Help me set up my home game!

[stillbr]

I'm a college student. And I'm really having trouble setting up a home game. I want to play something around 3-6 or 5-10 limit mixed games. How do you people find other people willing to play those stakes? While 3-6 on here isnt high stakes at all, at college ive only found 1 other person willing to play that high!

[caldavis]

If i were you, i would start out with a lower limit maybe this will get more people to play and be interested, then try to work your way up to 3-6.

[Yarney]

what college are you at?

-Yarney

[henrikrh]

Make the limit 3-6 but get everyone to buy in only 40 bucks, that'll seem low, then they will rebuy when they bust. Underhanded, but whatever.

[smoore]

[ QUOTE ]
what college are you at?

-Yarney

[/ QUOTE ]

Huzzah public schools.

[stillbr]

Auburn University, so im sure of the 25,000 students, there are people around willing to play that high. Do you think there is anythign wrong posting a flyer up on a bullitian board?

[GoblinMason (Craig)]

Try posting on www.homepokergames.com (http://www.homepokergames.com)

-Craig

[smoore]

If you are in university housing, there very well may be a rule against gambling. Be careful about flyers.

[Lampsteen]

I will be running into this some in the upcoming weeks. I have several players in an established circle of poker friends that have grown tired of the single / double table tourney system. Their theory is that they want to be rewarded at the end of the night if they have two or three big hands (wins) instead of still coming in "out of the money" in our NL tourneys.
I have to admit that these tourneys are becomming tiresome as well, but most don't feel comfortable going to a limit system. We will probably be starting with something like .50 - 1 or 1 -2, but I can't see it being much higher. So, I would say that one of the earlier post was correct, you should start with lower stakes.
Our typical night of hold 'em consists of two rounds with 8-10 players. Buy in's are anywhere from $20 up to $50, depending on those that are present. Most start to feel a little uncomfortable when it gets over $35. So, it's understandable that we are going to have to ease the less enthused in the idea of limit. But I do feel that limit more represents the tried and true "dealers choice" poker nights that we all grew up with before the hold 'em boom.
Good luck with your game. Be persistant and make sure you educate everyone what they are getting into. /images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="red"> </font>

[bolgenmod]

In limit, one rule of thumb is that a comfortable buy-in is about 25 big bets. So if you want to play 3-6, the buy-in should be $150; for 5-10 it should be $250. That sounds a little steep for most college students.

Take the advice of the other posters: start smaller. 1-2 would be a good place to start, but even $50 will seem like a lot to some. You might even want to start with $.50-1. A $25 buy-in might not seem like much to you or me, but to some, it's a bit steep for an evening's entertainment. (Just remind them that a night at the bar will surely cost more than $25!)

As for players, my experience is that once your game has a core of regulars (about 5), the regulars will start bringing other people in. Set a lower limit, invite a few people, and they'll either get hooked or not come back. All you need is a few enthusiasts, and the game will begin. My home game began with 3 people -- including myself -- who really wanted to play and a few friends who just thought they'd try it. We now have a serious core of about 10 who want to play every week, and another 6-8 who play every other week or so.

And, not to be a nit, but you do want to make sure and vet your players. Don't let someone become a regular unless the rest of the group feels comfortable with him. And make the rules crystal clear from the start -- seriously, print them out, post them, make sure everyone knows what they are. I've seen problems in even very low stakes games ($5 buy-in for crissakes!), so make it clear!

Good luck.

[BigRedAce]

I couldn't get my group of professionals making $150-$200K and higher to play $5-10 so it's really not surprising you can't get college kids interested.

You might try 0.50-$1.00 No Limit. You'll quickly get to pot sizes like 5-10 and the blinds won't eat you up.

[RPMick]

[ QUOTE ]
You might try 0.50-$1.00 No Limit. You'll quickly get to pot sizes like 5-10 and the blinds won't eat you up.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly. I get 15-20 regulars for our tournament and people fight for the 9 and 10 spot in our cash games. We run opposite games every other week.

Trick is this, similar to a college campus, a military base is home to many a poor folk, or those that claim to be poor and sit white knuckled on their money.

Best solution I found was to have the tournaments as rebuys. The same guy who won't drop a 50 on a buyin seems more than willing to drop 90 into a rebuy. When these people finish in the money they want to try their hand at some NL cash games. A .50/1 NL structure works great. Minimum $20 buyin allows people to float around and play tight, win a few pots, and keeps the excitement of being able to move all in.

Limit small stakes home games does nothing but irritate people cause they generally can't play "good poker" against calling stations after they lose to 1 suckout.

Give the small stakes NL a try, maybe add a tournament every so often to attract some more players, get them involved learning the game, etc.

The players are there, you just have to find them.

-Ryan

[d1sterbd]

[ QUOTE ]
I couldn't get my group of professionals making $150-$200K and higher to play $5-10 so it's really not surprising you can't get college kids interested.

You might try 0.50-$1.00 No Limit. You'll quickly get to pot sizes like 5-10 and the blinds won't eat you up.

[/ QUOTE ]

College kids gamble like crazy. You should have no problems finding people to play 3/6 if you are anywhere near a major university.

[MookieBlaylock]

I would definatley start with lower limits. This lets people try the game out that normally wouldnt play. .50-$1 with a $20-$25 buy in is perfect. After a while the the stakes will probably go up. My home game went from .50-$1 to $2-$4 in about a year and a half. Good luck!

[mmmmmbrother]

just start a 'poker club'
i bet you could even get club funding
and a mascot

[Jersey Nick]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm a college student. And I'm really having trouble setting up a home game. I want to play something around 3-6 or 5-10 limit mixed games. How do you people find other people willing to play those stakes? While 3-6 on here isnt high stakes at all, at college ive only found 1 other person willing to play that high!

[/ QUOTE ]

You need to make a bee line for the pool room in the student union. That's where all the degenerate gamblers hung out when I was at school.