Home Poker House Etiquette (Long)

[Al Mirpuri]

You seem to run a model home game.

Good for you.

The ancient Greeks were forever producing laws for ideal city-states.

You seem to have done job they would have been proud of.

[Easy E]

" I keep track of the amount of money (we play cash, not chips) at the table as well as any money that has been borrowed between players."

THAT sounds like a potential headache/flashpoint, at least the borrowing part. I take it it's run smoothly enough that people trust it? I can see rookies being suspicious of it at first....

Also, when you say "track.. the amount of money at the table.." what exactly are you tracking here? Confirming the buy-back-in ability, or something else that your home game requires for admin. purposes?

[Burnt Toast]

Thanks for the indepth analysis. I do agree with much of your advice, but I think some of it was taken out of context. Of course it always helps if you were actually there.

Generally, though your post was very helpful in seeing things from the other perspective.

Looking back, I think stopping the card game was the best thing to do. I should have discussed the rules more before we started, and by the end of the game people were not interested in discussing rules at all. At least now I can say the game does not begin again untill an agreement on the rules is established. Plus, everyone now has had time to think things over with a clear head (myself included).

Toast

[Ignatius]

THAT sounds like a potential headache/flashpoint, at least the borrowing part.
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Quite the contrary. As we are no pros who never leave home without an adequate bankroll just in case, and often spontainiously decide to have a session, borrowing one or two buyins is very common. And as you might imagine, we're not only drinking mineral water during the session and often enough, at the end of the day, nobody remembers for sure exactly how much who borrowed whom. Although we're not playing high stakes, having written notes preempts any quarrel which otherwise might ensue from this.
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Also, when you say "track.. the amount of money at the table.." what exactly are you tracking here?
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Due due our fixed-buyin scheme, tracking the money simply amounts to making a mark at the scoreboard whenever someone rebuys.
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I can see rookies being suspicious of it at first....
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Again, quite the contrary! By keeping track of the rebuys, everybody knows how much he has invested during the session and how much he is up or down at any given moment which makes the game transparent. Since with our buyin scheme, 10+ rebuys are quite common during a longer session, esp. newbies would often lose track otherwise.
It also prevents ppl. from losing more than they were prepared to, which is essential for keeping a game friendly and make ppl. come again.

[Easy E]

"THAT sounds like a potential headache/flashpoint, at least the borrowing part.
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Quite the contrary. ... borrowing one or two buyins is very common. .. nobody remembers for sure exactly how much who borrowed whom.... having written notes preempts any quarrel which otherwise might ensue from this."
oh, i agree that THAT is a good system, but why are YOU charged with evidently creating logs of the borrowed debts?
THAT is the headache i was referring to- the responsibility.

"Also, when you say 'track.. the amount of money at the table..' what exactly are you tracking here?
..Again, quite the contrary! By keeping track of the rebuys, everybody knows how much he has invested during the session and how much he is up or down at any given moment which makes the game transparent."
I guess the mineral water prevents them from counting their initial bankroll properly, or are these all loans that we are referring to?

"Since with our buyin scheme, 10+ rebuys are quite common during a longer session, esp. newbies would often lose track otherwise.
It also prevents ppl. from losing more than they were prepared to, which is essential for keeping a game friendly and make ppl. come again."

Good goals, but seems silly that you have to keep track and they don't... but if it works for your game, more power to ya!

[Easy E]

"but I think some of it was taken out of context. Of course it always helps if you were actually there."
I assumed as much... but I also wanted to highlight that it was YOUR perspective you were presenting from, and theirs might have been greatly different. Hope the uninvolved analysis helped...

And hopefully your message got across, and you won't have to deal with said silliness too much in the future.

You DO need to set rules and adhere to them, but flexibly, since home games (even those that mirror casino play/atmosphere fairly closely) are still seen as more casual... though how anyone can be casual about playing poker is beyond me! (well, at least for money)

Hope it works out for you, good luck!

[Ignatius]

why are YOU charged with evidently creating logs of the borrowed debts?
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OK, I see what you mean. Well, it's not really an effort - just an entry in the score-chart, open for everyone to see. It's not that I'm finacially liable, or anything.
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I guess the mineral water prevents them from counting their initial bankroll properly
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I guess most ppl. won't care - after all, it's a very small game and we're playing for the fun of it and the "initial bankroll" is what everybody happens to have in his wallet.
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Good goals, but seems silly that you have to keep track and they don't...
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God beware, I'd let anyone mess with my charts! ;-) It's not just that keeping track makes the game more traceable, it's also an nice way to keep score besides the money itself. - and if you're running bad, it's comforting to find out that you're at least the one who won the most all-in pots ... ;-)

[Andy B]

I haven't read the whole thread, or even most of the initial message. Canterbury Card Club has all of their rules on-line at http://www.canterburypark.com . They do allow check-and-raise. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] The first time I hosted a game in Minnesota, I typed up a bunch of house rules which no one read. They were, of course, surprised by a number of my rulings.

[Easy E]

"I typed up a bunch of house rules which no one read. They were, of course, surprised by a number of my rulings."

[cferejohn]

hmm, trying to think of something more boring than playing hold-em with no check raising allowed.

Nope, can't do it.