7CS homegame setup questions

The normal Sunday game we(5-6 of us is all) play is NL Holdem mini tourneys, $5 buy-in gets you 50 chips(each chip is of equal value). The blinds start at 1/2 and go up(2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/10 etc) EVERY TIME the button gets to the original starting dealer. Needless to say after a couple people are out the blinds move up fast and it comes down to lucky catches alot.

I actually prefer 7 card stud to holdem and a couple of the guys want to give it a try in our weekly game. Any thoughts on how we could set up the game?

So the setups we were planning were $5 buy-in gets you 50 chips. I have no control over this, everyone but me feels 50 chips is enough to start with.

The 3 different structures we came up with:
1 chip ante, small bet = 2, big bet = 4
no ante, bringin = 1, complete = 2, big bet = 4
no ante, small bet = 1, big bet = 2

We'd raise the bets and add an ante(if we start without one) at some point. They want the touneys to last no more than an hour remember.

Most of the guys I'm playing with are NOT poker players, they just want to play cards, gamble and watch a little football while sitting on the sofa after busting out chasing a gutshot.

The guys want action.

What I'm not sure of is if having an ante(which would help build the pot)would be better or no ante and giving them a chance to see 4th a little cheaper and catch something would give more action. I'm starting to think no ante might be the way they'd prefer to play. Especially the last choice listed. After a couple rounds chasing I'm pretty sure they'd end up feeling they have to gamble once the bets are upto 3/6 or 4/8 as I'm sure we'd have atleast a 1 chip ante at 4/8. And this would give them the action they seem to like.

Any thoughts welcome

[Lottery Larry]

Having an ante makes loose play more correct. Whether it speeds up the game I don't know.

You can also have the dealer with a forced ante for the table (even when away from the table) to save getting it from everyone. The bring-in 1, complete 2, raise to 4 structure sounds correct.

[tubalkain]

It does speed the game up a bit. I'm not a fan of the dealer anteing for the table in a tournament though. Also, I'm not a fan of antes going up every orbit.

@the OP: What's the color breakdown of your chipset? Stud's a completely different animal from holdem, and a 50 chip stack isn't going to go very far in any reasonable structure.

[Lottery Larry]

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I'm not a fan of the dealer anteing for the table in a tournament though. Also, I'm not a fan of antes going up every orbit.

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Why not dealer ante? As for the antes rising, is it because it usually pushes the total cost up too quickly compared to the stacks?

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Stud's a completely different animal from holdem, and a 50 chip stack isn't going to go very far in any reasonable structure.

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Good point

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I'm not a fan of the dealer anteing for the table in a tournament though. Also, I'm not a fan of antes going up every orbit.


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Yeah I'm not sure the guys would go for the dealer anteing for the table. We weren't planning on the ante going up every orbit, just the bets(maybe set a timer and do it that way). The ante would get raised later when a couple guys have gone out.

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@the OP: What's the color breakdown of your chipset? Stud's a completely different animal from holdem, and a 50 chip stack isn't going to go very far in any reasonable structure.

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As far as I can remember(not my chips) the guy has 600 chips. 100 - red, green, black, white and 200 blue. We tried doing denominations and it was a total nightmare(you'd think by this point in life they'd be able to do simple math) so the guys don't even want to try it again.

I could bring my chips and it would give us enough to start with 100 chips per player but I know there is absolutely no way they'll play using denominations.

Also you have to remember they want to play 5 or 6 tourneys, each one lasting 45 minutes to an hour. They're freinds so I just play to have some fun, food and alcohol at these games. A couple just wanted to try something different so we're trying to work something out is all.

[tubalkain]

60 starting chips, level up after every 8 or 10 hands (not orbit, that screws it all up)

Level 1: Bringin 1, bets 2/4
Level 2: Bringin 1, bets 3/6
Level 3: Bringin 1, bets 4/8
Level 4: Ante 1, bringin 2, bets 5/10
Level 5: Ante 2, bringin 3, bets 8/16
Level 6: Ante 3, bringin 4, bets 10/20
Level 7: Ante 3, bringin 5, bets 15/30
Don't go up after this point

That should take care of it.

[mscags]

I would just have the dealer ante 1 on the first round and then you can move up to making everyone ante.

Well we gave it a try. Plan was to start with no ante, BI=1 small bet=2 big bet=4. Every player started with 50 chips all of equal value(like I knew would be insisted on). The first hand 3rd was capped with 4 players. 4th same. 5th was raised and 1 player folded. 6th was raised, 3 players still in. 7th was 1 bet and called by other 2 players. A pair of queens(guy caught on 6th) won the pot. So 3 players put 36 of 50 chips in on first hand and 1 guy put 16 in before folding.

Everyone decided it was a dumb game since two guys were almost broke on the first hand. The fact we've had guys go out on the first hand(we've had 2 guys out first hand before even) in the holdem games doesn't matter though.

Oh well it was worth a shot. Thanks to those who helped with setting up the structure.