SSTB2213
Pair
Thanks for asking this! Was just wondering this myself
Time between home games (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter gnasher
- Start date
SSTB2213
Pair
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
Flush
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
Sitting Out
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.
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.
But I’m in a sparsely-populated area. In a city I could probably do it more often.
snowman7777
Sitting Out
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
Sitting Out
This might be the most beautiful room I’ve ever laid my eyes on.
4SUMERZ
Flush
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.
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
Royal Flush
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.
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.
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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.
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
Full House
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.
I host once per week. Our group started out around 7-8 people weekly, but after a few months, about half stopped playing weekly and only four of us play once per week. The other guys will play about once per month.
4SUMERZ
Flush
See above
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ningolfsland
Sitting Out
There are a handful of other games in our area that a lot of the common player pool jumps between. For mine, we mostly play mixed games and typically monthly to avoid overlap/competition/repetition with other stuff going on.
BleedingChips
High Hand
Once a month host here….
Does anyone find their attendance wane at certain times of year? I have felt the summer is much more difficult to keep numbers up as people are so busy with outside activities.
Does anyone find their attendance wane at certain times of year? I have felt the summer is much more difficult to keep numbers up as people are so busy with outside activities.
I see from once a week to once a month in the games I participate in. Leagues are once a month.
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
I used to think that. The data did not support the thought.
Reading the chart:
- We play every 6 weeks, with the occasional 3-week interval. Following COVID, we played every 3 weeks to make up for lost games.
- Pink fill are Ladies Nights. Attendance is always lower with 1/2 the players out.
- Green fill are our Year-end events. There is a bigger bonus and a steak dinner, so attendance is typically greater.
- Yellow fill are cash games (our players are primarily tournament players).
- At the end of 2015, because the group had grown too much, we split up into an A-list and a B-list. B-listers were less frequent players, and did not respond quickly (within 10 days) to the invites. While we have nothing against the B-listers, It hampered or planning (food buys, table setups, etc). B-listers lost their invite unless they actually asked.
- Green text are games during COVID. 5-6 Max per table. June 2021 we went back to normal, but there was a resurgence in the fall and winter forcing us back to 6-max
- January 2018 we got 2 games in (3 weeks apart). August 2020 we got in 2 games (3 weeks apart).
BleedingChips
High Hand
Thank you for sharing! I like the idea of A-B list and am starting to run into this with a few players. It sounds like you do not send B listers game schedules or requests to rsvp unless they reach out to you. Is that right?
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
That is correct. Initially, we thought we would invite B-listers if we were going to be under 14 players (16-18 is my preferred). After creating the B-List, the only time we had a regular game below 14 players was January 2016, which was affectionately known as "snowmageddon" around here. The unexpected drop in attendance was unavoidable, but not worth extending out extra invites to fill the seats.
I’m twice a month, i.e. every other week. If I miss a game, the schedule bumps to the next week. Realistically I get 20-22 games in yearly, out of a possible max of 26, with occasional gaps due to holidays or not enough reservations.
As far as seasons, while one of my players refers to poker as a “winter sport,” I don’t really find that summer makes it noticeably harder to fill the table. I do find that a few players are more likely to arrive late in summer, since they can do more outside before sundown... But I’ve made my game a 7 pm start time year-round. Could move that to 6 pm in the dead of winter I suppose.
For me the variance in attendance is almost entirely dependent on the player pool’s travel and work plans, not weather or daylight.
I have several regs who make between half or 2/3rds of games, whose attendance depends almost entirely on whether they are traveling. At least two travel a great deal for business, and one is retired and takes a lot of vacations... But if they’re at home, they’re playing. Then there are a few others for whom it depends almost entirely on local work. My game goes off on Thursdays, as I find it actually harder to get a quorum on weekends. But with a weekday game, sometimes they have to work late, or get up very early the next day.
My ideal is 8-handed plus the dealer to have plenty of room at the table. I don't host unless I have at least 7 firm reservations, and prefer to have 9 or even 10 (expecting that someone will cancel last minute, grr, someone will bust early, and 1-2 will come late).
To get that solid 8 player game going I really need a pool of at least 15 and preferably 20 regular/semi-regular/very occasional players to ensure it goes off most of the time. For any given game I always get a minimum of 4-6 right off the bat of regs who almost always play. Then it is a matter of seeing which semi-regs and “occasionals” can make it. My goal in the next year or so is to try to expand the pool to more like 24 or even 30, so that there is more competition for seats, and less waiting until the morning of the game to say that it is on.
My big pet peeve right now is the reg who is always first to reserve, but seems to never check with his wife whether she has other plans for them until the day of the game. He’s canceled 2-8 hours before gametime three times this year already... So now I have to lecture him about what a PITA this is for me as a host, having to scramble to fill his seat at the last minute.
Strike
Pair
We didn't wanna do Monthly, but weekly seems a bit too much commitment, we have small children. Twice a month is a happy medium with occasional cancellations due to plans
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