Jimulacrum
Full House
The scene: Weekly 0.25/0.50 cash game with 20 max. Played at a private club. No rake or anything like that. The game typically brings together a bank upward of 500 by the end of the night, and probably does not exceed 1,000 on any given night. Usually 1 table but sometimes 2.
Each buy-in and rebuy comes with a special chip called a bomb-pot token. You redeem a bomb-pot token on your deal to deal a hand of no-limit Omaha, where everyone antes 1 and betting begins on the flop. These tokens can also be bought for 1, and all proceeds get pooled into a tip for the bartender, which is where our problem begins.
Bomb pots are wildly popular and bring amazing action. Even staunch Hold'emites get in on it. It's been one of the most successful innovations I've ever run in a game.
At first, token sales would only bring in 30 or 40 a night, but the past few games we've played, it's been a lot more. Tonight was 95, and the week before that was 73 IIRC. There are logical reasons why it's getting big; we run shorthanded for a while late in the night, and most of the players who stay late also play lots of bomb pots. We have one new player who has tilted this scale significantly and plays all night. I expect this to probably remain the case for a while.
I certainly don't mind making the bartenders happy, but I have serious game-health concerns about 10% or more of the purse getting tipped out every game. Tonight, that was 95 that other players didn't get to take home and bring back next time Pretty sure the whole purse never cracked 800. It's like having a guaranteed medium/big winner every week who never plays again. (It could also become a point of contention for the bar staff, since now Wednesday shifts are unusually lucrative, but I'm mainly concerned about the game.)
I'm mulling a couple solutions. I feel like scaling back the price of a token to 0.50 would keep the good game dynamic but halve-ish what we're pulling out of the purse, which would be a lot easier to absorb. We could also put a modest cap (40?) and use anything in excess of that to fund replacement equipment and such. Bartenders would still be very happy, and it'd contribute back into the game. We currently use the cards, table toppers, etc. that are funded by the tournament league (that I also run), and it would be fairer to have the cash game covering its wear and tear.
Thoughts? It's an interesting problem to have. I was surprised when I even saw the bomb-pot kitty pass 30. To see it almost crack 100 tonight was nuts. Bigger than most players' stacks all night.
Each buy-in and rebuy comes with a special chip called a bomb-pot token. You redeem a bomb-pot token on your deal to deal a hand of no-limit Omaha, where everyone antes 1 and betting begins on the flop. These tokens can also be bought for 1, and all proceeds get pooled into a tip for the bartender, which is where our problem begins.
Bomb pots are wildly popular and bring amazing action. Even staunch Hold'emites get in on it. It's been one of the most successful innovations I've ever run in a game.
At first, token sales would only bring in 30 or 40 a night, but the past few games we've played, it's been a lot more. Tonight was 95, and the week before that was 73 IIRC. There are logical reasons why it's getting big; we run shorthanded for a while late in the night, and most of the players who stay late also play lots of bomb pots. We have one new player who has tilted this scale significantly and plays all night. I expect this to probably remain the case for a while.
I certainly don't mind making the bartenders happy, but I have serious game-health concerns about 10% or more of the purse getting tipped out every game. Tonight, that was 95 that other players didn't get to take home and bring back next time Pretty sure the whole purse never cracked 800. It's like having a guaranteed medium/big winner every week who never plays again. (It could also become a point of contention for the bar staff, since now Wednesday shifts are unusually lucrative, but I'm mainly concerned about the game.)
I'm mulling a couple solutions. I feel like scaling back the price of a token to 0.50 would keep the good game dynamic but halve-ish what we're pulling out of the purse, which would be a lot easier to absorb. We could also put a modest cap (40?) and use anything in excess of that to fund replacement equipment and such. Bartenders would still be very happy, and it'd contribute back into the game. We currently use the cards, table toppers, etc. that are funded by the tournament league (that I also run), and it would be fairer to have the cash game covering its wear and tear.
Thoughts? It's an interesting problem to have. I was surprised when I even saw the bomb-pot kitty pass 30. To see it almost crack 100 tonight was nuts. Bigger than most players' stacks all night.