My next game is a little oversubscribed. I didnt want to turn folks away. Any ideas on how to make it more fun vs being super tight. Antes? Bigger blinds to have folks bust out sooner and thin the table? Right now were doing 120 big blind starting stacks. Thanks.
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10 player cash game, 25c/25c (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mummel
- Start date
Other than starting with too few BBs (which is not your problem here), nothing you do anything to blinds and stacks will force a fun, loose game among casual players.
If all your players understood how to play properly based on blinds and antes, yeah, raising blinds and adding antes would make the game looser. But doing that to a game where no one understands how they should adjust in response to the changes will just be annoy the players.
The only way to make a game fun and loose is to invite fun and loose players and to encourage those fun and loose players at the table to be pleasant to everyone else.
If all your players understood how to play properly based on blinds and antes, yeah, raising blinds and adding antes would make the game looser. But doing that to a game where no one understands how they should adjust in response to the changes will just be annoy the players.
The only way to make a game fun and loose is to invite fun and loose players and to encourage those fun and loose players at the table to be pleasant to everyone else.
Mental Nomad
Full House
+1 to what @jbutler said. You can't force fun into the structure... and any attempt to change the "usual" game is very liable to backfire and make people unhappy.
I've put 11 at my 10-player holdem' table. I have ten chairs and a stool... last player gets the "stool sample."
If it's literally too tight (some of my regs are, um, wide), I'll get up when the 11th (or 12th) player arrives and sit out. Honestly, I've never missed a night when hosting, so I've played more hands than any of my regs. I'm usually busy doing hosting stuff, buyins and rebuys, pulling shots of coffee, etc. Also, my dogs like to take a quick relief run, and it's nice knowing that the table can run itself while I go outside. (I have good regs; your mileage may vary.)
One thing that does help, in a packed house - aside from having a computer with a web browser hooked up to the TV so that the odd person out can find funny shit - is to give players waiting for a seat dibs over re-buys for bust-outs. Most of my regs see this with a sense of fairness, and want everyone to get to play... and so they actually loosen up and are more likely to go all-in. This means more bust-outs and rotation in and out of the game, and generally more fun on the night. Personally, I became less likely to top-up after a big hit... instead, I'll try to double up or bust out, and take a rotation through the "out" position.
I've put 11 at my 10-player holdem' table. I have ten chairs and a stool... last player gets the "stool sample."
If it's literally too tight (some of my regs are, um, wide), I'll get up when the 11th (or 12th) player arrives and sit out. Honestly, I've never missed a night when hosting, so I've played more hands than any of my regs. I'm usually busy doing hosting stuff, buyins and rebuys, pulling shots of coffee, etc. Also, my dogs like to take a quick relief run, and it's nice knowing that the table can run itself while I go outside. (I have good regs; your mileage may vary.)
One thing that does help, in a packed house - aside from having a computer with a web browser hooked up to the TV so that the odd person out can find funny shit - is to give players waiting for a seat dibs over re-buys for bust-outs. Most of my regs see this with a sense of fairness, and want everyone to get to play... and so they actually loosen up and are more likely to go all-in. This means more bust-outs and rotation in and out of the game, and generally more fun on the night. Personally, I became less likely to top-up after a big hit... instead, I'll try to double up or bust out, and take a rotation through the "out" position.
links_slayer
4 of a Kind
super-micro stakes, mixed games, limit.
Mental Nomad
Full House
The ante is paid be everyone, including the blinds (who also place their live blinds.) If your smallest frac is 25c and you're playing a 25c BB game, having ten people ante will really loosen things up... UTG will be looking at a $3 pot from the get-go. This may induce a lot of people to start playing draws, but may also induce others to bet harder quicker, because there's already a pot build, and it's hard to shake the field.
Yeah, changing the game is also an option. Many variants play looser - but that assumes your players are cool with the change.
When I am over-subscribed for a single table cash game, I either sit out myself or take the last person who signed up and ask them to come an hour or two later. They usually show up on time and just pull up a chair and drink/wait it out.
OP
OP
mummel
Full House
I have a 10 player table so the numbers are fine, Im just thinking with 10 players, most people will be folding 24/7. So I was wondering if antes may induce folks to chase more hands.
chipjoker
Flush
I have a 6 to 10 player game once a month, .25/.25 blinds and $40-$100 buy-ins, we play from 6pm to about 1:30-2:30 and all my players have a great time, even if they bust out....
The only thing other than the game is I play a verity of music, from rap to rock, and I have a $5 buy-in for High hand..
The only thing other than the game is I play a verity of music, from rap to rock, and I have a $5 buy-in for High hand..
OP
OP
mummel
Full House
Interesting. So the SB will play 50c, the BB will play 50c, and everyone else will play 25c, with 50c being required to call the BB? Doesnt that effectively half the BB starting stack from 120 to 60?
Mental Nomad
Full House
Nah. People at the early end should tighten up a bit, but the late players don't... in fact, if a bunch of early players limp, I find the late player are more likely to stay in ("I'm getting odds on my 72o...")
You'll probably have just as many people on the flop as before... you'll just have a few more people out on the flop. They become the table talk; it can be fun. Also, being out more often sometimes makes players more aggressive when they're in, which can be a nice change of pace.
Mental Nomad
Full House
No. Ten players toss a quarter ante into the middle; there's a $2.50 pot.
Then the blinds each put up a quarter - that's a live bet in front of them.
The game is still a 25c game, so it's still 25c for UTG to call, but there's a total of $3.00 already in play.
It would be better to havve a smaller denom for the antes.
I think the size of the pot relative to the blinds is just too big in this scenario, but some might want to play it.
Also, if playing antes, you might want to ditch the blind bets entirely. The original idea of blinds or forced bets is that's it's quicker and easier to have two people post a $1 blind than to have eight people ante a quarter... You avoid needing the quarters, and you don't spend the night squirrel-hunting (looking for the one person who didn't ante because they're trying to squirrel away quarters.) Blinds also introduce some craziness, because a live blind loosens up the calls from early position.
You could introduce a half kill/full kill buttons. Encourage straddling, prop betting, ect....
OP
OP
mummel
Full House
Good info thanks. Perhaps I will leave it open ended. Start off with our regular blinds, and switch to antes later on in the evening once the liquor kicks in
Marius L
4 of a Kind
10 player table should be ok. Some ways to make the game more fun:
Stradle
Play PLO
Talk to each other
Have some beers
Stradle
Play PLO
Talk to each other
Have some beers
In case your not familiar with the kill buttons
To kill a pot means to post an overblind that increases the betting limit. A full kill is double the amount of the big blind, and doubles the betting limits. A half kill is one-and-a-half times the big blind, and increases the betting limits by that amount.
To kill a pot means to post an overblind that increases the betting limit. A full kill is double the amount of the big blind, and doubles the betting limits. A half kill is one-and-a-half times the big blind, and increases the betting limits by that amount.
Honestly just don't think about it so much.
You have 10 guys who have elected to come and play poker rather than sit on their asses watching TV or going out. They're not going to play too tight. They aren't going to want the blinds to change or for you to add antes or any of that shit. They just want to come gamble and have fun.
You have 10 guys who have elected to come and play poker rather than sit on their asses watching TV or going out. They're not going to play too tight. They aren't going to want the blinds to change or for you to add antes or any of that shit. They just want to come gamble and have fun.
Absolutely. ...or give out double board tokens. They can play them whenever they want
Heh? I wouldn't say that was the reason for blinds. Antes and blinds serve two entirely different purposes...it isn't about what's easier.
Blinds are really equivalent to a bring-in/completion if you want to compare it to something.
As much as we might revel in weird games and loose rules, the average poker player doesn't want to walk into a game and be told that he has to learn what kill buttons and double board tokens are.
Keeping it simple is a giant part of having a fun and lose game with casual players. That's why NLHE is the game du jour - because every moron in the world can figure out pretty quickly what's going on.
Are you sure they can figure it out?
I was just offering suggestions to his question. He can do what he wants with them.
Believe me I get it - I love playing with all the options you describe because I'm always for changing up the game from the same old boring thing. I'm all for every nuanced weirdo rule we can name.
But he asked how to make the game fun and loose and in my experience, complicated rules and options people have never heard of will cause the game to be the opposite while people try to figure out what the hell is going on.
upNdown
Royal Flush
Be careful of overhosting, I say. All I need out of a host is a table and chairs, chips and cards. And other players, of course, preferably not assholes.
Mental Nomad
Full House
Again, +1 on @jbutler.
I suspect you're trying to solve a problem that hasn't happened yet, and probably won't happen at all.
I wasn't talking about the purposes they serve today... I was talking about why they were introduced in the first place, as the game developed over time.
I'm still trying to figure out the suggestion of getting ten player's to have more fun = modify the game to have some of them bust out sooner... Probably just a full table of 10 to start will be "more fun" to the average players ..... Play cards, leave it as is ...
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