Poker Articles

Design Your Own Game
By Mike Paulle

In Las Vegas at least there has been a resurgence of low buy-in, small blind No Limit and Pot Limit Hold 'em games. These games are so profitable for good players; you wonder how long they can last before all the fish get broke. But until then, it's great to have an alternative to the typical $10/$20 and $15/$30 Limit Hold 'em games.

The regulars in these games wanted more nights to play. We already have four nights a week: Tuesday and Friday nights there is a Pot Limit Hold 'em game at the Plaza downtown. Wednesday and Sunday nights we have a No Limit game at the Stratosphere at the bottom of the Las Vegas strip. These game have a $50 buy-in and $1/$2 blinds. Typically players put $100 to $300 on the table in front of them and will usually rebuy when they go broke.

One of our regulars approached the Stardust Casino cardroom and asked if they were interested in spreading a No Limit game on Friday nights. The Stardust was willing, so this last Friday we designed our own game.

You should be able to do this also in your cardroom, if it's not always full. Most rooms have dealers on standby or on the extra board. It means more pay for the dealers and more drop for the cardrooms, so everyone is happy. The games are for the players. You don't have to settle for what the cardroom spreads.

Design your own game, the one YOU want to play.

As the designated table captain, I helped outline to the dealers and floor boss what the rules of our game were. You can be assured they were all in the player's favor.

Besides the $50 minimum buy-in and $1/$2 blinds, we got a $2 maximum rake. One dollar is dropped on a $10 pot and another when the pot reaches $20. The Stardust has a jackpot, but we didn't want it in our game so masking tape was put over the jackpot drop slot so the dealers wouldn't automatically take the extra dollar.

In the game we designed, there was no make up of blinds. If you ha to leave the table for a while, you got a hand when you return at no charge. No one has ever abused this policy and it keeps everything friendly. Also, anyone sitting down at the table gets a hand. There is no posting. At only $1 and $2 the blinds are insignificant in comparison to the potential pot size so there is no need to keep hassling players for extra money.

Money plays on the table. We decided that any bill $20 and over would be considered part of a player's stack. Once the money was put on the table it had to stay there. This eliminated the continuous short rebuys that slow up the game.

There has been some trial and error in this process of designing our own game. You will try some things that don't work as well as you expected. That's when you change them. For instance, we tried a 'forward button' instead of a 'dead button' at the Plaza and the Stratosphere when the small blind got up. We didn't want anyone to get the button twice. The forward button idea didn't work out. Players and dealers would get confused, forget or become angry, so we dumped this rule.

Get some friends together and approach your cardroom with a game idea. You might be surprised at how receptive it is to your suggestions. Design your own game and have fun.