recruiting players

[PokerGoblin]

Hey guys

I've ran a home game for the last year and a half or so. We've got a good core group of about 7 players including myself that pretty much play every week. There are also about 5 or 6 players that play consistently with us but not every week.

I've looked at different sites for advertising a game, but they seem to be poorly maintained and not the best resource for getting players. Our group pretty much found each other by word of mouth.

My question is, how do you recruit players for your home games? I am talking about cash games, not tournaments if that makes a difference.

PG

[Showtime]

I run a legal, no-rake $2/$4 limit game every other week (HE, O8B, 7S8B). Same as you, I had some core players, needed some more for a reliable player count.

I got a very regular player by cherrypicking the individuals looking for games (my specific games, and very close location) on homepokergames.com -- emailed them direct. I also posted a game there for someone else and got traffic for that game, too. I have not posted my game there. Webmaster tends not to clean up old listings, so suspect many games are not live anymore -- but not sure.

I posted the game on this forum and got a few players, too.

Ran an ad in my local homeowners association newsletter -- got one iffy hit.

Posted a free note at my local grocery store -- nothing.

Word of mouth/email best. Also, just mention it -- computer repair guy working at my house was interested, I just asked him if he was a poker player because I usually had some available seats.

Good luck -- nice regular local games are a treasure. Local police here have been busting up all the raked games.

[PokerGoblin]

Thanks

One problem I run into is everyone wants to play tournaments. There are everywhere around here. Occasionally I will attend them just to try to find new players. The game I run is 1-2 Pl dealers choice, so recruiting the $20 tournament players isn't always successful.

[ky70]

How about having a poker night where you do tounrey and cash game? On my last poker night I did two tourney games with a cash game sandwhiched inbetween. The players that busted out of the first cash game started up a cash game. Tyhe cash game went on until the tourney game was over...at that point we could've continued the cash game or do another tourney. We did tourney for the last game because one guy was leaving if another tourney was being played.

You could start your night out with a cash game first...that works better as people don't often arrive on time. I would also suggest playing no limit hold em for the cash game. This way the game is similar to the tourney game they're use to. Do a $20 buy-in with blinds set at .25/.50. I just started playing cash games fairly recently and I avoided them too until I actually tried it out.

[PokerGoblin]

You're idea has merit, and I have tried that in the past. The problem is people show up with the cash for the tourney but thats it. They leave when they bust out of the tournament. Or, no side game sprouts up cause no one is bankrolled for it.

We play $1-$2 pot limit. You should start with no less than $100 in a game like that.

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I just started playing cash games fairly recently and I avoided them too until I actually tried it out

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I am not going to lower the stakes for people who have never played a side game before. That is unfair to the regulars in my game that are used to the stakes I advertise. Furthermore, it defeats the purpose of having a side game in the first place.

PG

[Lottery Larry]

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We play $1-$2 pot limit. You should start with no less than $100 in a game like that.

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That's a bit low IMHO

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I am not going to lower the stakes for people who have never played a side game before. That is unfair to the regulars in my game that are used to the stakes I advertise. Furthermore, it defeats the purpose of having a side game in the first place.


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If you're not going to be flexible to try to recruit new players or ease lower stakes people in, you're going to have problems recruiting.
Why not do some training/strategy sessions for new players, or players new to a particular game? Pot-limit isn't the first game that usually pops up when you're a kid (well, maybe that's less true these days :P)

Or have a special lower stakes night?

Tourneys are a good way to get people in and hopefully draw them into the cash games, if you have enough people/eqpt to have both going at once at once as people bust out.

Since you're setting a certain bankroll standard for your recruits, don't recruit at the cheap tournaments.

[PokerGoblin]

50 BB is enough to play a PL game, but there's always the chance you will wind up with it all in on the flop, especially in a game like PLO8, which we play quite often.

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Or have a special lower stakes night?

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That isn't too bad of an idea. The problem is that isn't fair to the regulars of the game (who also are good friends of mine) who are used to and expect a bigger game. Furthermore, people will only come to the low limit part of the game. What we used to do was play limit hold'em for the first 2 hours them switch to pot limit. That was ok, but the people who didn't like PL would leave, defeating the purpose. Shortly after we would just play pot limit the whole night.

PG