If you were going to have a home game that is dealer choice and you want to make sure that no one loses more than $50.00 in a night what stakes would you play? I am thinking .25 fixed which increases to .50 once the final cards are dealt in any game. The trouble is that there are 3 of us that are much more experienced than the other 4 and I do not want the others to feel that we are trying to take advantage of them. I am also asking the experienced players to not select games that play at the casino. I am not sure how much the experience will help if you are Acey, ducey, one eyed jacks pair of natural sevens takes all but I want all to have fun and not worry too much about money.
I don't know that you can guarantee that nobody loses over $50, but with a fixed limit format of .25/.50, or even .50/1.00 (with 3 raises allowed) I think you would probably be safe.
But not necessarily if you play AceyDeucey the way I've always seen it played. I've always seen it where people can bet up to the amount in the pot - and games that start small have a way of getting much bigger. Everyone I know who has played it has some story about starting out betting under a dollar and ending up with someone going broke. So you might try to stay away from that game.
If you want to guarantee nobody loses more than $50, play a cash game and then scale everyone's winnings and losses down if anyone loses more than $50.
Example: A ends up +$90, B -$20, C +$30, D -$100. Multiply everyone's number by 50/100, now A is +$45, B -$10, C +$15, D -$50.
Example: A +$10, B +$20, C -$5, D -$25. Don't scale anything because nobody lost more than $50.
You can get some awkward amounts but you can round to the nearest dollar to smooth it out.
Tournament style works too but risks one or more people having to sit around and not play once they bust.
The harsh way of limiting losses is limiting their ability to BI .. like 5 BI of $10 max.
Your intentions are good, especially among a core group of friends that you may want to try and keep together all night.
One way we've found is to play a series of 'Sit N Go' tournaments. This also allows Players to move around the location (ie, take a break from the game) and then everyone sits down again when the next one starts.
It can get difficult to assume everyone has the same interest in playing poker non-stop, so when they bust the tournament they can enjoy each other company/TV/Phone while looking forward to the next one. GL
