The grim reaper has harvested my games (1 Viewer)

[DrStrange]

So far this year, I have lost four players to death or disability. I have seen two full tables of players die or be disabled over the last decade, eighteen in total.

We haven't been able to recruit replacements faster than players get knocked out by the grim reaper. Toss on top normal attrition, and I feel the viability of my games is greatly in doubt.

Making matters harder - - the core regulars will not play tournaments. They also don't much care for big bet hold'em games. They might play a session of hold'em under duress, but it doesn't make them happy. It is hard to go back to boring Texas hold'em once you have a regular mixed game. Prospective new players are often looking for fixed buy-in Texas Hold'em tournaments rather than open ended costs of a cash game. Add in anything except Texas Hold'em and the barrier for new players gets pretty tough. My game is a $0.25/$0.50 limit game. Not that daunting to us. But way too many people recoil in horror at the thought of losing $40 or $100 in a bad night.

I have to say that I am considering disgorging some of my chip horde. There are something like 40,000 chips in the vault. Maybe it is getting close to time to let some of then find a better forever home. - OR - maybe we will find another half dozen players and will be good to go for another few years.

 

[JMC9389]

Ride the tide and hold on, I say. Each game goes through seasons. Today's core group may not want what next year's wants. I had a recurring monthly tournament with a core group of between 6 and 8 guys that ran monthly. Had a points system and end of the year a wrestling style belt was awarded to the winner. All it took was one of the guys to have a kid and another to get engaged, and a third to have their father sustain a horrible bike accident that required him to pitch in with his care and it was no longer viable to do the league anymore.

Nowadays, I've been hosting a split of 90/10 cash games/tournaments. But the tide will turn again I'm sure.

 

[Huskerchipper]

That's brutal to read as I have had some thoughts along those lines the last 6 months. My core group has been playing with me since the late 90's to early 2000's when we were all relatively young. Now I have a few players with some serious health issues and I can see the writing on the wall. I have been very actively recruiting new players. Right now I only hold a monthly $25 tournament so it's very friendly for new players and I don't mind playing for low stakes... I get the same feel of competitiveness. But it's really difficult to find new dedicated players that want to play every month. It sounds like you are in a difficult spot and I wish I knew what to tell you.

It's a bit weird to me that poker is as popular as ever but I have a harder time getting people to play vs the early 2000's around Chris Moneymaker time when it felt like everyone you knew played. Different dynamic now with online I guess but that doesn't interest me whatsoever. Best wishes and thank you for sharing.

 

[merkong]

Being the oldest (59) at my game by decades aside from a couple of players, I haven’t thought about this kind of attrition. I do always tell my banker (son in law) “this game will be yours someday.”

A heartfelt “atta boy” for trying to march on in the face of these kinds of losses. Much condolences as well. I think we all know the kinds of friendships forged at the table are special ones at that.

As far as you game goes maybe it’s time to retool. .25/.25 with a spread buyin and start looking at leaning toward the majority; spread what they will come and play. Incentivize the plus one.

Having a regular game is hard enough let alone shifting tastes and these types of exits.

Good luck.

Ken (merkong) 500+ Sessions Spread
Owner/Operator/Founder:
*The Godfather Club MN (The Venue)
*The Executive Game, (The Current Game)
*Frogtown Card Club, St. Paul (Retired Venue)
*The Poker Family (Our Philosophy)

 

[SteveEH]

Rough

Thanks for sharing this as it's something we should all consider at some point.

Have you communicated your concerns with your regs? If they understand the situation maybe they'll make some compromises to continue playing vs. no game at all.

Some suggestions from my experience:

- As much as I'm a fan of micro stakes (I'd even play for no money), .25/.50 fixed limit is really small. There will be outlier nights, but on average people aren't going to lose more than $20 over the session right? To appeal to more players, double the stakes to .50/1, ask players to bring $40, and incorporate .10/.10 pot limit games into the rotation.

- To give new players comfort with a cash game vs. A tourney, communicate average win/loss amounts for the night. We buy in for $60 min and play 1/2 fixed or .25/.25 pot limit games. I say: expect to win/lose about $40 for the night unless you play every hand or get really unlucky.

- For players new to poker, advertise it as a hold'em only game, and move on to pineapple, then crazy pineapple later in the evening. Also, are the newbies interested to socialize or or gamble? For the former do fixed limit, and the latter pot limit. Your regs need to suck it up here for the greater good (insert hot Fuzz meme).

- Free food and booze helps offsets newbies losses. I often hear "I expect to lose, but I'm getting dinner and drinks so it's all good."

- Embrace short handed. I do 6 Max, prefer 5, and I'm happy to play with 4.

Good luck!

 

[DrStrange]

We play weekly, 0.25/0.50 blinds with a $2 preflop / $3 flop / $4 turn / $5 river betting limit. It is spread limit, so you could bet less and often do preflop. Most nights the big losers lose $100+ and the big winners win $100+ It might average out to be +/- $20 for the median player.

The worst players spew thousands of dollars in losses over a year. This is why we switched from big bet poker to limit poker. Trying to mitigate the burn rate for the worst players. I think the worst player in our history was losing $5,000 a year playing $0.25/$0.50 limit poker (he is in end-of-life care at the moment.)

A new player is going to take a beating. Less than if we played big bet poker, like we do at meet-ups, but still painful.

Perspective - the local game in my over 55 community is a $1 buy in / $0.50 rebuy hold'em tournament. tournament. Forced ending at the end of two hours. whoever has the most chips at 9:00 SHARP wins the pot. We discussed making it $1 entry and $1 rebuys but that was too much for the gang. Cheapest house available is $400,000 up to a million for the nicest homes. And an extra fifty cents for a rebuy was a problem.

I have never successfully recruited a single player from that $1 tournament. Nor have I found new one player in my community. "Too rich for my blood" Never been sure what to think about that. I even bought a set for a $0.05 / $0.10 game with a $10 buy in. No takers locally and my regulars laughed at driving over to play ten cent hold'em.

 

[Moxie Mike]

It is hard to go back to boring Texas hold'em once you have a regular mixed game.

Truer words never spoken.

I have never successfully recruited a single player from that $1 tournament.

That doesn't come as a surprise. People tend to stay within the stakes they're comfortable with.

I've been running a regular fixed limit mixed game (stakes range from $3-6 to $6-12 and rotate weekly) for about the last 18 months. It took me 5 years of running $100 buy in tournament leagues to get enough players to consistently run a game. We always have at least 5 (acceptable for mixed games), usually have 7 or 8 and occasionally get enough for 2 tables.

My core group consists of about 9 players who play consistently... mainly because they understand that if they want a regular game to run, it needs people willing to show up week after week. Of those players, two I met at a local casino playing O8 several years ago, another I met at an adjacent private game. Those players recruited a few others and a couple others migrated from the tournament group. I also met @GrindstonePoker here on PCF.

I'm only 45 so I plan to host consistently for the foreseeable future, but I think at some point my game will need a succession plan. A time will come where it's time to pass hosting duties along to a younger man. But in the meantime, I'm always recruiting and trying to keep the list growing because no one's getting any younger.

 

[BarrieJ3]

But seriously, sucks to watch our local support structures, friends, and acquaintances move on. Always makes us think.

Hope that the game continues on, it feels like the smaller the group due to these circumstances, the more important the game may become to those holding on.

 

[Highli99]

One of the reasons I like playing ROE is that there is just enough holdem to lure in the holdem players, and most holdem players enjoy PLOonce they learn it. From there, other games become more approachable. Going from zero to circus is hard.

One of the reason games like @krafticus have been so successful is that he has people in all ages. There are college students and octinagerians, and lots in the middle. Its cool to see recently that long time regs have started bringing their adult children. That might be an option for you. Another might be leaning on your regs to help recruit.

Good luck, and hopefully the health of yiur gane and its players improves. A chip and a chair!