Is this a nuts idea? (2 Viewers)

RudysNYC

Flush
Joined
Apr 19, 2020
Messages
1,486
Reaction score
3,005
Location
New York, NY
To preface, my regular poker crew and I are pretty young and we love saving money while also doing degen stuff. We play relatively regularly (once every few weeks, at least) and COVID killed our plans to make this the Summer of Live Poker.

I had the idea of turning our already regular games into an 8-man, 20-week league. We only really play cash, so I was thinking we would take like 5% from each pot and at the end of each league night record how much was raked and how much each person made or lost. Each week the "rake" carries over, so after 20 weeks there will be 20 weeks worth of "rake." At the end of the 20 week season, we add up everybody’s W/L to determine a winner (whoever made the most, obviously). The 20 weeks worth of rake is spent on getting the crew to Las Vegas for long weekend at the 2021 WSOP. Half of the rake goes towards putting up the 8 guys at a hotel on the strip, the other half goes toward buying the winner of the tournament into an event.

Anybody ever do something like this successfully?

edit: grammar
 
Sounds fun!

How much do you estimate 20-weeks worth of rake would probably add up to?
I would say we get about 75 hands in per session. Now that you lead me to thinking about it, playing .50/1 raking 5% would probably get $30ish bucks at the end of the night? So times 20, about $600? Maybe I'm being naive about the nightly rake, I'm figuring in a ($7.50 average pot)x(75 hands)x(.05 rake).

Both my buddy and I are Platinum in the Caesars Rewards network, so if we stay at one of those properties it'd be pretty easy to stay 2 nights for a reasonable price and $300 would further offset the cost. And $300 towards a buy in is pretty good for a knucklehead in his 20s :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
The last time I did that in my home game, we played .25/.50, raked $1 from every hand for which a flop was dealt, and ended up with a much larger pot than that at the end of 20-some weeks.
 
To preface, my regular poker crew and I are pretty young and we love saving money while also doing degen stuff. We play relatively regularly (once every few weeks, at least) and COVID killed our plans to make this the Summer of Live Poker.

I had the idea of turning our already regular games into an 8-man, 20-week league. We only really play cash, so I was thinking we would take like 5% from each pot and at the end of each league night record how much was raked and how much each person made or lost. Each week the "rake" carries over, so after 20 weeks there will be 20 weeks worth of "rake." At the end of the 20 week season, we add up everybody’s W/L to determine a winner (whoever made the most, obviously). The 20 weeks worth of rake is spent on getting the crew to Las Vegas for long weekend at the 2021 WSOP. Half of the rake goes towards putting up the 8 guys at a hotel on the strip, the other half goes toward buying the winner of the tournament into an event.

Anybody ever do something like this successfully?

edit: grammar

I’ve been a part of more than a few poker “leagues” over the years and by far, without a doubt the most fun I’ve ever had in one was @Redbelly WSOP league. He ran a series almost exactly what you are describing. It is absolutely worth it, it absolutely can be done successfully, and it is VERY fun railing someone (live or following along via text updates) out of your crew in an event.

One suggestion: Give everybody in the league a small piece of any cash the winner makes in a tournament. It’s sick being able to dream what your %could buy you if your buddy goes all the way and binks whatever they play. That makes the sweat that much better and gives everybody in the league a reason to root like hell for the guy or guys that are playing for the league.

edit to add: the league I’m referring to didn’t take rake out of cash pots for that, the buy in and league fees where all allocated out for the end of year WSOP buy in and travel expenses and also the payouts for the top three players at every tournament. We played a tournament league, you could do it with cash, but the idea is the same and it is definitely worth it.
 
've found that keeping public (or easily accessible) track of wins and losses quickly stops the losers from wanting to play
This is a very good point... Would you suggest making the determining factor for buy in a set of tournaments then? That's pretty doable and sounds fun actually, make it like a "Main Event" type thing, a "League Championship" of sorts
we played .25/.50, raked $1 from every hand for which a flop was dealt, and ended up with a much larger pot than that at the end of 20-some weeks
That's music to my ears... Really glad that I was undershooting the potential and not overshooting it.
Give everybody in the league a small piece of any cash the winner makes in a tournament
Definitely expected to do this too. Can only imagine how awesome it feels to have a stake in somebody, especially a good buddy
 
We do something like that. No "rake", but we take a 'kitty' from the pot depending on its size ($1 for a $20 pot, $2 for a $50 pot, etc.) that gets collected over the course of the year. Each player earns points for attendance (showing up to the weekly game) and for winnings (1 point per $100 in net win). At the end of the year, your points determine your starting stack for the year-end tournament. Top three finishers in the tournament use the kitty money to buy-in at a casino tournament (plus a little extra for room and board); bigger tournament for 1st place than 2nd, etc. If they cash in the casino tournament, they split the prize; 50% to the player and 50% to the rest of the club. @RudysNYC - PM and I'll be happy to give all the boring details.

I'll tell you this - we have no trouble getting a game going each week now.
 
Takes 5% from each and every transaction for championship tournament which will require no buy in. Track ALL transactions and time played. Come up with a number of how much money (positive or negative) per hour spent on the table. Leader starts out championship tournament with 10K. Take 1K off for each position below that. Let the group pick how to pay out the championship tourney.
 
I also remember before they closed down the poker room in Irving NY they had a New Years Day freeroll. Starting stacks were determined by the number of hours logged in the month of December. You could just go by pure time.
 
I wonder if it would just be easier to take 5% out of everybody's buy-ins than to actually rake a certain amount out of each pot. And now I wonder if that would work out to be more or less than 5% raked out of each pot.
Sounds like a lot of fun though, either way.
 
I wonder if it would just be easier to take 5% out of everybody's buy-ins than to actually rake a certain amount out of each pot. And now I wonder if that would work out to be more or less than 5% raked out of each pot.
Sounds like a lot of fun though, either way.

Raking the buy in will net much less money than raking the pot, I'm sure.
 
Raking the buy in will net much less money than raking the pot, I'm sure.
100% goes without saying. Raking buy-in basically "taxes" the money once, while raking pots "taxes" the same money over and over again.\
Genius ideas flowing here, Sounds like a blast!
Yea, thanks so much for all the other great ideas everybody I can't wait to get this up and running with my guys. WSOP 2021 bound!!
 
I wonder if it would just be easier to take 5% out of everybody's buy-ins than to actually rake a certain amount out of each pot. And now I wonder if that would work out to be more or less than 5% raked out of each pot.
Sounds like a lot of fun though, either way.
I only thought taking 5% of each buy in (5% over 20 sessions) gets a freeroll tournament with the same average amount of cash up for grabs as is normally on the table. Raking pots would make more money, but at the cost of repeated raking of what is on the table - might take too much away from the 20 individual sessions so they aren't as deep or as long.
 
I've found that keeping public (or easily accessible) track of wins and losses quickly stops the losers from wanting to play. I don't blame them.
It seems like there are enough perks and fun to keep the guys interested for the full season. But if you're worried about losing the losing players towards the end, then have each player pre-buy their first $10 bucks a week. So for a 20 week league, collect $200 a player up front. Each week they show up, their first $10 buy-in is paid for. They miss a week, the $10 goes into the kitty.
 
It seems like there are enough perks and fun to keep the guys interested for the full season. But if you're worried about losing the losing players towards the end, then have each player pre-buy their first $10 bucks a week. So for a 20 week league, collect $200 a player up front. Each week they show up, their first $10 buy-in is paid for. They miss a week, the $10 goes into the kitty.
@TX_Golf_N_Poker you are a gentleman and a scholar that is a helluva idea
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom