Tourney New to PCF! New to hosting poker nights! (1 Viewer)

[Silco]

Good afternoon,

I have recently gotten into poker and have convinced most of my friends to learn the game as well. I'm hosting my first poker night this saturday and would love some tips!

Let me tell you guys what I purchased for this poker night, I have no idea if I underbought or went overboard. We also are still debating about whether to play a tournament or cash game.

The poker chip breakdowns are:
50 x $5000
75 x $1000
75 x $500
100 x $100
100 x $25
100 x $5
200 x $1
200 x .25c

Also have 5 x $10,000 that was thrown in for free when I bought them. There are currently 8 of us and at the most it would be 9. I'd appreciate any tips or guidance in regards about which to play and also structures for them as well, thank you!

 

[Kentucky]

Welcome.

The first thing you need to decide is the buy in - people here talk about cheese burger stakes - what’s the amount you would spend on a night out? You want to have fun, not lose friends. Pitch it at a level where losing/winning 2 or 3 buy ins won’t be life changing.

Cash is probably easier to get started - you don’t need to worry about structures and add ons, etc. just make the chips add up to the right amount. But there’s plenty of tournament advice on here if you want to go that way.

Check out this thread for set breakdown advice.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/poker-set-selection-tool.74208/

 

[improviseallday]

The poker chip breakdowns are:
50 x $5000
75 x $1000
75 x $500
100 x $100
100 x $25
100 x $5
200 x $1
200 x .25c

Buying another rack of $5s would make you ready for $0.25/$0.25 or $0.25/$0.50. At 100BB that's $75 or $150 for people who lose 3 buy-ins. If that's too much for your group, you can consider buying some $0.05 or NCV (no cash value) chips and trying $0.05/$0.10.

 

[Silco]

Welcome.

The first thing you need to decide is the buy in - people here talk about cheese burger stakes - what’s the amount you would spend on a night out? You want to have fun, not lose friends. Pitch it at a level where losing/winning 2 or 3 buy ins won’t be life changing.

Cash is probably easier to get started - you don’t need to worry about structures and add ons, etc. just make the chips add up to the right amount. But there’s plenty of tournament advice on here if you want to go that way.

Check out this thread for set breakdown advice.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/poker-set-selection-tool.74208/

Buying another rack of $5s would make you ready for $0.25/$0.25 or $0.25/$0.50. At 100BB that's $75 or $150 for people who lose 3 buy-ins. If that's too much for your group, you can consider buying some $0.05 or NCV (no cash value) chips and trying $0.05/$0.10.

Thanks so much for the input!

I believe that most of us would be comfortable with $20 dollar buy ins. We are mostly still new so this is a comfortable level where losing a couple buy ins won't break us.

 

[Tonysquander]

Welcome to PCF!

 

[allforcharity]

For tournament, you can use your $25 and up chips.

8 players get 12xT25, 12xT100, 5xT500, and 6xT1000 (a.k.a. 12/12/5/6) for starting stack of 10,000
9-10 players use 8/8/6/6 for the same stack
2x T5000 for rebuys

Check out the tournament thread for blind structures suitable for this that usually start 25/50

 

[Kentucky]

You could do $20 buy in tournaments or
.25/.25 blinds would work OK off a $20 stack, or
buy (or nominate) a .05 chip and do .1/.25 or .05/.1 blinds.

 

[surfik]

it sucks to host....you going to love it

 

[iLogik]

I do 20$ buy ins .25/50, but recently we started doing 40$ buy ins .50/1. Good luck and welcome!

 

[Timmah]

Welcome!

At our home game we start out with a $60 tournament. It usually goes for 2 hours or so. Then we play a dealers choice cash game. We play all kind of fun/stupid games like screw you neighbor, in between, good old 5 card draw, 7 card stud, etc. Sometimes we even do a round of blackjack. You're not going to get rich at our game. We get together to have fun.

 

[exodus]

If your group is comfortable with $20 buyins for cash games I would start with 25c/25c blinds. $20 will get you 80 big blinds which is sufficient enough to play decent poker without it being a shove fest. Personally, I only run cash games now that my group doesn't like tournaments too much. This is because you can rebuy whenever you want in a cash game and it keeps people engaged the whole time. If you're running a tournament, when it gets down to 2-3 people, the others are mostly waiting around not playing. But try alternating between both formats to find out what your group prefers to play.

 

[BigJackJones]

Welcome to PCF. You are going to read a lot of things on here. Some of them, you will understand right away. Some you will have to read a few times and ask questions. Try not to get overwhelmed like you need to know it all at once.

The most important question is: Do you have a hot dog roller for your game?

 

[exodus]

Here is a great post to start reading for tourney threads. @BGinGA is amazing.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...-lots-of-little-questions.67298/#post-1350844

 

[ValueTown]

Do what you want. There is great advice out there but never know what works best for your crew until you try it. Best part, newbies won't know the difference.
I typically offer cheap snacks and let others know they're welcome to bring something but not required.
Get some copag cards, they're worth it.
Have fun!

 

[jamesjkim]

A cash game is probably more beginner friendly. For $20 buy in, 0.25/0.25 probably makes the most sense since you’ll have a decent starting stack (80 BBs).

Tournament would be a bit more confusing for beginners - blind structure, increasing blinds at a set frequency, chips don’t equate to cash value, etc.

You don’t want to scare em all off from the get go! Good luck.