Home Poker

Ideas For Your Own Poker Party

Holding a regular Home Poker Night or Party in your house can be a fun tradition that that you and your friends will look forward to every time you play. Regular poker games among friends are what keep poker players happy.

Whether you have your own home bar with a real poker table, or just a kitchen table that will double as a poker table, then you've got a place to play poker. And if you have a group of friends that love to play poker on a regular basis, then you've got a home poker night at your house.

If you are hosting a poker night for the first time, there are a few things you should know to get your poker party up and running right.

First, how many people are coming over? This will determine what kind of poker games you will be playing. Will it be dealer's choice, where everyone takes turns dealing and calling the game? Or will it be basically one game, like Texas Holdem, which is very popular these days?

If you have over 5 people invited and all will be playing at one table, then Texas Holdem is a good game, because you don't run through as many cards per game, and the game just moves along better with Holdem. From 4-5 people, dealer's choice is good because you get a little variety. Everybody has their favorite game and you need to keep everyone happy because there aren't that many players. One or two decide to leave and your home poker night is over.

Decide what the "buy-in" is going to be, or how much will be at stake to lose. Consider how much the average person would spend on a night out on the town, and figure that this is the most anyone would be willing to lose at poker on a given night. After all, this is actually an entertaining night on the town, so everyone expects to spend that much anyway. For those that win, it's a welcome bonus.

The main thing is to not make the stakes so high that the big loser of the night feels like he's not going to make his mortgage payment this month. No one feels good when that happens.

Along those same lines, decide what the betting structure and rules for wagering will be. What will the ante be, and what are the minimum and maximum limits for the individual bets? What is the spread limit going to be, if playing with one? In other words, if someone raises the bet, what limits, if any does the next person have? If it's a fixed limit, what will that be?

Considering all of these setup situations and implementing the guidelines before the home poker starts is the best way to stay out of arguments and conflicts which will absolutely ruin your home poker night. Once the ground rules have been layed out and everyone gets used to regularly playing within these guidelines, there will be plenty of happy poker plays at your home poker party.

There will be periodic additions to this page, as well as links to resources and ideas that will make your home poker playing parties and get-togethers rewarding and become events that everyone will look forward to time after time.