Setting up a poker night?

[nunch92]

Hey everybody.

I’m curious about your opinions on home poker games. I’ve been hosting a home game about once a week with some friends over the past month, and we always seem to change the chip denominations and amount. We haven’t found an amount that makes the game run smooth and finish within 2 hours. Any suggestions for a fun, quick game other than just raising the blinds ever five minutes?

I look forward to hearing any responses!

 

[Stevan]

Hey everybody.

I’m curious about your opinions on home poker games. I’ve been hosting a home game about once a week with some friends over the past month, and we always seem to change the chip denominations and amount. We haven’t found an amount that makes the game run smooth and finish within 2 hours. Any suggestions for a fun, quick game other than just raising the blinds ever five minutes?

I look forward to hearing any responses!

Well, it can't rly be quick. You can host a cash game or like a mini-tournament with rebuys or without. There is rly no point in playing if u all have like 1h to play, at least I don't see it.
I played a casual home game with some buy in's like 5$, 50k chip stack, 10 min blinds, start with 100/100 blinds cuz we didn't have 50. Every game was like 4,5 hours but it was always fun, if we start at 8 PM for example, you can re-buy until 10 PM.

 

[nunch92]

Well, it can't rly be quick. You can host a cash game or like a mini-tournament with rebuys or without. There is rly no point in playing if u all have like 1h to play, at least I don't see it.
I played a casual home game with some buy in's like 5$, 50k chip stack, 10 min blinds, start with 100/100 blinds cuz we didn't have 50. Every game was like 4,5 hours but it was always fun, if we start at 8 PM for example, you can re-buy until 10 PM.

Thanks for the response! We usually want to play for somewhere between 2-4 hours, but a lot of times it seems that everyone plays tight for the first few hours then people start going all in with whatever to move the game forward.

 

[lackerboy]

Damn the same problem in the home game) LOL

 

[Rahatis]

If it's a cash game just agree from the beginning the stakes and the play time and play with 100-200 bb. The game can last as long as you have money. If it's a s&g start with 100bb and 10' levels. 1-2 rebuys and an add-on are ok for the first 45' - 1h.

 

[JeetsMcskeets89]

The easiest places I ever play at with the most action you can ever hope for are all house runned games they normally run so sick

 

[nunch92]

If it's a cash game just agree from the beginning the stakes and the play time and play with 100-200 bb. The game can last as long as you have money. If it's a s&g start with 100bb and 10' levels. 1-2 rebuys and an add-on are ok for the first 45' - 1h.

I appreciate the response. I like this setup with increasing blinds. Just need to apply it for our next home game! 200 bb might be a little much though if we're trying to keep the game shorter.

 

[Jillychemung]

If the game is self-dealt (each player deals in turn) then having 2 decks works weel to save some time. The SB can have their deck shuffled and ready to go while the BTN is collecting the cards from the current hand.

There have been other threads about tournament setup here at CC but locating them may be difficult. Google searches may find the sites where there are tournament setup pages. With your 2hr length, a structure where you get about 1 orbit a level will be the best you get.

 

[57noona]

When I host a Tournament I start with 5,000 in chips for each player. My green chips are 25 with each player getting 8 chips. My red chips are 50 with each player getting 8 chips. My white chips are 100 with each player getting 4 chips. My blue chips are 500 with each player getting 4 chips. My black chips are 1,000 with each player getting 2 chips. So to sum up 8 greens, 8 reds, 4 whites, 4 blues, and 2 blacks add up to 5,000 starting chips.

 

[nunch92]

When I host a Tournament I start with 5,000 in chips for each player. My green chips are 25 with each player getting 8 chips. My red chips are 50 with each player getting 8 chips. My white chips are 100 with each player getting 4 chips. My blue chips are 500 with each player getting 4 chips. My black chips are 1,000 with each player getting 2 chips. So to sum up 8 greens, 8 reds, 4 whites, 4 blues, and 2 blacks add up to 5,000 starting chips.

I used this structure for a home game with some friends last weekend! Worked great and we raised the blinds every 20 minutes. The game didn't last too long and everybody had a great time. Thanks for the advice!

 

[marcumx]

we do ours in a sng format , 5 dollar buy in , rebuys, 30 min blind 5k starting stack. with just 6-8 of us and we usually chop when it comes down to 3..most times all 3 of us usually walk away with over 50 bucks

 

[57noona]

I used this structure for a home game with some friends last weekend! Worked great and we raised the blinds every 20 minutes. The game didn't last too long and everybody had a great time. Thanks for the advice!

I'm glad it help you out. Hope you use it in the future too.

 

[mtl mile end]

There is a CardsChat guide to setting up a Home Game here:

https://www.cardschat.com/organize-home-game.php

It is a link found in the "poker strategy" tab at the top of every page (blue bar). I would recommend increasing chip value by 4-5X per chip colour. There is a reason casino cash and tourney chips jump by these levels - .25, 1, 5, 25, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 25000. In these examples, the only 2X jump is from 500-1000 - this is a "transition" from the smaller values to the larger, base 5 denominations that make sense to most peoples' brains. The logic of 4-5X increases fixes in everyone's mind the approximate, relative value of different colour chips (despite different stakes) and allows for efficient use of chips. Casino chip values of $.50, 10, 20, and 50 are relatively rare and are usually created for specific games or "cache".

As stated in the article, you can approximate the end time of the tourney by making the value of the Big Blind 20X the value of the total chips in play. To do this with lots of rebuys, you will have to approximate the total value of chips that will be in play at the target end time. If people are generally looking to chop at the "end" of the tourneys, this probably isn't too important.

I personally prefer a BB cap at the level of 40X chips in play so that the tourney can go on until someone truly wins (not a shovefest), or a chop is determined by a desire to chop and not the necessity of a chop.

 

[jokkerivanapoiss]

Home games I attended had a €2/€5 buy in, 5k or 10k chips if I recall correctly. We had few beers and a lot of fun, for 2-3 hours every Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

[Vander44]

Hey everybody.

I’m curious about your opinions on home poker games. I’ve been hosting a home game about once a week with some friends over the past month, and we always seem to change the chip denominations and amount. We haven’t found an amount that makes the game run smooth and finish within 2 hours. Any suggestions for a fun, quick game other than just raising the blinds ever five minutes?

I look forward to hearing any responses!

I read some where that generally the tournament will end when the big blind is 5% of the total chips outstanding. So I usually build a structure based on that and how long I would like the tournament to last and work backwards.