How to host a live game

Hello! I'm Ross, I'm 16 years old and I live in Kentucky. I've been playing poker since I was 11.

This upcoming saturday I'm hosting a "Holiday Poker" tournament with about 30-40 of my peers coming to my house. I've hosted games with about 20 people before, but nothing this large.

I was wondering what I should do as a host to make the game more enjoyable, figured you guys would have some tips or general rules. Sorry If this has been posted elsewhere.

Thanks,
Ross

Here is a site you might find useful.

Also, free software here.

16 yr olds should not being hosting nor playing in poker games.

It's Kentucky! If he's allowed to get married he should be allowed to play poker !

ROTFLMAO

Did I say sixteen? I guess it's illegal to host your own private game if you aren't 18 nowadays. Thanks AG for the help though... We have used the software before, its good stuff.

That software is extremely helpful, it's been used at some big home games I've been too. To make things easier for you, collect the persons buyin and then write their name on a notepad and number each person. Once everyone has paid go to your computer with the notepad and enter in all the names and the total prize pool. Other than that people won't expect anything to stay entertained, maybe have a tv on or some music. Just try and have everything organized before people get there, it can be a disaster if everyone is waiting while you figure out things like how much each place gets paid, chips being organized, blind levels, etc.

Yea, one thing me and my friends have done before that we thought of (although im sure its been done many times before), is to make the stacks the day before and put them in plastic bags. After the people pay and we enter it all into the computer we give them a bag. The UK game will be going on, so we're going to have that going on in the background.

Hope it turns out to be a good night. But i have to ask, what is the UK game? I live in the uk and have no idea what you mean by this

I think he meant the University of Kentucky Basketball Game.

Steveg knows whats up

ahh ok cheers

Is this for a tourney or just several tables of cash games? I'm gonna assume it's a tourney, because I don't know anyone who hosts a cash game with more than one table.

My advice:
Make sure the rules are posted somewhere, along with the blind structure, payout structure, chip values, and procedure for combining tables. Definitely have the chips grouped already either at the seats or in the bags as you mentioned. Make sure everyone pays before they get chips (or the way I did it was you pay me cash, you get a card. Then we did a random draw for seats and you went to the specified table with your card. That way you get your cash and turn in your card. But if you do that don't expect a full deck back, I ended with I think 48 cards in that deck, it's now my permanent seat drawing deck).

Make sure you have plenty of chips and plenty of cards (2 per table's always nice, few extra can't hurt).

And finally, just sit down, play, and have fun. I recently hosted my first MTT (had 27). I was completely paranoid before the tournament happened, I was afraid there would be arguments over the rules, we'd have trouble combining tables, or that something I hadn't anticipated would happen. Nothing happen and it ran really smoothly (well, besides the fact that I didn't money ). Good luck, both in setting it up and then the actual tournament. And also welcome to CC.

Thanks zach. Yes, its a tournament as I said in my post. About the seating, the program we have puts people at seats. We keep two decks at each table, so the small blind can start shuffling his deck so the games move faster.

Make sure you review the rules about dead blinds and decide exactly how you will handle them, and make it known before you start. Same thing with how to move people to different tables and how to handle the blinds when they sit down.

This seems in my experience to be the most difficult issue to deal with. I play in local charity MTT's and this is always the most confusing thing that comes up.

Look, you adults at this site need to know that when this kid's parents discover his gambling and try to look for someone to blame, if they get into his computer, you're the one's they're going to blame. As for me, I say, kid don't gamble and don't host any poker games. Wait till you're of age. You're flirting with disaster and that's spelled A-D-D-I-C-T-I-O-N. We don't need to be the ones to encourage you; I want no part of that.

You ever think maybe the kid's parents know about it and are ok with it? If he's hosting the game, I fail to see how they could not know about it. Not sure about laws there, but with parental permission they're semi-legal here (technically not legal but the official position of the county police is they don't enforce the poker laws unless the host is charging a rake). I don't want to get into this argument again, but if the parent knows and approves of it, they can turn it into a learning experience with money management at worst.

Sounds like you're good to go then, just have some fun. I enjoy doing MTTs and only wish I knew that many people who would consistently play in tournaments. Good luck.

Haha, pkrplr. I'm hosting this at my house, my parents will be there most of the time. Obviously they don't care. They also don't see it as gambling - If i were to go bowling for 2 hours it'd easily cost me $15. This however, for $15, will get me 8+ hours of something that is way more fun, with a ton of my friends to socialize with as well. The main difference is that in poker I have a chance of getting my money back.

Also - The more I gamble the more I win. I can't and won't lose. I am way more skilled then everyone else, so what do I have to lose? I don't understand how that qualifies as addiction...

I was fine with this whole thing until you said the above. This is what most gambling addicts believe.

I think you missed the joke...

Who cares if he's 10, 16, 18 or 40. I'm sure once he legally can gamble he's still going to be the same person with the same personality and therefore just as likely to become addicted. Infact, I think starting out earlier with almost anything is better.

Since you are under 18, it makes it a lot more difficult to get into casinos and even play online. So even if he were to become addicted he'd have some obsticales, but if he was legal age then he could drive to the casino and get right in.

I learned how to play hold'em when I was 16, and when my brother turned 18 he gave me his old ID which I used to get into casinos. I'm 18 now and I'm glad that I was exposed to gambling when I was. If I just started playing poker when I turned 18, I'd probably be broke because I would have the availability to play anywhere I want besides Vegas and AC pretty much. Well I'm sure you get my point, also a lot of your favorite professionals started playing when they were little kids, what do you think about that?

Also I wanted to add that I understand why you'd be concerned, because of addiction. Addiction is a very bad thing obviously, I've gone through a lot of addictions in my life but honestly if I had never been exposed to drugs, sex, gambling, etc. and never went through any kind of addiction, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I believe that it's all a journey and if you can conquer addiction you'll become a greater person. Life is all about balance and moderation and sheltering somebody from something isn't going to help in the longrun.

that i sooooooooo the best way to look at it, and is exactly what i said to my parents

Hey, not sure if you have this covered, or if the link AG put covered it, but if you want to have seating arrangements made up or do them when they get there, you can easily put down randomize them by having players pull a number out of a hat. So for MTT's, the # they pick out correspond to their table and position at the table.

Table 1: Seats 1-10
Table 2: Seats 11-20
Table 3: Seats 21-30

So if you get #15, you would be in 5th position on the Table 2.

Hope that helps, good luck and enjoy the game(s)!

If you have four (or less) tables, you can also use a deck of cards, ace through 10 (or nine)-- just designate each table as a different suit.

Make sure no one is cheating. IDK if you can trust 30-40 of your peers, but better safe than sorry.

Also who gives a **** if he's 16. Back when I was 16 I used to do all kinds of crazy shit and I turned out pretty solid imo.

I'd make sure to write up and pass out the rules and blind/ante structure, otherwise there's bound to be confusion and questions, let alone arguments. And as for being 16, if he's been playing since he's 11 I'm pretty sure his parents don't mind/taught him or they'd have to be pretty oblivious. And I doubt he's playing more than his bankroll allows and he's probably pretty good at poker since he's been playing for 5 years, sounds like a good job to start out with anyhow, much preferable to McDonald's :

Honestly, I don't care what you do about the game. But if the time comes when they're looking to blame someone, I didn't encourage the kid. Otherwise, Kid, have fun, have a good life and remember this in 10 yrs. Get back to me, then. Sadly, I'll still be playing too much. This IS the voice of addiction speaking.

Are you sure about that? lol Just kidding Vanq.

Look, if the kid is 16, so what!? There is plenty of worse crap he can get into other than a non-existant gambling addiction. It is very hard for the kid to play online and 10X harder to play in the casinos. I feel it is best to start at a young age and learn the ways of the game, because by the time you turn 18 or 21, you know what to do and how to avoid gambling addictions.

If he has a gambling problem he should stop, which is true of everyone. I don't see what a relatively arbitrary age of 18 or 21 has to do with his ability to play poker, if you're going to go with maturity it should be 26 when his prefrontal cortex, which is the source of inhibitions, is fully developed. And I don't think he was asking if he *should* be running a tourney, but *how* to do so, so answer his question and help him out or don't, I doubt he wants or needs a sermon on the dangers of underage gambling. Just because you have/had a problem with addictive behaviour doesn't mean he does. Maybe if you have some evidence that he has abnormal dopamine levels/receptors (or to a lesser extent seratonin/norepinephrine) or were on a dopamine agonist (though I doubt he has parkinsons at 16) or exhibited other addictive behaviour it would be appropriate to warn him not to gamble.

Thank you Dr. Scientist!

parkinsons at 16 would be horrid!

As for the home poker tournament, is that being held tomorrow? Let us know how it went and if there were any problems/concerns/arguments that went down regarding rules, and other things that might have come up. And be sure to let us know how you did as well!

Thanks for the help guys, its been really nice of you all.

I'll be sure to get back to you guys on how I did.

gl with that

On the bright side, I finished 3rd out of 36 people. My starting table, after a random draw, was full of horrendous people. I can't stand playing with bad people, and I never know how to play them. What I do is just play them by the book, not bluffing and sticking to premiere hands.

We paid out 6 places, and I had approx. the starting chip amount from the entire time from 8 remaining to 4 remaining. People were getting mad at me for basically posting, folding and picking up the occasional blinds. While I was stalling somewhat, I was getting fairly marginal hands the entire time. I doubled up when there were 4 remaining, still only leaving myself with $30. Then I finally lucked out when the large stack knocked out the 3rd place stack, leaving myself 3rd in chips with three remaining. The other two had approximately $480 combined in chips, making this a david vs the goliath twins sort of situation. I consider myself to be a better player than both of them, and I was able to get up to around $120 in chips without going all-in once. Then came my move. I had pocket tens in the BB against the chip lead deal. He called, the SB folded and I raised with 10's to $20 total. He called me, and the flop showed a rainbow of undercards. I bet $20, and was raised up to $40. I went all in and was called instantly by his AQ. The turn was blank, but I met my match on the river with an ace. So I almost became the chip lead after stalling for so long.

We started dealing at 1pm and finished at about 8pm, which I feel like is good time. I'm happy with how I played, I kept a decent amount of chips for the majority of the tournament, and every all-in or all-in call I had I was at least a 4 to 1 favorite.

What I would have done differently is to not have gotten drinks for everyone. I cost me a little bit, which I don't mind as long as it makes my guests happier. I unfortunately found out that someone sitting far away from myself had spilled what seemed to be pretty full coca-cola. If the person had just told me when it had happened, it could have easily been cleaned up. So now there is a slight stain in the corner of my basement.

All in all, I'm happy with how everything turned out, and I just finished my 45 minute clean up consisting of putting a ton of chips away, moving tons of chairs into the storage room, moving furniture around, putting tables away and vacuuming.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

-Ross


/endrant