What do you like in the background? Music? Movie? Nothing? (1 Viewer)

[Poker Zombie]

Music. If there is a major game on (playoff or championship involving a "local" team) I will put the game on one of the TVs used to display the payout structure, but the sound will still be music.

- Most of whatever music I have that mentions gambling and/or money

I love this!!

Does anyone have a spotify playlist that they would be willing to share?

For the first hour or two, I play Poker/Zombie related music from Spotify. However, it only has 85 tracks, and I dont want the same music every single game, so I do not play it all night long.

For the rest of the night, I use a different Spotify playlist. It ranges from Blues ,to Jazz, to vocalists, to rock. There's even some Rap, country, and metal in there. The connecting factor, is that it is mellow. We call it the Martini Lounge, and it has received high praise. The biggest compliment was at the Icelandic meet-up, when I met an actual poker professional that follows the playlist and listens to it while playing poker. :

On the occasions when we have a bounty on someone, we have a special playlist for that night too. This one is more divisive (love it or hate it), but is the player with the bounty is eliminated, we go back to the Martini Lounge.

One night, we used the blind structure from the (now defunct) Treasure Island poker room, so we loaded the soundtrack with pirate music. Again divisive, and it was proof positive that aggressive music leads to aggressive play.

 

[Trihonda]

Music most definitely. It’s a party after all... often times the classic rock station on the radio or I have Apple Music (and they have several channels that appeal to a great number of my players.

I try to avoid anything visually distracting. Movies and sports tend to slow the action quite a bit. Sure it’s something to look at when not in a hand, but almost always folks doing so need prompting when the action is back on the them..

 

[rjbf65]

80’s and 90’s era country music is my favorite.

There is a national radio show on Saturday nights called “Saturday Country Gold”. Plays pretty much 70’s - 90’s era country. Sometimes our crew will make side bets on which year the song playing was released.

I also like sports playing but I do admit it is distracting. Music is best in my opinion. Not too loud, just enough to provide background noise.

 

[CdnBeerLover]

We normally play on Saturday nights, so it's usually the NHL double-header, followed by music. Stingray Music...the Maximum Party or Classic Rock channels. Both work. I haven't really looked too hard at Spotify.

Tracks include:
...
- Some instrumental music from James Bond soundtracks
- A generous peppering of tunes from Frank Sinatra and the rest of the rat pack, including live Vegas performances
- Jazz numbers from Miles Davis and the like
- Most of whatever music I have that mentions gambling and/or money
- A few of Ella Fitzgerald’s Cole Porter numbers

While that list would appeal to me, it likely wouldn't work for the vast majority of our players.

 

[CraigT78]

I like strippers in the background. I can't believe I'm the only one.

 

[Coyote]

I like strippers in the background. I can't believe I'm the only one.

I only like strippers in the foreground.

 

[TexRex]

We usually play country on one of the Nashville options on Dish. That's really my wife's preference. If it was up to me, it would be at least partly classical, movie tunes, and then a wide mix of stuff.

 

[TexRex]

Zombie, I wish I'd had your pirate music for our October pirate night! That's pretty cool.

 

[v1pe]

Music. If there is a major game on (playoff or championship involving a "local" team) I will put the game on one of the TVs used to display the payout structure, but the sound will still be music.



For the first hour or two, I play Poker/Zombie related music from Spotify. However, it only has 85 tracks, and I dont want the same music every single game, so I do not play it all night long.

For the rest of the night, I use a different Spotify playlist. It ranges from Blues ,to Jazz, to vocalists, to rock. There's even some Rap, country, and metal in there. The connecting factor, is that it is mellow. We call it the Martini Lounge, and it has received high praise. The biggest compliment was at the Icelandic meet-up, when I met an actual poker professional that follows the playlist and listens to it while playing poker. :

On the occasions when we have a bounty on someone, we have a special playlist for that night too. This one is more divisive (love it or hate it), but is the player with the bounty is eliminated, we go back to the Martini Lounge.

One night, we used the blind structure from the (now defunct) Treasure Island poker room, so we loaded the soundtrack with pirate music. Again divisive, and it was proof positive that aggressive music leads to aggressive play.

Definitely going to steal from this playlist!

 

[JustinInMN]

We will usually watch NFL or local sports. A lot of players have other action and interest.

Otherwise I like just doing music over movies/tv, just too distracting. That said I remember in college I have a friend that hosted games while we watched Chappelle and Fresh Prince DVDs. That was pretty cool.

But sports or music for me.

 

[Venturalvn]

Either the hockey game or music. I've put on Rounders a couple times, but there's a couple of us who can quote the movie line for line, and the rest start zoning out to watch it.

I put on some WPT and some RunItUp on Twitch last time, which was not really that bothersome. For the most part though classic rock is the regular option.

 

[SendThatStack]

Yeah you have to be really careful about imposing your own musical proclivities on your fellow friends/poker players. I just try to pick timeless stuff - the best of each decade, for example - Beatles, Bee Gees, The Police, Green Day, Bruno Mars, etc. - the stuff everyone enjoys, or at least can tolerate because it's good.

Did you just say Bruno Mars and timeless in the same sentence? Game would have to be insanely juicy for me to put up with Bruno.

 

[Lemonzest]

I usually just have Brokeback Mountain running on repeat.

 

[markleteenie]

I usually have music, but cast to the TV, so people can see song title and artist, or sports. I find that movies can be too distracting for people who haven't seen it, but want to.

 

[joepro]

Yup muted tv (closed captioning ON) with sports or ESPN and music (90s alternative) playing.

With all the graphics and scrolling news and updates on during games, I never use closed captioning. Nobody cares what the announcers are saying anyway.

 

[72o]

With all the graphics and scrolling news and updates on during games, I never use closed captioning. Nobody cares what the announcers are saying anyway.

That works great if you play fantasy sports I guess but I like to catch some shit about what I’m watching.

 

[DoubleEagle]

Football, basketball or baseball, with the volume very low or off. People that want to listen to music bring their headphones.

 

[Daddy N]

If it's a tourney I put the blinds timer up on the one TV in the area.

Do you have a presentation with these timers or just a random video?

 

[v1pe]

Do you have a presentation with these timers or just a random video?

I use "The Tournament Director" software. I just use a ChromeCast to cast the laptop screen to the TV which is easily viewable by all.

 

[Mr. Cheese]

I usually just do music. I've found that play slows considerably when a movie is on. Even a movie I know everyone has seen like 5 times before.

 

[Anthony Martino]

I haven't hosted in years but when I did I had tried tv or a movie playing low or with the sound off, but it didn't really garner much attention and if it did it would slow the game down/distract players.

I tried music as well, but we had a pretty diverse cast of characters and there's always one person who doesn't like the music selected.

Fortunately our games were pretty animated with conversation, so I wound up just sticking with the tv occupied by the tournament clock and blind level and the group kept itself entertained with discussions while playing the game and it always seemed to work out just fine.

 

[SeanGecko]

Entire play list called poker tunes - Black Keys, Sturgil Simpson, shakey Grave, KOL, Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Super Fly, Bill Withers, Booker T and the MG's, Foo Fighters, Muddy Waters, Hozier, Patrick Sweany, SRV, Jim Croce, Johnny CASH, Junior Brown, Artic Monkeys, and stuff from Tarantino soundtracks.

 

[Timmy501]

One of my guys has a subscription to the UFC, so we usually put a pay per view on. If not that, then sports. If not that, then one of the live concerts I have on the DVR.

Second that! Most of the night we just rewind when we hear the announcers going crazy. We tend to take breaks when there's a good fight going on and for the main events. Sometimes we play to the wee hours of the morning, so after UFC there's a few movies we tend to play OVER and OVER and OVER again, LOL. For some reason a couple our our players are infatuated with Quentin Tarantino. Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2.

Did I mention, OVER and OVER and OVER again.

 

[Anthony Martino]

For some reason a couple our our players are infatuated with Quentin Tarantino. Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2.

Say Call Again Motherfucka!!!!!!

 

[ThinkingFold]

Have the Amazon Echo playing music. House rule is you win two hands in a row and you get to tell Alexa what to play.

 

[luv2breformed]

We do music as well, basically whatever I'm fancying at the time. Often rap/hip hop. I feel like a movie would be way too distracting, primarily for me.

 

[trivialpiper]

music....anything on TV will distract players and guarantee a night of "....action is to you..."

 

[nostalgiccat]

Depends on who I'm playing with. If I'm playing with a sportsy group on a sunday, then definitely I'll put on NFL streams. Otherwise, I usually just cast some music from my google home on a quieter setting so people can think.

 

[hex]

I prefer music but sports is good to, sometimes it slows the game down if its a big game but its better then just hearing chips shuffle.

 

[Jimulacrum]

I prefer music. Almost any kind of music as long as it's not obnoxious.

Not a fan of sports, so IDGAF one way or another if there's a game on the TV. However, I do realize that poker is inundated with sports people, so sports on the TV is probably a good thing for overall enjoyment and keeping people in the gambling spirit.