Where are all the Online - Micro stakes - Hold'em Players? (1 Viewer)

TX_Golf_N_Poker

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I know - I talk (write) too much. Skip to the bottom for the TL;DR version:

I know there are a bunch of guys here on PCF who have set up online poker rooms through Poker Mavens, or other software. I think I have joined at least three of them. But what I found is that the majority of players on these sites either prefer to play $0.25/0.50 blinds and up, or prefer to play PLO, PLO5 Hi/Lo or other PLO variants, or mixed games. I like a little PLO every once in a while, but not every night. Call me what you want, but I just prefer Hold'em. And I also prefer micro stakes, just because I'm really not into playing for significant money all the time. I mostly play to relax and have fun. I can have just as much fun and excitement with $20 in front of me as I can with $200.

So with that in mind, I hit up a few of my friends and relatives that I know like to play poker, and I set up my own Poker Mavens site. Then I also invited a few PCF members that I know fairly well. We have 14 members right now. But many of them only play once or twice a month, and a couple seem to have gone completely AWOL after the first month or so. Thus, the purpose for this post. We have about 4-6 of us who want to play semi-regular. A couple of them, and me, will play just about any time there's a game. A couple more want to play once or twice a week. We typically play between about 8-11PM Central time. Honestly, I think if we had more players, and more regular games, some of the others would play more often too. And we could expand the time of playing. It's just a catch-22. Nobody wants to play when there are only 2-3 players, And there are rarely more than 2-3 players because, well, there just aren't, so players will log in, see that nobody else, or maybe one player is logged in, then log back out, instead of sticking around or contacting the group to see if anyone else wants to join in.

When I first started the group, I said let's play at least two nights a week, and have a tournament on Saturday night. We settled on Tuesday and Thursday for a nickel / dime cash game. Max buy-in $30. Min $5. Then at 9 PM Central on Saturday night we have a Tournament scheduled with a $16 buy-in. I also created a private group page on the Band app for communication within the group. On any other night anyone is welcome to post a notice if they are looking to play. But it's ended up with mostly me doing all the posting, because I'm a degen, and I want to play almost every night...

Now I don't want you to think the site is dead and dying. We've definitely had some good nights where we get 6-7 in a cash game, and I believe we once had 8 for the Saturday tournament. But I'd like to have that kind of turnout 3-4 nights a week, or even 6-7! And I would LOVE to see enough players for a multi table tournament! Another 3-4 regular players would probably push us over the top. So if regular micro stakes Texas Hold'em sounds like something you've been looking for too, you have come to the right place. Feel free to ask questions here, or PM me and lets see if we're a fit.

TL;DR I created my own Poker Mavens site because I couldn't find regular micro stakes Texas Hold'em games. But I need a few more players to help keep it going. Post here or PM me if you'd be interested in joining our group.
 
One other thing. My site is not "fancy" like Windy Crest or some of the others. Not yet. But I am planning to get custom table / room graphics fairly soon. Just need a few more players first to justify the expense.
 
Online overload is a thing. Perhaps if you scaled back to two nights per week instead of three (or even down to once a week), you might find some of the not so regular players would commit and play more regularly.

Then again maybe they wouldn’t. Some degens are happy to play at the drop of a hat, but some people (or their wives) have a hard time with playing every other night.

Maybe ask some of the non regulars what it would take to get them to play more regularly.

Best of luck with growing your game!
 
Online overload is a thing. Perhaps if you scaled back to two nights per week instead of three (or even down to once a week), you might find some of the not so regular players would commit and play more regularly.

Then again maybe they wouldn’t. Some degens are happy to play at the drop of a hat, but some people (or their wives) have a hard time with playing every other night.

Maybe ask some of the non regulars what it would take to get them to play more regularly.

Best of luck with growing your game!
Thanks. I appreciate the suggestions. Tried them all. The problem with specifically limiting games to a couple nights a week is everyone has a different schedule. I've tried polling the players for their input. crickets. They want to play when they want to, and they don't when they don't. The only solution I can come up with is more players.

Even though I try to promote one or two nights a week, we will often have a booming game on one of the other nights, like Monday, or Friday. Then the following week it will be a different night. There is no predictability.
 
How many are you getting for the monthly live tournament? Do those play in your mavens games?
 
How many are you getting for the monthly live tournament? Do those play in your mavens games?
The tournament is scheduled for every Saturday. I won't let it start with less than 4. I have a couple guys who work evenings who come in late, so I have a fairly long late registration period. It's usually 5-7 plus rebuys. And some weeks there are not enough so it doesn't happen. That's another reason I want more members, so it will run every week, and get more like 8-12 players.

PM me your email and I will send you detailed signup info.
 
I'm turning in. If anyone else is interested, PM me your email address and I will get back with you in the morning. Plenty of time if you want to try us out in the Saturday night tournament at 9 PM Central.
 
Just saw the thread. I too prefer the microstakes, because Poker for me is for fun... money just keeps it honest. For the same reason I prefer tournaments where chipstack preservation is a thing.

My work schedule will keep me out most evenings, but if you are still keeping this alive I may be able to occasionally provide an extra seat filler.
 
The only online holdem im interest in is tournaments, and preferably more than one table. Hit me up when you’ve got one going.
 
Just saw the thread. I too prefer the microstakes, because Poker for me is for fun... money just keeps it honest. For the same reason I prefer tournaments where chipstack preservation is a thing.

My work schedule will keep me out most evenings, but if you are still keeping this alive I may be able to occasionally provide an extra seat filler.
Happy to have you even if it is just occasionally. PM me your email and I will send you the signup info.
 
The only online holdem im interest in is tournaments, and preferably more than one table. Hit me up when you’ve got one going.
I hear ya man. That's my goal as well, to get up to a two table tournament at least once a week. PM me and I can put you on my interested list and will let you know when we get to that point.
 
So just to update everyone, after posting this I have added 6 new players and we are now up to a total of 20 members, with just over half being PCF members. I have an additional 8 that have indicated interest, but have not yet signed up. A couple of the new members have stated they have a couple of their live players (non PCF people) that could be interested. We're having active games about 5-6 nights a week, with 4-6 players in the cash games. Most of these games are starting after 9 PM Central, but we have a few that want to play earlier, so I would like to add a few more in that category, so that hopefully we can get the action going around 7 PM and keep it going until midnight or so.

Things are looking very good right now. Thanks to all who have shown interest in playing micro stakes Hold'em on my site!
 
I’m not getting any notifications for games on Band. Am I doing something wrong?
I would say yes, because we've had active conversations every night this week. When you log in to the app, do you see the conversations? I can see that you have signed up, but I just assumed you have been busy and were unable to participate.
 
Oh my bad - I thought the app sent the messages to my phone as texts. I havent been logging into the app. I'll check it out. Thx!
 
Oh my bad - I thought the app sent the messages to my phone as texts. I havent been logging into the app. I'll check it out. Thx!
Yes, if you have it set for push notifications, then yes, you should get them on your phone automatically.

I was just saying to log in and see if you see them, then check your settings.
 
Very very nice, but that's 4AM to 7AM Athens time :LOL: :laugh:
If you established some Saturday or Sunday noon game, your time (so 8PM here) what a wonderful world this would be:):)
 
Um yeah ... user error. I signed up for the app but never downloaded it to my iphone. Duh
No worries. Yeah, push notifications have to be set up from your phone. I was just looking at the settings from the PC and counld find them. But they are right there when you open setting from your phone.

I suspect you are not the only one. I may need to send out a group email. Within Band you can see who does and does not read the messages, and most of my messages seem to only be read by about half the group.
 
Very very nice, but that's 4AM to 7AM Athens time :LOL: :laugh:
If you established some Saturday or Sunday noon game, your time (so 8PM here) what a wonderful world this would be:):)
I'm game if we could get a few more players in that time slot. The other issue to deal with is the PayPal fees on foreign exchange. I have one Canadian member, and he says he gets raked over the coals whenever he sends money to me.
 
I'm game if we could get a few more players in that time slot. The other issue to deal with is the PayPal fees on foreign exchange. I have one Canadian member, and he says he gets raked over the coals whenever he sends money to me.
The indomitable warrior @Ethan has braved the fees to do the same thing vice-versa (America > Europe).
I could do the same.
 
The indomitable warrior @Ethan has braved the fees to do the same thing vice-versa (America > Europe).
I could do the same.
I will say that most of my members have families. I'm an empty nester, so I've tried to get some weekend afternoon games going, without any luck. Now that I have some new members, I will give it a another try. If it works out and I can get a group in that time slot, I will reach back out to you.

The flip side is that the site is up 24/7, so if you could find a few more players in your time zone, that would be cool too! I like the idea of maybe having an International Poker Club.

@Ethan has said he is going to sign up with me too, but hasn't done so yet. He is a busy feller though. Maybe the two of you could figure out a way to fund each other? You put $50 in his account over there, and he puts $50 in your account here. Eliminate those nasty fees.
 

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