Learning from my home game attendance stats... (3 Viewers)

[Taghkanic]

Totally different situation, as my game is more social and lower stakes, but find that my games are held together by a core group and others float in and out. Life conflicts seem to be the biggest challenge as all the players are also fathers.

Pretty similar to my dynamic, actually...

I have one player who always arrives about 2.5-3 hours hours late after making dinner / putting his kids to bed. This is perfect for the game, because usually someone has busted or is about to dust off their last bullet by then—the late arrival fills the empty seat. But this fall he is coaching sports on Thursdays, including some travel, so he is out until winter. Good for him, bad for the game.

Other life stuff is always coming at people, just as it looks like I’ve solidified the player pool to the point of having a a wait list.

I have one player who is undergoing a major medical treatment this fall and will be in quarantine (due to a suppressed immune system) until at least January. That’s assuming everything goes according to plan.

Another who has been in and out of the hospital with heart issues and is taking a break from everything except trying to regain his health. He also had a bad garage fire this summer, after a cordless drill battery caught on fire. Talk about runbad.

A third — my most regular player — whose cancer cropped back up after a decade of remission. So far he is still playing almost every game, even sometimes on days he got chemo... But there is always a chance he has to drop out for a while or entirely.

A fourth former super-reg who has lapsed for more than a year due to financial issues. His business was going great, but he badly overextended himself (irrational exuberance, as iirc Alan Greenspan used to say) and now is digging himself back out.

A fifth and a sixth who both would be more regular, but their work is constantly taking them on cross-country trips. Instead of being here 80% of the time, they each make about 1/4-1/3rd of games.

A seventh who dropped out of poker entirely when she got pregnant. Maybe I should hand out out free condoms to my regs, amirite?

I could go on, but the point is that while many people care passionately about poker, it is always an option they can set aside for a time, or even permanently, when life comes at them. No one except true degens feel they “have to” play, much as we like it... So poker is often the first thing to get cast aside in a crunch.

Meanwhile poker by its nature does not require continuity for players—they can come and go as they like, unless your game is a league of some sort demanding steady attendance. I try to create incentives for regular play but there are limits to what can be done for a cash game.

 

[Munchies11]

Totally different situation, as my game is more social and lower stakes, but find that my games are held together by a core group and others float in and out. Life conflicts seem to be the biggest challenge as all the players are also fathers.

Yes kids are definitely the biggest hurdle and sometimes an upset wife that just wants to spend time with you !

 

[Poker Zombie]

Yes kids are definitely the biggest hurdle and sometimes an upset wife that just wants to spend time with you !

That is why you should always invite the wife to the game. Hell, we usually invite the wife first - jealous husbands never flake-out if their wife is going!

 

[HiveKueen]

Taghkanic - what are your takeaways from this thread? Are you going to try some different things or stay the course? Very curious.

 

[Taghkanic]

Taghkanic - what are your takeaways from this thread? Are you going to try some different things or stay the course? Very curious.

My plan is about the same, though writing stuff out and getting feedback does help clarify my thinking:

(1) I'm going first of all to focus on figuring out how to get the middle group of semi-regs to become more regular. Some of these are limited by work, family or travel but there are a few I think might be encouraged to play more. Even if two of these upped attendance from 30% to 50% of games, that would be big.

(2) Going to recommit to recruiting. Recently I played in a casino tournament and ran into the son of a (deceased) former super-reg. We hadn't seen each other since his father died, and he expressed an interest in both playing and bringing a friend who plays... Don't know if either will really make it, but it reinforced for me the need to always be getting out to other venues and recruiting.

Overall my game is doing well—it mostly goes off on schedule (twice monthly). But occasionally I have postpone to the following week because we're short 1-3 players. Have never had to cancel twice in a row.

All I really need is for 2-3 existing players to become more regular or for 1-2 new ones to join. Just want to get to a place where the seats fill up without a lot of nagging, with a small waitlist.

 

[Dugthefish]

Always be recruiting. Games die without fresh blood, it's the nature of the beast. I liked the comment from the guy in sales: try to move players up that ladder.

 

[Taghkanic]

FWIW, my mix of players includes:

1 — Myself

2, 3, 4, 5 — Four of my super-regs

6 — A semi-reg (attendance about 40% of the time)

7 — New guy, friend of a super-reg, who has played 2 out of the 3 previous games

8 — A fun, gambly player who hasn't attended in over a year but whom I’ve kept on the list, and urged to come back to the game.

This is a pretty typical mix now, with four other regs currently out with illness or family obligations for the next 2-6 months.

I get 3-4 reservations quickly from the first notification four days before the game. Then nag with a second notice two days before the game, and get another couple. Then scramble the 36 hours before gamete to cajole a couple more to get us to eight (my preferred table size when there’s a dealer).

With hope once some of these absences clear up in the winter, I will have solidified enough extra players in the meantime that getting the game together will not be a chore.

 

[JustinInMN]

TL;DR:

I have essentially three groups of players, leaving aside those who are sick, banned or otherwise defunct:

​

(A) Super-regs (75%+ attendance);​

(B) Semi-regs (20-50%);​

(C) Occasionals (less than 20%).​

I plan to keep group (A) super happy, work on getting group (B) more regular, and keep pushing group (C) while recruiting additional players.

You are already in really good shape, but I agree it's worth while to see if you can flip even 1-2 players from group B into group A. Then you would be pretty much bulletproof and the rest of players in groups B and C are looking over just a couple open seats.

But respect where due, you have clearly done a good job.

 

[Taghkanic]

For my upcoming game, I reached out to seven players who were regulars in my old tournament, but have not played much if at all since I changed over to a one-table 2/5 cash game.

My message included both some personal updates about people we all used to play with (one of whom died this summer), and a friendly nudge that I am still hosting and would enjoy seeing them again at the table.

Results:

* 2 of 7 did not respond;​

​

* 2 said they could not play anymore for personal reasons (lack of money or having a young toddler) but were glad to hear about what people were up to;​

​

* 1 said he can't play often but would like to get back on the notification list;​

​

* And 2 said that they are coming back to my game this week, after absences of 18-30 months each!​

I'd say that was a pretty good yield.

 

[Munchies11]

For my upcoming game, I reached out to seven players who were regulars in my old tournament, but have not played much if at all since I changed over to a one-table 2/5 cash game.

My message included both some personal updates about people we all used to play with (one of whom died this summer), and a friendly nudge that I am still hosting and would enjoy seeing them again at the table.

Results:

* 2 of 7 did not respond;​

​

* 2 said they could not play anymore for personal reasons (lack of money or having a young toddler) but were glad to hear about what people were up to;​

​

* 1 said he can't play often but would like to get back on the notification list;​

​

* And 2 said that they are coming back to my game this week, after absences of 18-30 months each!​

I'd say that was a pretty good yield.

You miss 100% of shots you don’t take ! Good job

 

[TheWhat]

... Meanwhile I’m curious if anyone else has run similar numbers, or has a general feel for how their player pool operates.

Do people just have 7-9 people who always play, and no other list?

Or are you like me relying heavily on a core group of super-regs to fill up about half the table, and filling out the other seats from a wider list?

5 of 8 seats at our Bi-weekly game are filled at 80% by the same people.

We have about 40 players on our FB Group. I will occasionally fill a game offline when people keep missing, as posted games often fill in less than 2 hours.

For 2026 I've committed to setting up a 2nd table once a quarter.

Also make an effort to attend every game I am invited too, particularly one other group that we now cross mingle with regularly. They often play during the week, so both groups are getting good opportunity to play.

 

[grandmeme]

Very good post. I try to get a game up once a fortnight too, and also find that the game will always have to include 3-4 "super-regs" for it to get up. I primarily host 1/2 PLO or 1/1 circus games.

Over the past 3 years, I have:

6 "super-regs" that come basically every game, including myself.

4-5 "regs" on a rotating basis, they will rotate coming monthly.

6-7 casual players who will jump in once every 3-4 months.

Due to the nature of PLO and circus, I never have an issue with playing as people are happy playing 5-6 handed for most of the night. I would make an educated guess and say that if I hosted NLHE, I would have a harder time getting 8 players to commit for every session.

I also split hosting duties with one of my "super-regs". He and I are there for 100% of the sessions. Without him I don't think I ever would have gotten the game up.

I will say that basically 100% of my players, except for 1-2 PCF attendees, are, or have been, frequent NLHE/PLO mid-stakes players. Without my game, you can usually find them in the casino or other home games playing 2/5 or higher stakes. They see my game as a friendly, unraked game that they can splash around in. There is a general lack of lower-stakes games in Australia. They have no issues with playing lower stakes, as they see the benefit of no-rake and frequent action.

 

[BleedingChips]

TL;DR:

I have essentially three groups of players, leaving aside those who are sick, banned or otherwise defunct:

​

(A) Super-regs (75%+ attendance);​

(B) Semi-regs (20-50%);​

(C) Occasionals (less than 20%).​

I plan to keep group (A) super happy, work on getting group (B) more regular, and keep pushing group (C) while recruiting additional players.

You may have written this already, so apologies in advance….
What is your plan to get more regular players and move them from C + B?

I have been trying a strategy the last few months that a friend shared with me. In addition to texting players a post-game thank you for coming (inspired from @zombiepoker), I also text everyone I invited who was not able to come. The text does not ask anything of them (“Hope you can make it next time!”), but simply lets them know they were missed and I hope they have a great week.

The response so far has been very positive and we’ll see how it goes in the new year. I think we all want to be missed when there is a gathering and this will hopefully help players feel like they are a part of something bigger.

 

[Taghkanic]

You may have written this already, so apologies in advance….
What is your plan to get more regular players and move them from C + B?

I have been trying a strategy the last few months that a friend shared with me. In addition to texting players a post-game thank you for coming (inspired from @zombiepoker), I also text everyone I invited who was not able to come. The text does not ask anything of them (“Hope you can make it next time!”), but simply lets them know they were missed and I hope they have a great week.

The response so far has been very positive and we’ll see how it goes in the new year. I think we all want to be missed when there is a gathering and this will hopefully help players feel like they are a part of something bigger.

Nice ideas... I think how much that succeeds depends on the player pool. Some of my regs will chat all day in text threads. Others are grumpier and want as few texts as possible.

I do think a periodic recap (crazy hand histories, funny things that happened during recent games, high hand wins, etc.) might work. With the grumps I would have to message them individually so that they wouldn't get notifications on all likes and responses.

 

[thePokerClub]

A simple 'test' you can run for a few months would be to cut your frequency in half (apologies if this recommendation is redundant, but I didn't see it mentioned).

That should increase the average number of players in your game. There is such a thing as 'too much' when watching metrics - and I do think you should watch/monitor metrics.

I was at a monthly frequency but moved to bi-monthly and my attendance went up significantly. Also, I use a competitive point structure in the club that rewards the 'long game' and guys dont' want to miss Events because of that to.

 

[TKEUofM]

I keep stats on my monthly NLHE Tournaments. It's a $60 buy in and is a pretty friendly/fun game. I think that the buy in amount and frequency of once a month has really helped with attendance. If I pushed the buy in to say $100 I know there would be maybe 5-10 players that might back out or play less frequently. Same thing with how often, once a month is easy for most people to get away for a boys night out, but every week or every other week can be tough for people to commit to every time.

For 2024 we averaged 28 players per event. So far in 2025 we are averaging 34. In total there were 53 unique players in 2024 and 55 unique in 2025. So we added 2 new people for this year and have had some others start to attend more often.

We seem to have a heavy set of regulars, we have roughly 24 players who will either make every event or only miss one or two throughout the year due to a family conflict or sickness. Then we have a group of about 10 that will make half of the events, a lot depends on family conflicts and kids sports with these guys. Our 1 or 2 time players end up being very casual poker players who are friends of a friend and want to try out a tournament format because their buddy said it was a good time. Likely some of those one time players realized it was a more experienced group that has been playing together for 20+ years and figured they weren't up for the challenge.

 

[Taghkanic]

I appreciate the suggestion, but in my experience attendance at my game has less to do with its frequency than with people’s family, work and other scheduling conflicts.

The core regulars want to play at least twice a month at my game. Most of them would probably play weekly if I upped the frequency. Pay schedule around my game, rather than viewing it as something they’ll do if they happen to be free.

The semi-reg players are not core regs simply because of work. Two of these, for example, are frequently on the other side of the country for their jobs (both in L.A., I’m in NYS). If they quit their jobs or retired and we’re here locally 95% of the time, I would expect them to be at the game almost that often.

Another two regs are “snowbirds” who spend 4 to 6 months of the year in Florida. When they are here, they are quite regular at the game, I don’t think it slowing down the schedule would change anything for them.

The remaining more infrequent players are already treating it as a bimonthly event by only showing up maybe 25% of the time. This group tends to care less about poker, includes more losing players, plus others who just can’t make it that often.

For these players, if I change it to once a month or every six weeks, they might not play for six months because the game happened to conflict with something else they needed to do, and place a higher priority on…

So fundamentally what I need is a larger roster of core and semi regular players. It’s just difficult in a sparsely populated rural area to recruit new faces. I have Mann introduced so, across many years of hosting, but each time it seems I gain one regular we lose someone due to illness, death, relocation, new job, etc.

My game has been getting off pretty much on schedule every two weeks since I posted this, but it is still more of a struggle than I’d like.

For instance: Tonight I have one reg returning (after missing six months due to a horrible accident, not his fault) and one new face who I am trying out, someone I met at another private game. These two make up for two super-regs who are unavailable due to work obligations.

 

[Poker Zombie]

I'm on team "less is actually more".

FOMO is real if you have to wait a month (or a month and a half in my case) and you are the game. If there are a number of other games your players will attend, the FOMO is reduced. Then again, maybe not. My game gathers players from multiple states, so it's a good chance to see friends. Other games cannot compete with that.

And of course, if your player base is fragmented due to family/work commitment's, maybe you just need a bigger player pool. I struggled with 1 table games and soared when I started hosting 2 table games. Cancellations dropping us down to 1 table felt considerably less stressful, because we always had a full game.

 

[thePokerClub]

Hmmm.....

Interesting you have a solid mix of folks. Those that like frequent games and those that may not.

Overall, you should do what works for YOU and is manageable. As I mentioned before....it may be worth testing out once per month and if it doesn't shift things it doesn't shift things.

I also mentioned the point structure...part of this includes points for participating in Events so that everyone can be relevant on the LeaderBoard and come away with something even if they have a poor night. Then also offer a way for them to collect Missed Participation Points.

This has worked well for my game. You have an interesting opportunity to bring up the engagement of your 'less reliable' players.

 

[Poker Zombie]

Missed Participation Points

I too do Participation Points - just enough to be tiebreakers or a low in-the-money finish with a perfect season, but what are "Missed Participation Points"?

 

[Taghkanic]

And of course, if your player base is fragmented due to family/work commitment's, maybe you just need a bigger player pool.

I don’t know of any game that couldn’t use a bigger player pool. Goes without saying.

But as I’ve mentioned multiple times in this thread, I live in a thinly-populated rural area. (The population of my county hasn’t even doubled since the first U.S. census in ***1790***. We’ve gone from 35,000 to 60,000 people in 235 years.)

It is extremely rare for me to meet a local poker player who lives within ~20 miles of me who (a) is bankrolled for $2/$5 and (b) I have not met before.

Even so I have managed to add players even as others have moved away/dropped out and keep this going since resuming hosting at the tail end of the pandemic in 2022. My goal is 24 games per year; I have averaged 20. A few of the misses are for lack of a quorum, the others are because a major holiday falls on my gameday cycle.

So my issue is less with having enough players than with wanting the process of getting the game off become less of a struggle/hassle.

For example, I was light two players 24 hours before gametime this week. I went into overdrive to work my lists and got it to a full table with one person on the waiting list. But I wasn’t sure we were good until late morning before game night, at which point I’m normally almost done setting up (which is another process).

Game went off, someone busted and left relatively early, the waitlist guy stepped in, we played from 7-1:30 am. Great.

I just would prefer to get to the point where the “overdrive” part becomes unnecessary because the RSVPs fill up so quickly people are concerned they will miss out if they don’t reply promptly, rather than waiting for me to nag them 2x or 3x.

 

[TheWhat]

I just would prefer to get to the point where the “overdrive” part becomes unnecessary because the RSVPs fill up so quickly people are concerned they will miss out if they don’t reply promptly, rather than waiting for me to nag them 2x or 3x.

For us, I really think the Facebook page drove that switch for us. All I do now is reach out occasionally to the non-FB folks and save them a seat if needed, and the rest the players race to get in.

The special hands also helped, we do 10% of initial buy-in, half goes to nightly High Hand (Must be in attendance to claim), other half to the Progressive.

 

[thePokerClub]

For example, I was light two players 24 hours before gametime this week. I went into overdrive to work my lists and got it to a full table with one person on the waiting list. But I wasn’t sure we were good until late morning before game night, at which point I’m normally almost done setting up (which is another process).

I tell my players that registration closes 2 days before the Event. I need this time for other mgmt. activities in prep for the tournament.

I do proactively send emails to announce registration open and close, but that is minimal and a workflow designed to keep my time efficient.

I stick to it and send a list of final event registrants to the group at close.

Once or twice of sticking to that is all it takes for the group to understand what is expected. If I let a straggler in it is because I chose to allow it in a special case - but it is rare and never really scramble pre-Event anymore.

 

[Taghkanic]

For us, I really think the Facebook page drove that switch for us. All I do now is reach out occasionally to the non-FB folks and save them a seat if needed, and the rest the players race to get in.

The special hands also helped, we do 10% of initial buy-in, half goes to nightly High Hand (Must be in attendance to claim), other half to the Progressive.

I’d say only about 50% of my regulars actually use Facebook, and some of them only once in a blue moon. Much older and younger players don’t seem to bother with it anymore. I myself used to use it constantly back in the day, but now only check it for a couple of very unique groups (for example, mushroom foraging).

 

[Taghkanic]

I went and updated my chart... Some notes below it:

So couple of key things here:

(a) The two “seasonal” players who joined the game last spring are away until April... So in these winter months I am lacking their presence. I expect they will make about 3/4ths of games when they return. But this winter shortfall is going to be a chronic thing.

(b) I’m hoping the super-reg who has been seriously ill may actually return in the late winter, if his treatments continue to progress without setbacks. That would be huge. Another semi-reg, who would be excellent for the game, just returned after rehab from an accident that sidelined him for six months. Hoping they both are back for 2026; it would make reaching a quorum much easier. A third who joined the game last summer has also been sidelined by illness and I would be surprised if he returns knowing his unfortunate situation.

(c) Of the two new players above who just joined this week, I expect one of them will attend most if not all games. However, it remains to be proven whether he “sticks.” He ran like a god in this first game, but I know him to be a loose and losing player from the game where I met him. Will have to see how enthusiastic he remains once he gets his head blown off in some future games.

(d) The semi-reg who got disinvited (Player "J") is a loss in the sense that he was becoming pretty regular. However, his behavior was quite disruptive in multiple respects, so I had to bite the bullet and take him off the list. This is one of the frustrations of hosting: Sometimes what is good for the game in terms of cohesion is also bad for the game in terms of attendance.

(e) Generally the health of the game is about the same as a few months ago.... The super-regs remain super-regular. The semi-regs remain semi-regular. A few players have been lost to illness or bad behavior. A couple new faces have come into the mix, and I am working to make them stick. The very occasionals remain just that: People who show up once in a blue moon, which can be useful, but can’t be relied upon.

Overall my strategy is still to keep recruiting to expand the roster, and try to figure out how to make the semi-regs more regular. If I could get just two players to up their attendance to 75%, locking up a full table for each session would go a lot easier. I don’t think a change of stakes or frequency is a solution — it just shifts the challenges laterally.