Thoughts on late cancellations and no shows? (1 Viewer)

I will second the thought of having rules that encourage the behavior you would like. Our game is a fun game first and foremost, so penalties are out of the question.

We didn't have so much trouble with no-shows, but we did have trouble starting the tournament on time so we added an "Early Bird Bonus" similar to what was mentioned earlier ITT. If you arrived at or before the scheduled start, you received a bonus in chips.It has worked wonders for getting guys to the table and ready to play at the start time.

In league play, if we were no-showed to a point where we don't have enough players for a "league game" (5 or less) we take the available points for a game with the number of previously confirmed players, divide that evenly and award the points to the players that did show up and fire up a cash game. We'll move on to the next game on the schedule from there.
 
Is this really an issue? I would hate to be obligated to stay if I'm hemorrhaging money. I would hate to tell a friend that they are my captive for the next 3 hours, if they leave I will have to ban them.

If your game is always full with a waiting list, you might want to add a second table.

If your game is often (but not always) full, you might want to invite the early withdraw player last.

If your game is occasionally full, you might want to keep that player anyway - 1/2 a chair is better than an empty chair.

If your game rarely fills, banning a player (or requiring a player to sit longer than they would like) is detrimental to your game.

If your game is already short handed and an early exit breaks the game - isn't some poker better than no poker?
Haha! I assure you no one feels like they're a captive. Like I said, we often play past the minimum. Typically, the players who cash out when 11 PM hits are normally the big winners. The one's who are stuck usually hang on longer to try to break even.

That's just how my home game has always been, so I can't say it was an issue before with people leaving after winning a huge pot. However, I can say that it hasn't been an issue thus far by making players stay until a certain time. It's probably attributed to the fact that we're all friends and don't mind kicking it for a few hours - even losing money to each other. From my perspective, it hurts my game immensely if someone played just a few hands, got lucky and won big, then immediately left. That's not fun for everyone else. The point is to have fun together first, then try to win some money while at it.

Unfortunately, I don't have the extra space for a second table (nor enough players to justify it). There are 12 on the invite list. I invite 9 initially, then wait to see who confirms before inviting the other 1-3. The game is always 7-10 players after it shakes out. If the first 9 players confirm, the other 3 aren't offended by not being invited.

I disagree with your last point... I'd rather postpone the game to the next week to have more players than play for just an hour or so with a small table and have it break up. It takes some work to host a game (cleaning the house, making sure the kids are settled on time, setting up the table, etc.) People come out to drink, play cards, and have fun -- not to play for an hour then have to leave.
 

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