Organizing home poker games can be a devious task for a beginner, but don’t worry you’ve come to the right place to learn all you need to know.
First of all you have to decide whether you want to play a tournament or a cash game. Personally I prefer cash games, since they allow more freedom. Playing a cash game allows players to leave whenever they want and also if somebody loses all his chips he can just buy back in. Now with tournaments the opposite applies.
If someone wants to or needs to go he can’t just buy out, also when a player busts he can’t buy back in. That is a problem if you want to have a fun home game, because the first person out will obviously get bored just watching. Still, the decision is up to you.
After you decide whether you want to play a tourney or a cash game… you have to decide on the stakes. Remember, playing poker without money is like playing basketball without the ball.
Keeping that in mind, if you want to keep things fun the stakes should stay low enough that it won’t hurt anyone if he/she loses (even after a rebuy) and high enough so that the game doesn’t turn into an all-infest (everyone just shoving their chips in because they don’t really give a shit). Now on to specifics…
Obviously the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself, and everyone that’s playing, with the rules. If you don’t know the rules just have a look here and scroll down the page to find the game that you want to play.
Now that that is out of the way, you should have already decided for either a cash game or a tournament. Just follow these two links to find out more:
Now the last thing for you to do is just enjoy your home poker game evening and try to own your friends as much as you can. If you want to know how to improve your chances of winning, have a look at the strategy section.
Enjoy!
