Trouble finding home game poker players. (2 Viewers)

[Bob7822rm]

I would like any information of how to keep players coming back for home poker tournament? Sone players don’t win and they feel they can’t cash, so they don’t come back. I don’t rake ot anything like that. Then you have a bunch of online players where anyone can host at anytime.

 

[Machine]

I would like any information of how to keep players coming back for home poker tournament? Sone players don’t win and they feel they can’t cash, so they don’t come back. I don’t rake ot anything like that. Then you have a bunch of online players where anyone can host at anytime.

Tell us more about your game / situation.

What game are you playing, what are the blinds? No rake, what about food / drink, how long have you know the guys, what are the professions? What kind of vibe? Is it Match Stack?

 

[buzzmonkey]

Tell us more about your game / situation.

What game are you playing, what are the blinds? No rake, what about food / drink, how long have you know the guys, what are the professions? What kind of vibe? Is it Match Stack?

Also what is the buy-in and regularity? If it's $100 every week people may have a problem justifying that. If it's $20 once a month, that's a lot easier for people to justify tossing away if they're having fun. And the sweet spot may likely be somewhere in between.

 

[4SUMERZ]

When we started to play NLHE at night after a day of championship bowling, we played tournament style with 6 of us. No big deal when someone would bust, they would go back to their room and lick the wounds..lol
Once we started to play at home games together, we began with tournament style, but when guys busted early, it was stick around to watch, or go home.
We decided that we wanted to assure everyone would play all evening, so we reverted to cash games, low stakes, and everyone loved that. We play dealer choice between NL, Pineapple, and Omaha. We have a $25 buy in, .25/.25 blinds, 100 BB. Guys can top up an extra$25 when they get to $5 or less. They can also just top up $10 and up in increments of $5 up to a max or $25.
I have 8 regulars, and 4 guys on the spare list. I seldom have to use my spare list.
No one goes home rich or poor in an evening of social poker.

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

I would like any information of how to keep players coming back for home poker tournament? Sone players don’t win and they feel they can’t cash, so they don’t come back. I don’t rake ot anything like that. Then you have a bunch of online players where anyone can host at anytime.

You said tournament, so I'm going to assume that you are playing a No limit hold'em tournament style home game.

To me, home game tournaments are more social, while cash games are more serious poker. If you just want a fun, social game with some friends, then make sure the buy in is fairly low relative to the player's skills and financial situations. Also, you'll want to provide a comfortable atmosphere, and probably some food and drinks. After the first hour or so, players are busting out of a tournament. What do they do then? Do you have other activities so they want to hang out and socialize, or do they just leave and go home?

Again, my personal opinion - home games are way more fun if it's a cash game rather than a tournament, for the primary reason that if I have slotted 4 or 5 hours out of my schedule to play poker, but then bust out after an hour, I'm pretty disappointed.

 

[Nine_high]

I don't know the answer. But here are some ideas:

• Switch to cash games. No one is forced to leave too early they can just buy in again, and no one is forced to stay too late they can just cash out.
• If sticking with tournaments, allow rebuys and flatten the payout structure a little. Consider adding bounties or a high hand jackpot or something to spread it out more. You can always spread a cash game afterward too if there's time and space.
• Check your stakes: it should be enough to be taken seriously and involve some excitement, but not so much that someone misses a mortgage payment or cancels a vacation if they have a bad night. I try to keep mine somewhere around the dinner tab for 4 at the local Mexican restaurant on Margarita night.
• What is it about your environment that people would want to leave their house and not make other plans so they can come over and play poker? Good food, drinks, music, side activities like a pool table or a game on TV, nice equipment (table/chairs/cards/chips), good people with good vibes, and a game that is well-run

Good luck, enjoy!

 

[Bob7822rm]

Thank you for your input.
It’s a $50 NLH tournament unlimited $40 rebuys first hour and half. Starting stack 5500 in chips. Rebuys 5000 w add on at break. Friendship yes, and 20 minute blinds starting at 10-20 blinds.

I guess there is a lot of competition out there and It seems like they want to hotter own small $15-$20 buyin on online tournaments maybe twice or three times weekly.

Here we play on Thursday w start time of 7:30. It’s just hard to find dedicated players as much as I am. Someone even mentioned doing something like a point system.

 

[Machine]

Do you provide food?
Have you asked if others would rather play a cash game? Sometimes it could be the time commitment.
Have you considered having a tournament with rounds and adding another game in to make it more interesting, or something a little different?
what about bounty buttons?
do you play music? TV on sports? have you considered moving to a different day?

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

Thank you for your input.
It’s a $50 NLH tournament unlimited $40 rebuys first hour and half. Starting stack 5500 in chips. Rebuys 5000 w add on at break. Friendship yes, and 20 minute blinds starting at 10-20 blinds.

I guess there is a lot of competition out there and It seems like they want to hotter own small $15-$20 buyin on online tournaments maybe twice or three times weekly.

Here we play on Thursday w start time of 7:30. It’s just hard to find dedicated players as much as I am. Someone even mentioned doing something like a point system.

If you are absolutely set on tournament play and want a regular game, then yes, you should probably set up a series and a point structure. Don't make it so missing even once is a huge punishment, but definitely have an incentive to play often.

My regular cash game group also does an annual series of 6 tournaments leading up to a year end championship. Buy-in is $60 with $40 going into that night's prize pool, and $20 going towards the championship pool. Rebuys are just $40 with no year end contribution. There are several threads on here where others have laid out the point structure they use and how they handle starting stacks at the championship. The players who earn the most points during the series have the largest starting stack, and there is usually a minimum number of appearances required to qualify.

So you are playing every Thursday night? That is a lot to ask of a bunch of guys. One table, or multiple?

If you are set on playing only tournaments, and playing every week, I would have 4 quarterly series of 10-12 tournaments, leading up to a quarterly championship, and then also have a year end championship.

 

[Taghkanic]

1) If it’s a tourney, have the buy-in low enough that you can allow rebuys, and it doesn’t add up to too much money for those who do.

2) Ditto for tourneys, offer an add-on after 1.5-2 hours so people who get short can last longer.

3) When I ran tourneys, I had a points system, and also reserved a small amount out of every prize pool for a future “bigger” tourney which occurred twice per year. To qualify for the special tourney, you had to have played at least 50% of the games in that cycle. Also, players in the special event got bonuses to their starting stacks based on their performance in that cycle. (If you placed 1/2/3 in any given game, you got extra chips for the special tourney). The buy-in was the same as always, but the reserved money from the previous games in the cycle was added on top as an overlay. So taken all together this created an incentive (a) to show up regularly to qualify and amass bonus chips, and (b) to play for a bigger prize twice a year.

4) Bounty chips sometimes help to spread money in tourneys around to more players. Typically, the winner will have the most bounties. But for someone who doesn’t cash, getting a small about back because they earned a bounty or two before busting helps lessen the blow.

5) Whether you switch to cash or not, maybe lower the game frequency to twice a month or once a month, so that it is more special for people.

6) Consider adding some fun incentives like a high hand jackpot which can give hope to the lower-performing players. This can either be made hard to achieve (quads+ using two cards) so that it builds up pretty big over multiple games, or just the highest hand of the night.