Tips on finding pleasant players? (1 Viewer)

Yep. I didn't used to appreciate this, and I'd insist on structuring all NLHE games with deep (at least 200 BB) max stacks by default.

Turns out that's not always as optimal as you might think. Despite my reservations about how annoying short-stack poker can be, sometimes the 40 BB donk-a-thon is the superior structure for the long run.
Meh, personally I don’t like it. I host different nights, different stakes instead. Having at least 200-300bbs is just way more fun.

I do see the advantage for the casual player though, but I’d just sooner go with tournaments in that case
200 BBs would be fine by me if we were playing nickel / dime blinds, which happens to be MY preferred stakes. But a lot of players like the one's in Eric's game probably wouldn't play if the stakes were that low. For them, even .25 / .50 is probably lower than they like. But his structure allows them to rebuy or top off to higher levels as more money starts to accumulate on the table. And it allows poor little me to play conservatively and stay within my limits. Basically, this lets people who want to play differently or want to stay within a budget play with others who want to play bigger. If everyone in the game is good with 200 BBs, then so be it, but I assume at some point in the past Eric came up with his 80BB approach for good reason. It was already in place when I joined his game earlier this year.

If he had invited me, and told me that the buy-in was $100, I would have just said thanks, and passed on joining. But I'm really glad that wasn't the case, because I think it's been good for my game to play with these more experienced players and the splashy gambler types. I've learned a lot since I joined this group, and my game play is getting better. So if everyone in your game is about the same level, then yeah, just adjust your blinds so your buy-in is 200 BBs. But if you want to bring in lesser experienced players to grow your group, or to start a new one with players of various levels, then the shallower buy-in approach is a good one.

Since this thread is about trying to get a new group of players together, and they may include players with different thoughts on what stakes they want to play, I think it's an appropriate suggestion.
 
I agree with Jimulacrum, about places to find players. I did a Meetup list for my game one time. It was several years ago. One month I only had 10, so I sent out a Meetup invite 2 days before the game. 7 new people came. However, it almost destroyed my game. I got a lot of negative feedback from the 9 regulars who were there. These are some comments I remember.
  • If this is the route you are going, count me out.
  • Those players didn't fit in well with our group. (Really meant 2 or 3 specific players)
  • 2 were anti-social. (1 was kind of a jerk. The other was asocial -- just didn't communicate, but didn't really do anything offensive and didn't create any issues.
A couple of good things came out of it. I did pick up a player or two that were worth having. One player who I played in his game was open to trying to merge our two groups, but still keep 2 separate games. We had some success with that.

After that, I decided that a game short of players but with regulars beat a regular size game with unknowns.

One player was overheard on a phone conversation referring to our game as a cheap poker game. I don't think the guy was offensive at all, and there are a lot of ways to construe the comment. I was one of 3 people that overheard the comment. The other two were really bothered by it, though I was not.

I've had good luck with PCF players. Several have come to my game, and I can say I've not had a negative experience with them and haven't ever gotten complaints from regulars.

You might be able to recruit from bar leagues. Just remember those are typically run by someone doing it as a business, so if you pose any threat to their players coming and making them money, those hosts are not going to like you at all.

When you go to games, be a good guest. Help the host. Be the kind of guest you would like to have at your games.
 
A couple of good things came out of [the Meetup experiment]. I did pick up a player or two that were worth having. One player who I played in his game was open to trying to merge our two groups, but still keep 2 separate games. We had some success with that.



You might be able to recruit from bar leagues.

It's not that you can't recruit from Meetup, bar leagues, or even public cardrooms. There are usually at least a few players in all of these crowds that could be a good fit for a home game.

But man, it's a gamble, and not the fun kind. Once you've got an established game, you could get away with cherry-picking the best players from these circles to fill seats, but building a whole game from these low-quality sources is unlikely to be successful.

When you go to games, be a good guest. Help the host. Be the kind of guest you would like to have at your games.

Seconded. A little bit of good will goes a long way, and other hosts can be a portal to a whole new world of poker.

Everyone I've known who hosts regularly also plays regularly at other hosts' games, or can at least get people into other games. The trick is to be the kind of player that hosts want.
 

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