Does anyone have any experience with doing poker night rentals in their local area? i’m in college and looking to pick up a side hustle to supplement my income. There’s one company around my area that does poker night rentals for bigger and more formal events. I was thinking about maybe doing rentals for like parties or just regular old get togethers. Figured it’s worth a shoot since i’m going to be buying my own equipment anyways for my home poker games. If you do have experience i’d love to chat!
Yes, I used to offer dealer/game service for the cost of the rake I'd run. for a 1/2 game you could expect between 30 to 60 avg per hr taking min $1 or 10% up to max $5 per hand, generally d do the same for 2/5 and the one game I dealt that was 25/50 I was given a lump sum by the host. I would bring a nice table (when one didn't exist) plastic cards, run the bank, accessory buttons and my chips back then were Paulson Pharaohs that everyone liked. If you deal fast you could possibly make over 100/hr but I rarely did if ever.
Honestly I'd recomend buying a foam machine and doing kids/adults parties spraying soap on the ground or pools for people to play in for 300+/per 2hr party. Faster return on investment and possibly more fun clientele.
advice
---- have more low value chips than you think you'll need to avoid having to open the rake bin before the end of the night. Thus for 1/2 for a 4-5hr session you will need at least 300 better 500-600 $1 and at least 400---800+ $5 chips plus several racks of 25/100 value chips also. Thus you dont need to stress about having to redistribute chips from the rake/tip bin or risk players/host seeing what you are taking home. I have had hosts demand a cut of the rake after previously agreeing to terms of my bringing everything and working that once became quite heated. at the time I had 250-$1's and a few times I needed to open the rake bin early. My current cash sets are built to never have that problem again lol...other times it discourages players from playing/betting knowing someone is making $ on the hand...when its invisible small bites they tend to object less.
---keep you cash bank close, out of sight/access/locked and even possibly attached to you/on your person. Nobody at the event gives a damn about you making a penny, they'd care less if someone stole your cash bin but would still expect you to pay them out for the chips they bought in for, if such theft occured....thus you are responsible and liable so be careful.
---networking is key, keep your mouth shut as to what you overhear and maintain total discretion for you players (no pictures, stories of who was there etc unless wanted). thus as example, if a guy shows up at one game with lady (A) and another game with lady (B) you say hello and carefully introduce yourself for the first time again the second time.....don't out the hosts mistress or &#&$&$$;£€.
---how good are you at being "that guy". Who can get, do or knows who can get things done? To be successful and have repeat business you have to be "that guy"....morals can sometimes limit what you can do for requesting guests, some requests I remember were so illegal. Also dont be surprised if the odd host or party guest becomes very creepy (yourself being a college student).
In short I dont recomend doing it unless you sort of fall into it as a lark of a side gig. Definitely not something to rely on as a steady business.