If you’re looking for a way to add a little something extra to your tournaments, you may want to consider adding bonuses for knocking out players (aka, bounties). Many professional tournaments do variations of this, including the World Poker Tour’s Shooting Star tournaments (where player’s get an instant $5,000 for knocking out one of the pre-selected poker pros). Since your own games probably don’t have any big name pros or celebrities, the best bet is to probably just give a bonus for all players you knock out.
So how should the KO bonuses work? Well, the easiest way would be to just have everybody throw in an extra few bucks on top of the regular buy in so that the extra cash goes towards knockouts. In the league I’m in, we are probably going to make the knockout bonus 10% of the buy-in. So if your buy-in is $20, each player should throw in an extra $2. Each time a player is knocked out, the person who knocked them out will get $2. Obviously you can adjust the amount of the bonuses depending on what you think is best for your league.
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Let’s face it, most home poker games are face with a dwindling player count from time to time. Whether your home game is just starting out and is in need of a good core group or your veteran game is slowly losing players each week, below are five tips that should help you boost your poker player participation.
- Pick the Right Group
Sometimes some players just won’t fit well with your regular poker group. Some players may be looking for a very strict, serious game while others look for a more relaxed, casual game. You may also have some people that just plain don’t get along with others in the group. You may have to “cut the fat” and sacrifice the few for the sake of the many. Don’t be rude about it, but next time you invite people, maybe you “forget” to invite a player so that everybody else is happier.
- Find a Hospitable Host
Choosing the right places to hold your home games is definitely one of the more important decisions you’ll have to make. You’ll want to factor in the distance the location is for potential players, the accomodations, and availability. If you hold it at a player’s home, you’ll also want to make sure it doesn’t put them out too much. If possible, you may want to rotate locations so that it’s fair for everyone.
- Upgrade to a League
As mentioned in a previous post, by structuring your home poker games into a full blown poker league, you can add incentive to help keep existing players coming back while enticing new blood to give it a shot. Players will love seeing where they stand and will know that missing a game means missing out on an opportunity for some league points.
- Supplies, Supplies, Supplies
Remember, not all poker chips are created equal! It’s amazing how much of a difference quality poker chips and a passable felt poker table can make in your home games. If you’re still playing with plastic poker chips, it’s time for you to get a grown up set.
- Awards and Prizes
Once you have a league set up, you can add fun poker awards and prizes that will give players something to shoot for. Sometimes fighting for the top spot in a league isn’t enough incentive, throw in a cool trophy or maybe even some extra cash and players will do their best to make every game.
Of course, the biggest key is to make sure everybody is having fun. Once they are, word of mouth will spread and you’ll have players asking if they can bring more and more people each week. If you hit most of the major points above, you should be well on your way to a thriving home poker game.
Winning money is obviously the main draw to a home poker game, but you can add extra incentive by throwing in some awards and prizes for various achievements. By using free web software like Home Poker System you can track all sorts of stats like points, players eliminated, and more. If you structure your league to have seasons you can give out specific awards and prizes at the end for various accomplishments.
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Looking for a way to add some spice to your home poker games? Maybe turning your home games into your very own poker league is just what you need. Sound like a lot of work? Fear not! There’s plenty of free software out there that’ll help you create and manage your poker league.
For instance, Home Poker System is a free website that allows you to track your league online quickly and easily. Ok, so I actually created that site myself, but it really is 100% free so you have nothing to lose trying it out for yourself.
After creating your league, you’re able to create seasons, schedule games, add players, and report results. The system will track everone’s progress for you while providing detailed stats such as wins, losses, placing, money earned/lost, points, players eliminated, and much more.
By tracking your home games in a league format (with a leaderboard, detailed stats, and game history), you’ll add more fun and excitement to your home poker games. When players are playing for points and a #1 standing along with the money, you’ll give players much more to brag about while also giving everybody much more incentive to not miss any games. When people can see a history of past games and comment on the results, every win and loss will mean that much more to people.
Leagues may not be the best route for all home games, but why not register and find out if it works for you. You really have nothing to lose.
Sometimes you may feel your home game dragging along. This may be due to slow shuffling and dealing as amateur card players are generally not very quick dealers.
If you want to speed up your play without dealing with (pardon the pun) a card shuffler
, you can add a second deck to your game. Use the player to the left of the dealer to shuffle the cards of the previous hand. When the hand is over, the person shuffling should be done (unless it was a very short hand) and should be ready to deal right away. Continue to pass the used cards to the left of the dealer and you should consistently have a deck ready to deal each time a hand is completed.
One of the great things about home poker games is the trash talk that often makes its way to the poker table. When playing against friends, table talk is all part of the game, but there’s still a few do’s and don’ts that you should keep in mind. Most tournaments and casino cash play often have rules against talking in certain situations and restrict what you can and can’t say during a game. Of course, at your home poker games, you set the rules, though the casino rules are usually in place for a good reason so you may want to follow their lead.
A common guideline is that players should probably not talk about a hand unless they are involved in it. If you’re nervously bluffing a player, you don’t want somebody who’s not in the hand to call you out. It’s not always a rule, but it’s almost always considered poor sportsmanship to affect a player’s hand when you’re not in it.
Teaming up is incredibly frowned upon and often against the rules. You can joke around about having to take out a player or to watch out for a person’s bluffs, but during a hand, you shouldn’t be talking to your fellow players about strategy or ways to beat another player. A common example is when a person goes all in and two players call. Generally the two calling players will check the entire hand to increase their odds of eliminated the all-in player. This is an acceptable unspoken strategy but it becomes poor sportsmanship (and usually against the rules) to tell your fellow player to just check it down during the hand.
You can talk about your hand all you want, as long as you don’t say exactly what you have. This is rule that most people don’t know. Most casino games have a hardset rule that you cannot tell people the specifics of what you’re holding while you’re playing. You can be vague and give possibilities, but you can’t flatout say “I’ve got poket aces”. Once people lay down their cards you can show them and brag all you want, but you usually aren’t allowed to say exactly what you have while the game is being played. Since this rule is often forgotten, it’s really up to you whether or not to enforce it.
Verbal bets are binding – at least at the casinos. Movies have shown some bad poker, thus giving new players some bad examples to follow, such as the “I call you’re bet and I raise you all-in.” It’s up to you to determine how to handle verbal bets, but you really should make verbal bets binding a rule since it’s unfair to the recipient of a misspoken verbal bet. If a person announces raise, they must raise. If they say fold, they must fold – there shouldn’t be any exceptions.
In the end, keep in mind that it’s a home poker game and to not take things too seriously – especially in the beginning. Get a feel for your fellow players. If there are many new players, you’re going to want to ease them into rules like verbal betting. If most of your home poker game is comprised of poker regulars, you’ll probably want to mimic casino rules so that your games will be as professional as possible. Remember that the key is to have fun. Don’t be afraid to liven up your home game with some trash talking – just make sure it’s all fair and in good fun.
