to have a rock with a big stack at your table for 3 orbits. You're also going to inconvenience the majority of players who may forget to announce their departure time and take down a big pot on their 3rd last hand of the night. Now they're locked into the table for an hour while their girlfriend is sitting at a bar waiting for them.

Also note that there is no standard/casino rule against it. Just let common sense guide your players as 95% of them will be good people.

Just don't invite him back, seems pretty simple. Don't think you need to have a strict rule announced ahead of time, I'm sure he realized what was going on from the chat.

Not inviting him back seems heavy handed. Maybe he isn't familiar with the etiquette. Maybe he wasn't comfortable playing with that much cash on the table and knew enough not to rat-hole. Have a private conversation with him and explain it. If he knowingly does it again then that might be a good time to stop inviting him. This is a 50NL game, most guys just showed up to get drunk and don't think about poker more than 4 times a year.

Post some pics, I always like to see a poker room that's had some work put into it.

Yeah, just chat with him about how his actions could be seen as rude. Take his side, don't be accusatory, just a sorta casual "hey, so here's the thing..." Let him stammer his protests and defences. Try to be diplomatic.

My home game has three rules:

1) NO A-HOLES
2) NO DRINKS ON THE TABLE
3) NO BAD BEAT STORIES

This would fall under rule 1.

No bad beat stories?? When I was in a regular home game those made up a significant percentage of the conversation!

a local game in my area 100NL has a rule you must lose 2 BI or stay until midnight. I like the idea since home games have limited players, it can end the game if a few players cash out early. Your not being invited to come over and play 2 hours, your being invited over to play the night.

I like the idea and would tone it down abit, if your down money , you can go early otherwise your expected to stay until a set time, say midnight

At my game we ask for a 20 minute heads up before people leave. There was never a hit and run incident and we all just sort of agreed to it and it stuck.

I'm so sorry. That sounds very boring.

Yeah, that was our rough policy as well. Not an official rule, just "we ask that you give some notice".

But at the same time, forcing someone into that creates bad blood. There are three outcomes: they fold for 20 minutes; they lose money and get angry; or they win money and make everybody else angry.

It's a tricky bit of psychology, this one.

I see I am going to be out of step with the gang here . . . I do not care when my players leave. (fairly noted that games with limited pools or restricted seating might want to keep people around to keep the game running.)

I want that guy who never ever seems to hold onto his chips to feel free to leave early and book a win. I know the sharks in the room feel cheated that this one night the fish got away but he will come back.

I do not want to force someone to stay or make up some sort of rule to measure when someone can leave.

In the rare case that an early departing player becomes a problem for the game, I will handle that one-on-one rather than making a special rule.

It isn't generally an on-going issue anyway. The players who do this rarely get so far ahead they want to go home to lock up the win - it happens maybe a couple of times a year.

And in the end what do we get with a rule about "you can't leave until . . . ."? A rock garden who folds at the first opportunity just keeping his seat warm till the appointed time. What is the point in that?

I think the cure is worst than the ailment -=- DrStrange

Restricting when someone can leave is a slippery slope, though probably much more acceptable in a home game setting. Some people have emergencies or important business calls that must be attended to, and poker is their way of passing the time until that call/time comes.

If the dude hung around for an hour, just kick him out or ask him to leave unless he plays more. He's hurting himself by hitting and running because now the regulars will be hyper focused on not losing money to him.

Our standard policy is you have to announce thirty minutes ahead of your cash out if you're up. If you're stuck, you can cash out whenever. This does a lot to deter any bad feelings at someone who runs up a big stack in short order and then wants to cash out. Sure, anyone can play like a nit for 30 minutes to protect a winning session, but poker players tend to be degenerates at heart and can't pass up certain hands.

Yes, and the rest are "what I just folded" stories. Thank God pfap didn't ban those thrillers.

We have no policy at all about hit and run players. It seldom happens. Most folks do announce they are playing one more orbit to give some warning. Other times folks hit their stop loss and get up. I have always thought that one of the main benefits of cash over tourneys is the come when you can , leave when you want , structure. It works for us , but we are a fairly large group of regulars playing for low stakes. If a guy would win like that at our game, give the "work tommorrow" excuse, then hang out for an hour, he would recieve a bit of verbal abuse. Some groups may feel they need to make " a policy" to deal with this. Maybe they should. Different crews, different stakes, might make it a bigger problem. Glad we don't have that one.

I just mostly politely pretend I am paying attention and care. BB stories and such are often symptoms of minor or even major tilt. " Rave on and tell me "

Thism is the same as my home game call 30mins and you can go everyones cool with it that way.

No specific policy here. I let my players know that if they plan to leave early (which usually means before midnight) to please let me know. The main purpose for that is to keep the game from breaking.

I've never had a hit and run problem, and if it ever occurs I'll just deal with it one-on-one.

It's the same for us. We don't do it to prevent hit and runs. It is mainly so we know we will have enough players and when the game will end.

We definitely do not have a policy for hit and runs and never would. Most of the people that play in my game will only come if their time is open.

That being said, I never understood the "hit and run" concept. It is a cash game. That's the point, you can leave whenever you want. Do players really get upset if somebody walks out the door during a cash game?

People definitely would get upset if this happens in a cash home game, and with good reason. A home game, is supposed to be mostly for recreation, not profit. There is also limited seating available, and there usually are no alternates to come fill a seat vacated early.

If big winners leave early, the game will likely break, and people who possibly made a lot of effort to have the evening available and get to the game now will be going home after an hour (of losing) and no money in their pocket. If big losers leave early, the game could break early as well, and this would also be a bummer, but then at least the guys left will mostly have some profit to assuage them, and anyway you can't possibly force (or even encourage) someone to stay and lose more money than they have).