Time between home games (1 Viewer)

[SSTB2213]

Thanks for asking this! Was just wondering this myself

 

[SSTB2213]

I just ran my first game and had a full table of 8, plus a waitlist of 1. Game two is a month away and already have a full table and a waitlist of 3. I may try to get in a game every other week and see how it goes.

 

[TKEUofM]

A lot depends on your group of players. I've been hosting a monthly tournament for 23 years now and we always 24-28 players. Due to personal schedules, kids, sports, work, etc it's tough for everyone to commit to a game every week. If I was to start having a weekly game I know that people would spread out much more. Your casual and social gamblers will attend weekly or every other week so your group will likely be smaller.

 

[ItsAlwaysLupus]

I just ran my first game and had a full table of 8, plus a waitlist of 1. Game two is a month away and already have a full table and a waitlist of 3. I may try to get in a game every other week and see how it goes.

The risk of running weekly, depending how big it plays etc, is that if someone runs bad they may stop showing up. But also, that's just gambling right? Lol.
For me it feels like the more consistent you keep your game the easier it is to keep players coming. I.e. the first Saturday of every month etc. Filling games ad hoc is usually a bit more of a challenge.

 

[Taghkanic]

Pre-pandemic, I was able to get a (relatively cheap) two-table tourney off weekly. In the past few years I moved to a higher-stakes cash game, and one table twice a month seems better.

But I’m in a sparsely-populated area. In a city I could probably do it more often.

 

[snowman7777]

I do monthly for my game. My friends aren't as into poker as I am so having the time off allows them to get excited about throwing some chips around again. Sometimes we end up skipping months for whatever reason and the excitement is just that much higher. I think its a balance. Every player pool is different in the amount of appetite there is to play. If you have enough people that want to play more often then I say go for it. You can always lower the frequency if people lose interest.

 

[Zyerb]

I’ve always spread a weekly cash game. My original game in St. Paul which ran for about 5 years started and ended as a weekly. My current game which just crossed over into year three also has only existed as a weekly.

With a weekly game there are ups and downs. You’re able to create routine for and investment in the player pool. It makes recruiting easier because instead of finding and interested player and telling them the next game is in 3 weeks you can give them options, and quick ones at that, to check you out. You also have more opportunities to audition players.

As a host it can become a bit tiring but that frequency allows you to develop your own routines and with that things run more smoothly. You’ll also have more chances to experiment with things like layout, food and amenities, and structure. Be careful though with structure. Consistent games like consistent stakes and structure.

You’re more able to create and build this community, this alternate universe as I like to think of it. You want something that players feel part of and the weekly gives much more opportunity to do just that.

Hosting is so much more than setting up the table and opening the front door. Saturday mornings I send out individualized texts to players from the night before with a hey thanks and what’s up the rest of the weekend and keep your eye opening for the taking of your seat for this week text. Sunday into Monday I secure seats from those who played the previous sessions and start looking at the Rolodex to fill vacated seats. Later in the week once the table is set everyone gets a short primer text and then Thursday while I’m finishing with the room everyone gets the “Happy Poker Eve” text.

Hosting is about building something that people rely on.

Weekly.

Oh, and don’t be afraid to play a shorter table. Normalize it. It actually is better, or at least not worse poker. Normalizing it will comfort your players. That’s also where the milleau and amenities come into play. The hot dog roller, sloppy joes, donuts, candy, chips, and beverages will make them feel at home. Money? Push for tips. It took no time at all for my players to completely cover the $20-30 it costs me to spread food.

Good luck. I’ve done this for awhile.

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)

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This might be the most beautiful room I’ve ever laid my eyes on.

 

[4SUMERZ]

From Nov-April, I play at a weekly nightime live game, play online at a private online table once a week, and I have a live game at my place once a month, sometimes I have 2 games in the same month.
Most of the guys are retire, so it's easy to set up the games. We have different players at each of the live games above, but they are spares if needed.
We all golf, so once golf season starts, vacations etc, we put all poker on the shelf, unless we have a golf outing out of town, then we bring the poker items with us to play at night.

 

[Poker Zombie]

I host every 6 weeks, with one 3-week gap thrown in (to accommodate someone that only had their kid ever other weekend). This provides a "leave them wanting more" mentality, so when you drop invites for the next event, players pounce. We have one couple that drives 5 hours each way to attend. One player will make 2 games this year, flying 1,500 miles.

More frequent games are great for a casual show-or-dont-show mindset. Monthly is best for don't-want-to-miss mindsets. Tailor your schedule to your end-goal.

 

[ApeRice]

I host every 6 weeks, with one 3-week gap thrown in (to accommodate someone that only had their kid ever other weekend). This provides a "leave them wanting more" mentality, so when you drop invites for the next event, players pounce. We have one couple that drives 5 hours each way to attend. One player will make 2 games this year, flying 1,500 miles.

More frequent games are great for a casual show-or-dont-show mindset. Monthly is best for don't-want-to-miss mindsets. Tailor your schedule to your end-goal.

I just started hosting and am trying to balance this myself. I'm starting on every other week or every three weeks and seeing if I develop a group of regulars, but if it becomes less of an event I'm considering hosting monthly. Hopefully I can convince other players to host and organize amongst themselves so there are more games on a regular basis if they would like.

 

[SixSeven]

I've been hosting about 2 1/2 years. I started sporadically, which ended up every 6 months at first, then to about every three months and by a year in, went to every two months. Then after another 9 months, got up to every month. I am considering every 2 weeks now. Based on comments here, I found a lot of valuable info about doing it every 2 weeks, or leaving it at every month. I like the consistency idea of every 2 weeks, but like "the pounce on it" idea of every month. I have a player pool of about 30, and I usually do a cash game, 1 table of 9 players. I am happy with 7 or 8 and can fit in 10 if I need to, but 9 is the sweet spot for me. I like how @merkong mentioned the individual texts before, after, and leading to the next one. I have tried a FB group, Band app, but feel the direct text is the best, and you can invite in the order you want. I would prefer an email type invite but don't have that down yet. (I am working on a gmail app that automates that.). My question is, for the ones here that have it every other week or every week, is that easier for tourneys? I can see I could probably make that work in my area if it was a tourney, bc the amount lost is pretty set each week and they can know how much they are setting aside. But for cash, a player can empty their pockets for the night, and I think having it again sooner than a month, it would make it too hard for them to come back in a week or two bc if they lost again, they would lose interest. For those of you that do it every week and do cash games, do your players not have a problem with them losing too much regularly? My cash stakes are .25/.25 and .25/.50 with Max buy in from $40-$100. Most of my player pool is more casual, and poker is not their main thing.

 

[merkong]

I've been hosting about 2 1/2 years. I started sporadically, which ended up every 6 months at first, then to about every three months and by a year in, went to every two months. Then after another 9 months, got up to every month. I am considering every 2 weeks now. Based on comments here, I found a lot of valuable info about doing it every 2 weeks, or leaving it at every month. I like the consistency idea of every 2 weeks, but like "the pounce on it" idea of every month. I have a player pool of about 30, and I usually do a cash game, 1 table of 9 players. I am happy with 7 or 8 and can fit in 10 if I need to, but 9 is the sweet spot for me. I like how @merkong mentioned the individual texts before, after, and leading to the next one. I have tried a FB group, Band app, but feel the direct text is the best, and you can invite in the order you want. I would prefer an email type invite but don't have that down yet. (I am working on a gmail app that automates that.). My question is, for the ones here that have it every other week or every week, is that easier for tourneys? I can see I could probably make that work in my area if it was a tourney, bc the amount lost is pretty set each week and they can know how much they are setting aside. But for cash, a player can empty their pockets for the night, and I think having it again sooner than a month, it would make it too hard for them to come back in a week or two bc if they lost again, they would lose interest. For those of you that do it every week and do cash games, do your players not have a problem with them losing too much regularly? My cash stakes are .25/.25 and .25/.50 with Max buy in from $40-$100. Most of my player pool is more casual, and poker is not their main thing.

Tourneys are good too. Deepen your player pool. We have a couple of guys that will take a solid beating and then a week off. That deep player pool helps with that. On top of that, and this is the tougher part but integral while you're building and building, and that is don't fret a shorter table. When I spread more tournaments back in the day, I got into the mindset that anything less than being full was bad. It's not. Especially this time of year with covid, noro, corona and a host (no pun) of viruses out there, if you drop half your table you still roll. Yet another incentive to spread more cash games. Maybe lower the buy-in range a bit to tamp down the excitement and slow the losses. Especially if you can lean into the .25/.25 game. You know what we do I believe; .25/.25, $25-40 out of the gate and top off to the big stack. Small but still big enough to put 1K in the drawer on most nights. Tabling and building a regular game is a weird formula and one that when you start feeling it you got it. Also, the tournaments are a great chance to audition new possible regulars or semi-regulars and showcase your game. Good luck.