Home Game Questions
I Just started hosting a home game this year (NLTH) buy-in is $30 minimum and $50 maximum, blinds are .10/.25 with .50 straddle (optional). Add-ons and rebuys are up to 50% of the chip stack leader - though rebuys are rare. We play bomb pots every hour, and sometimes the hands get wild, but mostly we eat, drink and socialize.
I’m thinking about raising the stakes up, maybe hosting $100 buy-in at .5/$1, but I’m concerned that my current game might leave the territory of a friendly social game, and get too serious for some guys. Most everyone is totally fine paying $50, but maybe $100 is too much.
What’s a good maximum for a home game that both keeps it friendly but, increases the competitiveness?
5 Replies
That just depends so much on the demographics of your players. To some folks, $100 is monopoly money, not worth worrying about. To others it a significant part of their monthly budget.
That just depends so much on the demographics of your players. To some folks, $100 is monopoly money, not worth worrying about. To others it a significant part of their monthly budget.
I totally agree with this - there is no right answer to the question, and the people you should be asking are the people in the game. I would ask them each separately, so they are not influenced by "the group".
I Just started hosting a home game this year (NLTH) buy-in is $30 minimum and $50 maximum, blinds are .10/.25 with .50 straddle (optional). Add-ons and rebuys are up to 50% of the chip stack leader - though rebuys are rare. We play bomb pots every hour, and sometimes the hands get wild, but mostly we eat, drink and socialize.
I’m thinking about raising the stakes up, maybe hosting $100 buy-in at .5/$1, but I’m concerned that my current game might leave the territory of a friendly social game, an
Obviously it depends upon the players but in this case we know two facts. Your current players continue to come and seem to enjoy the current stakes. Why change something that is not broken?
Reading between the lines, I'm guessing that the low buy-in is meaning that some players don't take the game seriously? If that is the case, you can engage the competitive part of their brain without increasing the stakes by adding in a bragging rights element of some sort. Tracking results is one way, but maybe will make things too serious. Maybe some sort of voted on player of the quarter plaques, or some such.
Just ask your players.
