Cash Game What's your attendance like? (1 Viewer)

[krafticus]

I'm curious of how you built that up over the years. And how you do communication for that. I don't have any intention of hosting 40 people, but I'd like to build up to running 2 tables consistently.

My game has been running 17 years now, and it started with a few buddies and such. Met some people in free bar poker (like @Chippy McChiperson ) and a bunch from CT & PCF. Then it became friends and friends of friends. My invite list is 90 deep, and average between 30-36 per month. I do a monthly tournament, with a cash game that follows.

I used to use evite, but now I use the invite tracker that’s in the resources section here. I hear it’s a good game, which helps keep bringing people back

 

[TheYeti]

I've actually started to become worried about the health of my game lately. My invite list has shrunk from around 30 to 13 over the last couple of years.

Since right after Covid, I've been lucky enough to get a full table of 10 every time and haven't missed a single month in over 4 years, but it is almost always the same group of 10 regs. If one or two of those guys were to stop playing for any reason, there's a good chance I'd be short a player or two for any future games since I only have 2-3 "fallback" players.

Every once in awhile I will get a new player brought in by a reg, but I've only had one of those become a reg in the last two years. I really need to get serious about recruiting, I worry that I need a much larger pool if my game is to survive the long-haul.

 

[thePokerClub]

For my group I run a tournament club with a season league format so that I can incentivize engagement (participation) and make that a component of season performance.

I have a list of about 25 that I pull from and about 18 show up for my events on average depending on schedules.

I think that if it were a cash game, I would deal with more attendance-related issues but I rarely do.

Have you thought of somehow taking a 'rake' of sorts (small) that goes into a pool that the group can try to qualify to play for? Think about how you can attach points to certain things and then create some kind of LeaderBoard.

Just spitballing. You could have points for:

• Participation
• Knockouts
• Hours played
• % in profit at the end of the session
• Referrals

 

[PlaidDragon]

What's your attendance like?​

I get between 16 to 25 for my games, but they are tourney.

However, a cash game breaks out every time when enough people are eliminated from the former, which usually ends up being 6 to 9 players... running to 2-3am.

 

[Huskerchipper]

In 2025 I averaged around 18-19 player's for my monthly tournament. Smallest i believe was 14-15 player's, biggest month was 25 player's. Always actively recruiting!!

 

[thePokerClub]

In 2025 I averaged around 18-19 player's for my monthly tournament. Smallest i believe was 14-15 player's, biggest month was 25 player's. Always actively recruiting!!

What are casinos and local games like where you are in Nebraska? Does that impact your attendance in any way?

I am local to many many options and I also run a monthly tournament with similar attendance to you.

 

[arenowebdev]

Year end review for me. I run cash and tournaments about once every six weeks outside of the summer. I'll probably squeeze in one more cash game before the end of the year and will probably get a full table again.

Full thanks needs to go to Chris Manzoni's videos for structure help for both tournaments and cash games and to my wife for actually getting on board with hosting these things and playing in all the tournaments and most of the cash games, even though she doesn't love poker near as much as me.

Tournaments

Our tournaments are very much a social event with maybe ten real poker players in the group. Funnily enough the majority of them get coolered almost always by the beginners and I can do nothing but laugh....and take second and at best so far. Makes for a great dynamic though when the good players are afraid of the beginners

--- only allowed a single rebuy per player until first break with $25 entry

March - 20 players (8 rebuys) $200ish for first
April - 21 players (8 rebuys) $300ish for first
June - 21 players (3 rebuys) $300ish for first

--- moved to unlimited rebuys until first break, and $40 entry

October - 22 players (15 rebuys) $500ish for first
December - 30 players (10 rebuys) $500ish for first

All signs are pointing to always having thirty players now as word of mouth is getting out. I guess I'm doing things right One of the guys joked I'll need a fourth table soon

Cash games
All cash games took a lot of invitation stroking but all got a full table, which I'm not sure I'm in love with. Lots of action with a few guys not rebuying which is slightly annoying but I get it. Started with $50 capped buy-in but bumped up to $60 for October on, which we will stick with. Still capping rebuys at same max buy in, but may start allowing match the stack as most of the group doesn't like short stack play when there is a bigger stack involved.

We played $0.25/0.50 NLHE mostly but did get to throw in other games that we (probably dumbly) also played NL like Crazy Pineapple and Omaha.

April 10 players
August 10 players
October 10 players
November 10 players

I'd like to expand cash games a bit with a high hand jackpot or something but not sure what direction for that yet. We always got one guy extremely hooked on poker after getting him to a cash game. He is easily my faster RSVP out of the entire group now and I can't be more proud of it

---

Goals for next year are to continue the three table (I own one table plus a large table with a roll out mat and one of my guys bought the same table as me [barrington-like] and let me hang on to it at my place) tournaments but expand technology wise to assist with invitation management (yes I'm aware of InviteTracker) and buy some dang Mirage Tina's already

Thanks for reading. Absolutely love reading up how you all do things and it has really shaped my games.

 

[Huskerchipper]

What are casinos and local games like where you are in Nebraska? Does that impact your attendance in any way?

I am local to many many options and I also run a monthly tournament with similar attendance to you.

I live in a town of about 60,000. We had a $200 million dollar casino with a poker room open this April in town. I am the Marketing Manager there actually. Anyways, the poker room there isn't great as the Manager that runs it honestly couldn't be worse. Worst. Hire. Ever. Let's just say the poker room is quite unappealing for most.

There is another pretty well known game in town on Wednesday nights. Quite a bit of money flies around there and 95% of my players have no interest in playing there, but I have a couple of my players that go down there occasionally. There's also a Thursday night group that I know of, a couple of their players have started to play in my game. I have had my game since around 2000 so alot of players have come and gone.