Winning, Break Even, and Losing Players
Zombie is right about winning players! They will come because they are winning, and you don’t have to cater to them. I’m surprised at how many poker groups seem to focus on doing stuff for their winning players because a successful poker game revolves around losing players. Without them, your game would quickly shrink. Based on many years of observation and record keeping, I find that consistent winning players make up between 10-35% of players. Net donors make up between 25-50% of players. The others are the break-evens, meaning slightly ahead or behind. Chase those donors and break-even players out, and your game disappears. Think of your poker group like a charity – cater to donors because they are your lifeblood.
Poll or Survey Players
This can be done formally or informally. We are in the process of the most comprehensive survey I’ve ever done. Before I make any major change, I want to know how it will go over with players.
A few years ago I converted our group into a league that lasted almost 4 years before going back to independent tournaments. Before I started the group, I was playing in a league, and I listened to players’ thoughts. In particular, I focused on what they did not like about that league. Since they had a regular game weekly, and a monthly league, I heard from players who didn’t participate in the league as well as those who did. I decided if there was something people didn’t like, I’d do it differently. I didn’t compete on night, but did pick up some new players.
You do have to be careful. Sometimes you will hear suggestions or advice from a vocal player who will tell you “a lot of people like (or don’t like) …” I track those and make sure to include those ideas in the next survey. Here’s a specific example of why you need to be cautious.
“Joe” (not his real name) said a lot of players don’t come to my game because there are no re-buys, and he knows a lot of my players would like re-buys. So I surveyed on that. I personally am OK with re-buys, but in the past have found about 25% of our players will play come to a game with re-buys. I know 2 such players whose schedules changed who can’t make it on Fridays (our game night) any more. I enjoyed those players, but most want Friday games. Anyway, right now 40% of respondents will NOT play with re-buys, and 20% prefer not to have them. Right now several players haven’t responded and many probably won’t, but of those who care enough to respond, re-buys would cost me several players. Maybe new players would come and take their place, but maybe not. I have to admit to being surprised at the strong feelings against re-buys.
Maybe I have a group of weird players, but they do come and it’s a pleasant group. If those who won’t play stop coming and got replaced by the same number of players who are like Joe, our group would no longer be as pleasant. Not that Joe’s a bad guy at all. All my players are likeable people, but Joe’s nowhere near the top on that scale in our group. Some of those I’d chase out are our biggest donors too. So, even though I’d love to offer re-buys, at least for some games, I can’t imagine that I will because it would be bad for the game.
Special Nights
You can do a theme night from time to time. We have 4 special nights a year. Two are our only bounty tournaments.
We have a bounty night in the spring, frequently tied to St. Patrick’s day, depending on the timing of our March tournament. In May, we have honor the military and first responders night. Wear a hat or shirt from the US military, fire, or police, and get 10-15% in bonus chips. In October, we have pirate night. It’s our big social event of the year – dressing like a pirate gets extra chips, it’s a special bounty night, and some special pirate rules that don’t really affect the game much. It seems like every year more players dress up. In December we have a Christmas bonus – extra chips for everyone who survives to the first break. The group picks 7 Christmas songs to listen for on the radio. For each song that players, after the break, the bonus is 1 BB for each song played, and 10 BB if 5 play. Everyone has an incentive to catch the songs, and they’d be disappointed if they don’t get their 10 BB bonus.
You can be creative and come up with an endless variety, but I think doing it too often wouldn’t be helpful.
Consistent Time
Having a regular game, whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or whatever helps. When players can put it on their calendar, and know it will happen unless notified well in advance, it helps a lot. I used to do ad hoc games until one player said to pick one regular time. I did, and within 2 months, I had a regular game.
Every game is growing or dying. It took me years to figure that out. So by all means, get the wives involved. Zombie hit a key point. Invite the wife – the husband will come too. Invite the husband, the wife probably won’t. I don’t remember him saying that before, but I wish I’d hear that years ago!
Don’t Exactly Duplicate Another Game
Don’t duplicate another game is my personal rule, but variety is the spice of life. If you duplicate another game, you will compete against that game for players. You might or might not win. I also won’t deliberately have my game on a night another game is being played. By now mine is well-established, but it was created for a day where there were no other games around that I knew of.
Invite other hosts, and try to get an invite to their games. When you go, be a good guest – don’t try to poach players. They might have some players who would be interested in coming. You might have players that might like their game. I see this as a win-win for all concerned. We’ve even done combined events with other groups. If you help them recruit, generally they will help you recruit. If you do bad things to their game, they will do bad things to yours. Fear of that makes hosts protective of their lists. Let hosts know if you are interested in other home games, and other players you run into.
Being different sometimes means players won’t like what you do. I’m happy to help get a player into another game more to their liking. I’ll be sure to let them know of one they might like better. One of my regulars is such a player. He keeps coming to my game even though I’ve made clear I’m not going to change it to what he’d like. He appreciates the fact that I helped him find another game.
Search other home games and bar games for players. Again, don’t go poaching, but some people playing in bars are only doing that because they don’t have an available home game. I personally hate bar games, but I sometimes go to meet other players. I also support bar games by advertising them for the host to our group. Some of my players play in bar leagues and are constantly looking for players who might fit our group. To me, that’s a lot better than me going.
Organization Counts
Players love an organized game. I hear all the time that players love how organized our game is. It’s some work, but worth it. Create checklists and follow them.
