Graduation Party Ideas and Suggestions (1 Viewer)

[Hairy_Crocodile]

Hey all!

My younger sister graduated high school this year, and my mother is throwing her graduation party in a week. She informed me that she wanted a Great Gatsby themed night and wanted to have a fun "Casino" night for the kids.

My mother asked if I could run a poker table (Which I will probably run as a "cash" game). We would also have a blackjack table, and some others. My mother is looking for ideas for games, prizes, etc and I have never done anything like this before... so I need help figuring out how the best I can help her.

Would the kind people of PCF be willing to toss some ideas around with me? She is doing her best to plan this, but I see that there's alot of "I have this idea" thing going, but not the best planning past that as we are a week away and still figuring out things. I wish I knew about this sooner.

So far here are the few details I have so far:

1. ~30-40 kids expected at most, invitation states that +1's are allowed. From what Ive been told, that number includes +1's
2. We will need at least one person per game running it and we should have enough family members to do so. We even have a bartender making fake drinks for the kids too.
3. The games that are locked in, and/or have been suggested

• Texas Hold Em
• Black Jack
• Tenzie (A dice rolling game my mom loves. Maybe the teenagers will get a kick out of the fast paced game)
• The horse racing game I keep seeing on the forum (I kinda wanna buy it for my home game too tbh)
• Plinko (the peg board where you drop a ball or puck and it goes down the pegs into one of a few slots at the bottom)

How should we do prizes? Should we have some things at the end that people can use points to "bid" on at the end? Should we do prizing with whoever the top X people have the most points? What is the most fair, but exciting way to make it interesting?

What "stakes" should I do for the games? I can use my old cheapo 2 table tournament set and add onto it to accomidate all the games. Maybe start the kids out with the same amount and let them choose games?

• Poker could be 25/50 "Cash"
• Blackjack could be 25 minimum bet maybe
• Tenzie could be an ante game and the winner of the round gets the pot
• The horse game I need to look up the rules again. Maybe the ante would be 100 or something
• Plinko could be "X" amount cost to drop a puck or ball in the game and the prizes are at the bottom with 1 big jackpot sort of slot?

Since its ~30 people attending, I assume 4-5 games is more than enough for all of them to enjoy?

These are all rough ideas Ive thought about the last few minutes as I type this, I hope I can have a more coherent plan and suggestions by tomorrow so I can help set everything up with my family.

Thank you all for reading, I duly appreciate your time. I hope get to learn some things and help make this night a blast for the kids!

 

[raynmanas]

i would keep it all as simple as possible - these are high school kids, they probably don't understand or care about the nuances of most gambling games. and honestly, it might be blasphemy in this forum, but i personally would ditch hold'em for this kind of party, but that's tough to do if it was specifically requested. it is not really conducive to jumping in and out, and it's kind of an anti-social game (i.e. those at the table don't socialize with anyone not at the table). maybe a table game like 3-card poker or ultimate hold'em would make more sense.

blackjack probably works.

the horse race game is a pretty decent idea, but even better for high school kids (and cheaper) is LCR, and it's also a nice stand-in for craps, and literally everyone can play at once.

a money wheel is a nice simple stand-in for roulette.

plinko is a great idea too - do you actually have a plinko board??

 

[tabletalker7]

If holdem was mentioned I would run a tournament. But instead of buyins becoming the prize pool, use the money from buyins to put bounties on the adults - knock out a grown up and get paid in the process!

 

[Hairy_Crocodile]

i would keep it all as simple as possible - these are high school kids, they probably don't understand or care about the nuances of most gambling games. and honestly, it might be blasphemy in this forum, but i personally would ditch hold'em for this kind of party, but that's tough to do if it was specifically requested. it is not really conducive to jumping in and out, and it's kind of an anti-social game (i.e. those at the table don't socialize with anyone not at the table). maybe a table game like 3-card poker or ultimate hold'em would make more sense.

blackjack probably works.

the horse race game is a pretty decent idea, but even better for high school kids (and cheaper) is LCR, and it's also a nice stand-in for craps, and literally everyone can play at once.

a money wheel is a nice simple stand-in for roulette.

plinko is a great idea too - do you actually have a plinko board??

Very good suggestions, thank you so much for your your input

We are considering building a large plinko board out of some big sections of peg board we have at the house.

 

[Hairy_Crocodile]

If holdem was mentioned I would run a tournament. But instead of buyins becoming the prize pool, use the money from buyins to put bounties on the adults - knock out a grown up and get paid in the process!

I don't think the family wants money to be involved, but having a bounty on adults would be hilarious. I'll try and find some incentives for bounties for the kids. That sounds hilarious if we stick with hold em!

 

[upNdown]

I wonder if there's a better game for a party than holdem. When playing holdem properly, you're not playing more than half the time. I know most of these kids won't know how to play it properly - most of them probably won't know how to play it at all. And though it seems like such a simple game to us, it really isn't. The betting structure can be pretty confusing at first.
If you're just looking to keep 8 or 9 kids busy for a few hours, maybe you'll have 8 or 9 in that party who know how to play or will learn quickly. But if you're looking to rotate people on and off tables and give everybody a chance, I don't know if holdem is a great idea.

 

[tabletalker7]

I don't think the family wants money to be involved, but having a bounty on adults would be hilarious. I'll try and find some incentives for bounties for the kids. That sounds hilarious if we stick with hold em!

It's how I taught my kids the game, and now my daughter has her own home game peeps once a month! It could be a lot of fun

 

[TheDuke]

Mimic what works in real life in terms of entertaining crowds. Simple but fun.

Craps
Roulette

Need the tables for each. But there are casino night rental companies.

Poker is an individual game and not really conducive in terms of a large group having fun.