Cash Game How I Bank at a Home Game in an Increasingly Cashless Society (2 Viewers)

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

So what are you saying? That banks in Boston, and presumably NYC where SNL is filmed are similar to banks in Greece? They don't typically give change? Because otherwise, I don't even see how this is funny. Just wow. I didn't realize you guys had it so bad up there too.

 

[30YEARFIX]

Anyways lots of discussion in this topic, I think it’s great! I am a very OCD person when it comes to accounts and have even volunteered to handle the bank at other players homes.

I used to live in China and we used to play pretty heavy (similar $2/$5 USD) stakes. In China the largest bill demonination was ¥100 which is around $12 usd. This was a wild game with a lot of rich businessmen - cashiers would be ¥20,000 owed etc. we would play at mahjong places so it was public. Just wasn’t feasible to bring that much cash and this is the system thru trial and error we devised. It’s not ideal but it worked for us.

Main thing is all the players in the game had a level of trust, there weren’t any randoms and if someone was bringing a friend - they would vouch for that person. If that person didn’t pay they would cover and their portion and figure it out.

Would this work for a smaller game, I don’t think so - small amounts tend to get lost and “forgotten” so it’s better to cash out 100% at the table. When someone wins $2k everyone at the table is aware and it’s kind of taboo to skip out on that kind of a loss.

Anyways, I never seen it elsewhere, thought I’d contribute what we do. If it can work for anyone else great! If not - keep on doing what works

 

[upNdown]

I understand what you guys are saying, and I personally agree that a cash game with actual cash is the preferred way (for me) to host a poker game. But you have to take his posts into the context of this thread, which is specifically discussing how to run a cashless game. It's great to personally want to play cash only, but it makes no sense to come into this thread and disregard the issues that make cashless desirable to those who do play this way.

What you are missing is that once they've made the decision to do cashless, they feel like they need to reduce the total numbers of transactions, and make the ones they do have not look like they are hosting a poker game. If, as you guys would prefer (I assume) all buy-ins and rebuys go to one person (host or predetermined banker) and then later that same person distributes those payments in a relatively similar total, but in different individual amounts, back to the same group of people, it would be pretty easy for anyone on the platform reviewing these transactions to guess the these individuals are gambling. Which is against their policies, I believe. So the purpose of the losers paying the winners after the fact is to make the transactions look like more traditional "friends sending friends money" transactions.

I understand it. I’m just being honest when I say I’d hate it, having to ask multiple people to send me their money, and doing the math, and then to track those transactions to make sure they happen.
Part of it probably comes from hosting too - it’s a job I take seriously. I do all the work, I take all the risk, and it’s all to make the player’s experience smooth and enjoyable.

So what are you saying? That banks in Boston, and presumably NYC where SNL is filmed are similar to banks in Greece? They don't typically give change? Because otherwise, I don't even see how this is funny. Just wow. I didn't realize you guys had it so bad up there too.

Ha, no I’ve never had a bank problem. That change-making talk just reminded me of that barely funny sketch I saw on SNL many years ago.

 

[Poker Zombie]

Poker players in America are superstitious about $50 bills - nobody wants anything to do with them.

Does anybody know what that superstition is about? I have a number of fifty's each tournament ($30 buy-in). I keep $200 in change in my bank if necessary, but a few 50s aren't that hard to work into the cash-outs.

 

[Poker Zombie]

The only issue I really have with digital transfers is the US government is trying to cut back on "under the table" exchanges, so they can tax them. PayPal already has agreed to submit the number of exchanges made, I reckon it's just a matter of time and/or pressure before your Venmos and Zelles are tracked. then everyone is a loser when they wind up paying taxes on their poker "income".

 

[detroitdad]

The only issue I really have with digital transfers is the US government is trying to cut back on "under the table" exchanges, so they can tax them. PayPal already has agreed to submit the number of exchanges made, I reckon it's just a matter of time and/or pressure before your Venmos and Zelles are tracked. then everyone is a loser when they wind up paying taxes on their poker "income".

You have a poker income?

 

[grandmeme]

For my bigger games I keep a paper ledger. People can pay their debts in cash or transfer afterwards, I haven't had a problem yet. I have a separate bank account for processing payments.

And I don't extend credit, ever, because I don't take rake. If you are a new player, apologies but you will have to show me some cash or transfer straight up first. Or if I am ever suspicious about your ability to pay debts, sorry but you are no longer invited unless you can pay me straight up.

Everything is settled at the table before departure, even if you have to leave early.

For 1/1, 50c/50c, 1/2 etc I do cash only.

 

[MrCatPants]

Poker players in America are superstitious about $50 bills - nobody wants anything to do with them.

Not in my group. For some reason they bring them like covid-20. I super ultra hate it.

 

[upNdown]

Not in my group. For some reason they bring them like covid-20. I super ultra hate it.

Terrible terrible people.
In his WSOP vlog this year, at some point somebody paid Daniel Negreanu money they owed him and there was a fifty included.
Daniel left the fifty on a chair, rolled it over to a maintenance guy who was changing the trash cans and said “can you please take this.”

 

[Rooster410]

Start of game - Cash for chips or Venmo for chips.

End of game - Chips for cash or chips for Venmo.

No ledger/writing things down needed.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Not in my group. For some reason they bring them like covid-20. I super ultra hate it.

I believe ATMs in some areas dispense $50s now instead of $20s to increase time between reloads.

 

[Nine_high]

I am awakening an old thread but I think we have found a great way to do banking at our home games.

First a disclaimer - we all know each other and everyone is good for their funds. We always settle up end of the night but 95% do cashless payments so we extend credit at the table.

Initially everyone comes in tells banker how much they are buying in for. It gets written down and chips are handed to them.

As people need to top up same, announce to banker. Banker issues chips and amount is written in ledger on his phone.

End of the night when it’s time to settle up, everyone is responsible for giving back their credit. Say someone lost took $300 credit from the bank and has only $100 in chip stack end of the night, they will find a winner and pay them for their $200 in chips. That person settles with them, then they give their cresit back to the banker.

This becomes real good because everyone is responsible for settling up and it’s easy to know who owes what.

only potential issues - when someone leaves early they need to cash out and settle what they owe with the bank or it gets written their profit and someone will settle for chips end of the night.

Second is if you don’t write all transactions or don’t hand out correct stacks things get messed up but usually that doesn’t happen.

Let me know what you guys think!

In my house I always do straight cash. As a courtesy I'll take a venmo if you run out but then I put that cash in the box out of my own stash.

But I used to run a game overseas where cash was actually hard to get. There were no atms and you could only get $20 max cash back per purchase at the exchange. So we did a hybrid cash/credit system.

If someone was coming in on credit I'd write it on a slip of paper with their name and put it in the cash box. If they rebuy or add on I put another in. By the end of the night there'd be a pile of cash and a pile of these markers. I'd cash people out with their own markers when possible, then work my way up using the cash, and finally the biggest stacks ended up with some mix of cash and markers. Now it was on them to go collect on those markers, and no longer my problem as banker.

Worked well, we all worked together and lived together so there was some built in trust since there was nowhere to hide

 

[Coyote]

Does anybody know what that superstition is about? I have a number of fifty's each tournament ($30 buy-in). I keep $200 in change in my bank if necessary, but a few 50s aren't that hard to work into the cash-outs.

From Nasdaq.com

1. Many stores don’t like them, either: Some businesses don’t accept $50 bills, and even those that do might not have change for them. In many cases you might have to buy close to $50 worth of merchandise just to be able to use the bill — whether you want that much merchandise or not.
2. They’re easy to get mixed up with other currencies. One way U.S. currency differs from other currencies is that all the bills are the same size and roughly the same color, meaning that the $5 bill you thought you gave as a tip could have been a $50 bill if you weren’t paying attention.
3. They feature Ulysses S. Grant: Grant might have led the Union Army to victory in the U.S. Civil War, but he was not considered a particularly good president. What’s more, he went bankrupt — which some people see as a sign of bad luck, according to CNN. There have even been efforts to replace Grant with someone else on the fifty, but so far that hasn’t happened.
4. They are bad luck. This, of course, only applies to people who believe a piece of paper can carry “luck” in the first place. But some professional gamblers and casinos don’t like to carry $50 bills because they’re considered a jinx, CNN noted. This is partly because early Las Vegas investor and infamous gangster Bugsy Siegel was rumored to have died with only $50 bills in his pockets when he was brutally gunned down in Beverly Hills in 1947.

 

[demonnic]

I've also heard it's associated with criminal activity but I'm having trouble finding my original source on that. So I could be misremembering

 

[Coyote]

The larger the value of the bill, the more useful it becomes to crime, especially organized crime.
The European Central Bank has stopped printing and is gradually withdrawing 500E bills (equal to $560) for this reason, and I 'm sure 200E bills will follow.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

In my house I always do straight cash. As a courtesy I'll take a venmo if you run out but then I put that cash in the box out of my own stash.

At the risk of repeating myself (and @Nine_high), I also do this regularly.

Keeps the bank square and 100% cash, but my players also know that I can take Venmo/CashApp if they run dry or miss the ATM on the way to the game.

 

[bergs]

Cash, always.
Conus4ever.
I killed Gematria.
That is me.

 

[allforcharity]

Terrible terrible people.
In his WSOP vlog this year, at some point somebody paid Daniel Negreanu money they owed him and there was a fifty included.
Daniel left the fifty on a chair, rolled it over to a maintenance guy who was changing the trash cans and said “can you please take this.”

But isn't he Canadian?

We use $50 bills up here all the time. It's really not a problem. They are red bills, which easily differentiates from the green $20, purple $10, blue $5, and brown $100.

 

[cowboypoker16]

Venmo and zelle make life easier

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

Venmo and zelle make life easier

That may be true about life, but they definitely make poker games more complicated.

 

[Machine]

Does anybody know what that superstition is about?

older US currency the 50s were easily mistaken for 20s, it caught on and then people don't understand the reason behind it, they just claim its bad luck.

 

[Poker Zombie]

Venmo and zelle make life easier
- The IRS

FYP

 

[Nine_high]

I believe ATMs in some areas dispense $50s now instead of $20s to increase time between reloads.

I get a ton of $50s. I think you're right it's the ATMs