Raking a home game

[SumDumFoo]

We are about start raking our home game since we dropped $700 on stuff for it this week. We are going to start having dedicated dealers. We play a $1/$2 and a $2/$4 game. We have decided rake the 1/2 $1 at $10 and thats it. For the 2/4, we are going to rake $1 every $8 and cap it at $3.

Both games are very loose but passive so I estimate the avg pots of 1/2 to be around $15-20 and $35-40.

We provide food and drink. We are going to have a $100 free roll every other week and offer a $20 referal bonus.

Does this sound fair? I think we might actually be giving too much away. Thoughts?

[Trefo]

Just get those cheap skates to chip in with some food and drink like 10 dollars each otherwise your having an illegal game which could cause some problems.

[34TheTruth34]

how do you spend $700 on stuff for a home game?? you're out of your mind...

[Lebowski]

another table and good chips, every try buying 10 nice padded chairs?... I've spent much more than that, catered food each week as well adds up. You can do it half assed or you can make the game comfortable and enjoyable for the seasoned player as well as the new guy.

[Terry]

Your $2/$4 will probably drop around $60/hr, depending on game speed. It will be remarkably consistent, so from whatever the hourly rate is the first week you will be able to predict the total drop after that by the number of hours the game has run.

With that much going off the tables you need to have lots of chips, otherwise the table starts to look “bare” and people start to grumble about how much is being taken in rake. Don’t use $5 chips – give everybody all $1 chips and let them stack ‘em up so it looks like more.

It's totally up to you to decide what's fair. You do have expenses to cover.

[Easy E]

The $2/4 rake of 12.5% (slightly less, if your expected average pot is correct) is worse that most commercial cardrooms

[Terry]

Right. I retract my estimate of $60/hr. Taking the dollar at 8,16, and 24 will destroy the game. $1 at 20, 40, 60 will still give you plenty, perhaps more than enough.

[lefty rosen]

Don't bother to rake, just charge an admission of 10 bucks, nobody will care and you will be in the right side of the law. All you need is a guy who has a big mouth talking about your game and then someone brings a "friend" who is an undercover cop and you get busted for a 100 dollars a day?

[34TheTruth34]

well, I guess if you had to go out and buy a bunch of chairs and a brand new poker table, then you could easily spend $700 if not more. I was under the impression he spent the money on like food and drinks (at least that's the way his original post sounded to me). Catered food? I don't think my home games are done "half-assed" because I didn't have catered food. That's just absurd. The local Domino's will cater your home game for under $20.

[Stew]

You need to be setting aside some of the drop for an attorney, you are running an illegal game when there's a rake. You need to find a different way of creatively financing your game, unless you want to risk a run-in with the law.