How to make sure enough players show up for poker night?

[crabsgalore]

I'm fairly new to the game. I just started hosting some home poker games about once a week. I usually e-mail my friends a week in advance the type of game, buy-in, etc. Then I e-mail them again the day before to remind them. Last week only 3 people showed up on time, and my roomate invited some people who arrived about 45 minutes late. So frustrating!! Do you guys have advice on how to make people show up and come on time?
Also, I want to provide some snacks and drinks. Any advice on specific kinds of food or drinks? Let me know and thanks /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[RPMick]

I can speak from a tournament standpoint only. We don't mind playing short handed $ games.

I take a 10% rake off the tournament buyin and that $ goes to a Player of the Year pool. To reserve your seat I need your fee paid before 10 others get it to me.

That said, I usually have someone who either tags along or is in the standby slot. (The wife is even learning to play.) If someone doesn't show, the standby falls in and their fee still goes into the POY pool.

Win, win situation.

Other than that, you need a nice table, nice chips, nice cards. Then people will come.

-Ryan

[SenecaJim]

spread it..and they will come. My approach is we are gonna play hold'em and after reasonable wait we start seven card stud. Late arrivals can join until game is full and then " too bad". sounds good, huh? i'm not that tough. Play a game like stud and make sure lates have to wait until deal comes back around before start planned game.

[SenecaJim]

however, i'm thinking of having late arrivals kick in 5 buck late fee and designate that money as badbeat jackpot.

[smoore]

Make your game dependable and you'll get people. As you start a new game it seems you never have enough players. If it's a friendly, well run game that's dependable you'll eventually have to get another table. Make sure you're playing stakes that everyone is comfortable with. I pass on the $5 buyin games anymore just because it feels like pennies to me but there are players that jump at that game that don't want to come to my $25 games and would never consider a $100 game.

[Eric H]

This can be frustrating at times. I host cash games and tourneys once or twice a month. I have just started emailing and it helps but that can not be relied on. The only way to be sure you will have the players is to call each one and get a committment. There will always be a few that can never seem to "committ" to being there, but most will just say yes or no.

For tourneys, I also do a flyer. I send it to some via email and mail it to others. I will mail several copies to certain players that I know may bring other players. I put my cell phone number on the flyer and ask that they call me if they are going to play. I generally have between 20 and 30 for tourneys.

I charge a $5 house fee and they get pop, bottled water and a place to play. I never base it off a percentage of the buy-in. I used to charge $10 and fix a bunch of food but it bacame too much work! Most just prefer the $5 fee and get drinks.

[Onaflag]

Food and Drinks: I've made it clear for the last couple months that I will provide coolers with ice. That's it. You can't buy enough beer. They'll drink it until it's gone. Life is just easier when they bring their own stuff.

Not enough regular players: I'm still battling this. I've started 2 things that I hope will help improve turnout. 1) Bad Beat Jackpot. .25 from every pot gets dumped in. Any FH beaten using both hole cards takes 100%. 2) Tournament Leader Board. With luck, people will be more motivated to come when they know points are on the line.

I'm lucky in that if the weekly game looks like it won't materialize, I head to the local B&M.

Onaflag.............

[csuf_gambler]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm fairly new to the game. I just started hosting some home poker games about once a week. I usually e-mail my friends a week in advance the type of game, buy-in, etc. Then I e-mail them again the day before to remind them. Last week only 3 people showed up on time, and my roomate invited some people who arrived about 45 minutes late. So frustrating!! Do you guys have advice on how to make people show up and come on time?
Also, I want to provide some snacks and drinks. Any advice on specific kinds of food or drinks? Let me know and thanks /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

invite double the amount of people you want because half of them will flake.

[Etaipo]

[ QUOTE ]

invite double the amount of people you want because half of them will flake.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then you risk the inverse problem....now you have 16 people playing poker in your house where you can relatively comfortably seat 10 max.

[grandgnu]

I host two events monthly (tournament style, 16 players on two tables max) and my events are on an RSVP basis.

I've had 16 players signed up AND 6 players on the wait list and wound up with only 12 people playing. Found out my problem was holding the games on Friday nights (work was too much of a last-minute problem for a lot of people) so I moved both games to Saturdays (1-5pm and 6-10pm) and it seems to be working out.

Granted I've been doing this since 2002, and back when I was right with ya. 3 players, maybe 4-6 if I was lucky. But over time as my home game improved and word got out (and I advertised on homepokergames.com) it became quite popular and took off. Now I regularly have 10-16 players for each event.

I recommend you try the RSVP thing, and keep track of those who cancel on you, or who don't show at all. If they persist in being problematic, then relegate them to wait-list only status (even if there's open-seating) and let them prove their loyalty to your game by showing up and hoping there is a seat available for them. Then they can earn their way back into your event.

It's a LOT of work putting on home games, I've been ready to just give it all up from frustration before. Oftentimes all the hard work you do isn't appreciated. But hang in there and it'll be a good time. I also take 5% of the prize pool of each event, dump it into a separate interest-bearing bank account and at the end of the year the top five players (based on a leader board point system) play for this extra money and a trophy. Incentive to keep coming back and be competitive.

www.triplethreatpoker.com (http://www.triplethreatpoker.com) is my home game site. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[crabsgalore]

So.....? How would you do it differently?

[Accident]

I provide a nice environment to play in. KEM/Copag cards. Casino quality chips and tables. Food sometimes. Icechests and fridge. I send out an email to about 15 players in advance about 2 or 3 days out. Then there are about 10 more people that have to be called. I call another poker games host and tell him to call all those guys. Kind of a network of card players. Had 3 regulars cancel out last friday and still had 8 for the tourney and 7 in cash afterwards. Give them what they want and they will come. Oh, yea, and overinvite. Most I've had show up is 14.
Accident /images/graemlins/club.gif

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
So.....? How would you do it differently?

[/ QUOTE ]

Let everyone know in the emails that you will start at a certain time. If anyone isn't there at that time, their hands will be dealt and folded, along with any blinds/antes.

Anyone not arriving an hour after start time will have their remaining chips removed from the table.

I used to do the whole chasing people down stuff as well, constantly calling people right before the event to ensure they were indeed coming. But over time the popularity of my events has helped to reduce those issues. I've got over 100 email contacts for my events, so finding players usually isn't a problem (if you don't mind allowing newer strangers into your events)

But require people to RSVP for a seat if they want to play. And if they don't RSVP, then they can't play, simple as that.

[DerryABU]

A local cardroom I've played in offers 10% extra chips to people who arrive at least 10 mins early.It seems to work,might be worth a try.

[LetsRock]

You can't make anybody do anything. All you can do is provide a game and invite people.

My group uses a web site called Evite for our invites. It let's everybody rsvp and you can get a headcount as the date approaches. It works very well.

If it looks like you're not going to get enough players, you can just cancel the game. If you do that a couple of times, the players will get the hint that you're serious about them respecting your game.

As far as food goes, we started out having the host provide some food and asking for donations to help cover costs. It started out with pizza and sandos, but after a few hosts got stiffed, we've pretty much gone to a "bring it if you want it" policy. It work out fine. Some of us will throw out some munchies once in a while and if we have a particularly long session, we'll take a break and make a burger run.

[smartalecc5]

Call them.

[Lottery Larry]

Of any list of available players, expect to get 40-50% on average, on any given night. Less on cash game nights, more for tourneys.

That's my experience anyway. You might want to expand your invitation list

[mrmookid]

Well one of the first things we did was make Thursdays Poker Night. That way, there's no question. If the calendar says it's Thursday that means it's Poker Night. We didn't want a weekend because some of the non-geeky players like to go outside the house.

I used to call everyone (about 20 people) but now I send out an e-mail to everyone. Around 75% confirm over e-mail and I track down the remaining 25%.

Most of us have known each other 20+ years so I have very few no-shows.

[warewulf]

People will show up when they feel like it unless their seat is taken when they do show up.

I run a game and have a small place, 8 is cramped. I just take all the rsvp's and stop when I reach 10. Once I started responding to people that the game is full and they are on a waiting list, they started responding more.

If they want to flake, they only have to let me know a few hours before the game starts, no hard feelings, no questions asked. If they don't let me know in advance that they can't make it, I will not hold a seat for them and they will be bumped if someone that is reliable and has rsvp'd shows up.

[theRealMacoy]

[ QUOTE ]

My group uses a web site called Evite for our invites. It let's everybody rsvp and you can get a headcount as the date approaches. It works very well.


[/ QUOTE ]

my group also uses evite, wich is free, and it works great. all the hassles of emails and phone calls are no longer an issue. also i post the address of the game for that week (as we have rotating hosts). i can even send out messages to the entire group, those who are signed up or those yet to sign-up with ease.

we still have a problem with people showing up late and damn can it be frustrating. although, now most people are pretty good about calling to let us know so we can get started. i considered some kind of penalty/tax for the perenial late arrivers but since our game is still tenuous for members it doesn't seem like it would work. once/if it gets more popular then those kinds of things will be much more readily accepted and easier to enforce. finally, the biggest progress we made was when some of the other regulars started to bitch about people being late when they came it, rather than me doing it (peer pressure can be more powerful than the organizer).


good luck with your game

cheers,
the Real Macoy

[smoore]

re: late players

Only time it's ever a problem is in a tournament. In the freeroll I run I just put the chips down and they get blinded off (I go check every so often to make sure no one is sniping chips). If the're not in thier seat at the end of the first hour they forfeit. The first hour is also the first break and the color up/chip race red.

[Lottery Larry]

If they show up late, they have a full buy-in for a reduced stack

Over 3 minutes into 1st round= -5%
Start of 2nd round= 10%
Start of 3rd round = 20%
Start of 4th round- wait for cash games.

That way, you don't put extra chips into play if they don't show up, yet there isn't an advantage to coming late.

[TheCroShow]

did not read through the entire thread, here is my solution to the problem i had before.

start an online sign up board via Forums. a friend of mine hosts a site and i asked him to host forums for us, he said sure...and now he plays with us. that works well, i post when the games are, and when we get 10 ppl signed up, that is that.

late players, wait until 10 minutes after the scheduled time, then start posting blinds for them and fold their hands. make sure you tell all players about this ahead of time.