home game

[green rosetta]

i want to start a home game have several friends who want to play hold"em (all beginners) any suggestions as to limits, buy-ins, rules etc would be greatly appreciated
thanx gr

[Henke]

Limits and buy-in go hand in hand. I think a buy-in of about 30 big bets is ok, and should last for a while. As for limits, how much do you think the players are prepared to lose? Then make the big bet 1/30 of this.

You can find a VERY comprehensive rulebook at Bob Ciaffones site.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Do they want to play limit or no-limit? Cash game format or tournament format?

[ggriffi]

I just sent out a buyin and blinds to someone else who wnated it for a tournament of about 30 players if you are interested in this pm me. In addition to Bob Ciaffone's site you might want to check this one out.
Home Poker Tourney

[green rosetta]

everyone wants to play no limit (like on tv) cash game and a buy in of about $50 seem to be a comfortable amount.
i guess the major issue is what the blinds /ante should be.

thanx for your help G R

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

What you see on TV is not a cash game. It's a tournament.

If you want to do a NL cash game with a $50 initial buy-in, fine. Fix the blinds at .50/1.00. Anything higher and people can lose a lot really fast. Any time anybody wants to buy more chips, the max they can buy is enough to build their stacks up to $50. In a game like this, people can win/lose $500.

Now, if what you want is a tournament with a $50 buy-in, that's different. Everybody pays $50 and gets X chips (lets say 1,000). If that's the case, start the blinds at 10/20 and increase them every 20 minutes (a simple kitchen timer works)

Make the blinds increase, like 10/20, 15/30, 25/50, 50/100. 75/150, 100/200, 150/300, etc. Don't worry about adding antes. Why make it more complicated than it has to be. The payout structure should be based on the number of players. Take a look at how a site like PokerStars breaks down payouts for an example.

[Ilovephysics]

Just my thoughts from a beginner who has done this a few times very cheaply...

Generally, I've found that our home no-limit games with about 100-200 chips per person is fine, just take what Kurn said and divide by 10.

You can usually get boxes of 100 chips at Wal-Mart for $2, which is a good cheap way to pick up chips. They also sell cheap felt for tables, too, if you want to get fancy.

The biggest things to deal with are TIME, SPACE, and RULES. What you set your initial blinds at, and how you increment them will determine how long the game takes. Generally expect that with 30 people, it may take all day... so you should consider breaks for lunch, dinner, etc... Also, set rules about drinks on the table, etc.. people are gonna get thristy and need bathroom breaks, too.

Also, be VERY CLEAR about your rules. Put them down in writing if needbe... I.e., make sure people know where to place their bets, about betting out of turn, splashing the pot, calling out other people's hands, who will call people's hands, dealing, burning cards, miss deals, blind changes (The Kitchen Timer is a good, objective means), all-in rules (i.e., when a person is forced all-in), etc. You'd be very surprised at how quickly 'friends' can turn on one another for a matter of 30 X $50 = $1500 if you aren't very careful of how well you spell out certain rules... People don't like to lose even $50, and a lot of people don't appreciate things such as other people looking over their shoulders, calling their hands, swearing at the table/cards, smoking, etc.. Trust me, it's much better to CYA.

As for your first tournament, you may, though maybe it isn't necessary, consider an easy pay-out (assuming $1500) structure (1st through 10th) like:
$500, 230, 170, 150, 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, $50...rather than a "winner take all/most", which a lot of people end up doing... Since you are doing this for the first time, there may likely still be some people who screw up or get confused about what they can bet, when to bet, etc. You shouldn't put too much emphasis on this first tournamnet for anything but 'fun' and getting the ropes down... it's hard to get 30 people who have a clue about tournament poker in one room. If people enjoy it, they'll come back with some added experience, and you'll be able to do more serious games.

[Hedge Henderson]

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to do a NL cash game with a $50 initial buy-in, fine. Fix the blinds at .50/1.00. Anything higher and people can lose a lot really fast.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm going to have to disagree with our esteemed Klingon comrade on this. A lot is going to depend on your players and the amount of time you play, green rosetta, but at $0.50/$1.00 blinds, $50 won't get you very far in no-limit.

Since you're playing with friends, it's probably better to work backwards. Figure out the maximum, as in once in a blue moon, acceptable loss, then figure out the maximum acceptable weekly loss, as in it's embarrassing, but my wife won't kill me. Average the two, divide by 200, and adjust for convenience to give you the big blind amount for a 6 hour game

For example, if you don't want anyone to lose $150 except on very rare occasions, and having at least one player lose their entire $50 buy-in once a week is acceptable, $0.25/$0.50 blinds would work. If your friends are very aggressive, it wouldn't hurt to move down to $0.20/$0.40 blinds. It's a lot easier to move a game up in stakes than it is to move down and you don't want to lose friends over a poker game.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Good Points.