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Opinions on these Texas Hold'em Poker Guidelines

G

Garet Jax

Diamond Member
I am holding a monthly poker night and am trying to get the right guidelines in place.

Please tell me what you think:

- $10 buy in - gets you $1500 in chips.
- We will play double blind structure.
- We will play limit poker for the first 2 hours. After 2 hours we will switch to no-limit.
- If you get knocked out in the first 2 hours, you can buy back in. After we start playing no-limit, buy-ins are not allowed.
- The blinds will start at $2/$4 (to get people warmed up).
- After 20 minutes, they will go to $5/$10.
- After 20 more minutes, they will double to $10/$20.
- After 20 more minutes, they will rise to $15/$30.
- After 20 more minutes, they will rise to $20/$40.
- After 20 more minutes, they will rise to $30/$60.
- Once we switch to no-limit, blinds will increase as people are knocked out. The first increase will be to $50/100. Every one afterwards, the small blind will increase by $50 and the big blind will be double the small blind so $100/$200, $150/$300, $200/$400 are the next blind amounts.
- The top three spots money (1st get 55% of the pot, 2nd gets 30% of the pot and 3rd gets 15% of the pot).
- If two or more people get knocked out the same hand, then the person with the higher chip count to start that last hand is considered to have placed higher. If the chip count is equal, then they share the higher ranking.
 
sounds good although payout is usually 50/30/20. It would make paying out much simpler and reduce the need for 5 dollar bills.

its pretty much guaranteed that no one will be knocked out during the limit period and be forced to rebuy because stacks are so deep.

 
if you want it to be more social, use smaller amounts of money. i was at a recent poker game where the blinds started at 5cents and 10cents, and the chips were valued at 5c, 10c, 50c, $1, and $5. believe it or not, the stakes were pretty high.

then again, you're playing with $10 for $1500 of chips, and i haven't quite thought of it that way. in my experience, we had $10 and $20 buy-ins (depending on what you were willing to pay) and would win or lose exactly what you contributed. i came out $21 richer. 😛
 
Originally posted by: Bucks
They seem ok, but I personally don't like limit hold 'em.
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It's a different game, but no-limit can knock guys out really quickly. I don't want guys to have to continually buy back in or get kicked out after 30 minutes.
 
how are you dividing up the chips to $1500? What colors and how many per person, I always do it differently each time ...
 
if you really want it to be social,

play dealer's choice between a variety of games

(omaha hi/lo 8, 7 card draw, 7 card stud, pineapple, blind man's bluff, etc...)
 
Originally posted by: Garet Jax
Originally posted by: Bucks
They seem ok, but I personally don't like limit hold 'em.
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It's a different game, but no-limit can knock guys out really quickly. I don't want guys to have to continually buy back in or get kicked out after 30 minutes.
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I think your switch to no limit is too slow. you have to play 1 hour and 40 minutes of limit, half of which you are very deep stacked for. That can get very boring and the first hour basically doesn't matter. Also, its tough to have chip denominations when you have a 1500 stack and playing 2/4 and also instead of doubling, blinds rise at odd intervals.
 
We played a little game the other night where you could bet up to the amount of the pot. It worked out well, and when we got down to 2 players we started increasing the blind/double blinds.

Also, I would suggest making all chips the same denomination, or perhaps just two denominations.

Do you have a good idea of how to keep track of sidebets?
 
If I was in a $10 buy-in game and you gave me $1 billion in chips, I'd be betting $millions right off the bat. This whole concept of changing the denominations of the chips or reducing the blinds to alter the game is just silly.

Your concept of limit => no-limit is good, though...
 
Originally posted by: Mwilding
If I was in a $10 buy-in game and you gave me $1 billion in chips, I'd be betting $millions right off the bat. This whole concept of changing the denominations of the chips or reducing the blinds to alter the game is just silly.

Your concept of limit => no-limit is good, though...
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how about 100 chips / $10?


thats quite a bit of chips, especially if you blind/dblind is 1 and 2 chips.
 
I like some of the ideas here like where you can only bet/raise the amount that's in the pot. For a longer more social game a high-limit game to start (like you are doing) is probably good. Just be sure the limit is high enough that you aren't just "wasting time" until the no limit begins.

Another idea that promotes more players is to ante instead of blinds. So instead of a $2 and $4 blind, everyone just puts in $1. I think the pot size would be comprable to blinds but you just have more poeple contributing less money as opposed to a few players contributing more money per hand.

These are just thoughts, there is nothing wrong with how you have your game setup though, looks good to me.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I got three things so far:

1) $1500 is too much to start with or the initial $2/$4 blind increase is too low.
2) The blind progression combined with the starting chip count and the tiny initial blinds make for a boring 1h 40 minutes.
3) Putting values on the chips is kind of pointless since they don't match 1-1 with money values.

This is the type of feedback I am looking for since I have only ever played no-limit and the initial blinds (although important) aren't as important as they are in limit.

Having said that I actually like #3 because I like saying "I'll see your $X and raise you $Y" rather than "I'll see you X chips and raise you Y chips". 🙂
 
Originally posted by: amoeba
if you really want it to be social,

play dealer's choice between a variety of games

(omaha hi/lo 8, 7 card draw, 7 card stud, pineapple, blind man's bluff, etc...)
Click to expand...

I agree with this, but I don't want it too social. Besides I really like Texas Hold'em and want to continue to learn it.
 
i say do no-limit only

its more exciting, faster paced, plus you have a buy-in mechanism in place so even if someone takes a bad beat they can get back in anyways (and juice the money pool)
 
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
i say do no-limit only

its more exciting, faster paced, plus you have a buy-in mechanism in place so even if someone takes a bad beat they can get back in anyways (and juice the money pool)
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I thought about that. I want to have the first one and see if that is what people want. If it is we will go to it, but it is very cut throat and people could be out in a hand or two. Not very social.
 
Originally posted by: LordSnailz
how are you dividing up the chips to $1500? What colors and how many per person, I always do it differently each time ...
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I have 1000 chips of 5 colours: White, Red, Green, Blue, Black. They have no number markings on them so I could theoretically make them any value I want.

I am targeting 8-10 people.
 
Originally posted by: Garet Jax
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
Do you have a good idea of how to keep track of sidebets?
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Sidebets? No I don't. Can you give me an example?
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a sidebet is when 1 person is already all in on a hand but there are 2 others in the same hand that aren't done betting between the two of them. THus, the side bet.

 
Originally posted by: amoeba
Originally posted by: Garet Jax
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
Do you have a good idea of how to keep track of sidebets?
Click to expand...

Sidebets? No I don't. Can you give me an example?
Click to expand...


a sidebet is when 1 person is already all in on a hand but there are 2 others in the same hand that aren't done betting between the two of them. THus, the side bet.
Click to expand...

Easy enough. Just put those chips to the side and anything extra starts a new pot. If two players go all in at different times, you end up with 3 different pots (assuming more betting after the 2nd all in).

Want to make it social? If these folks aren't good or experienced players, switch it to Omaha Hi/Lo. You'll spend 10 minutes each hand figuring out which ones are the winners. lol
 
Originally posted by: amoeba
Originally posted by: Garet Jax
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
Do you have a good idea of how to keep track of sidebets?
Click to expand...

Sidebets? No I don't. Can you give me an example?
Click to expand...


a sidebet is when 1 person is already all in on a hand but there are 2 others in the same hand that aren't done betting between the two of them. THus, the side bet.
Click to expand...

I thought you meant people not playing making bets on people's hands who are playing. 🙂

We will keep track of sidebets by making the requisite number of chip piles.
 
the most social games I think are small blinds no limit. So, for like your 1500 in chips, you could do 2/4 no limit. So the people who just want to be social or aren't comfortable with the game can just roll along, but the game can still escalate among those who want to win. It's not really suited for a competitive game tho, especially with people new to the game.
 
Originally posted by: yoda291
the most social games I think are small blinds no limit. So, for like your 1500 in chips, you could do 2/4 no limit. So the people who just want to be social or aren't comfortable with the game can just roll along, but the game can still escalate among those who want to win. It's not really suited for a competitive game tho, especially with people new to the game.
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That's a good idea, but I'm not playing with girls :Q 🙂

I want the guys who don't know the game to want to learn it a little better so they stop losing their money as much. I want this in a social way. 🙂
 
sounds pretty good. i do the same.. but don't have a place to do it weekly. the only difference is we get $100 worth of chips essentially, and 1/2, 2/4, 4/8 blinds. and it's no limit the whole game
 
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