Player's Stories

Home games: How to host them and what you'll need
By Michael Kiperchuk

When I first started playing poker just before Chris Moneymaker's win at the World Series of Poker, not many products were being marketed towards the home-game poker player. There were the usual plastic Hoyle chips, and square card tables available at the local department store, but if a home player went looking for anything beyond that he/she usually had to look pretty hard - and pay a pretty penny. As such, I was relegated to playing internet poker (which I still fervently enjoy), and could never really muster up a regular home game - it was just too hard to maintain interest.

However, with Moneymaker's win, and poker taking center stage, there was an explosion in the poker products market. Suddenly, a myriad of products were readily available to anyone who so desired them, and at a far more reas onable price than ever before. As I wrote in a September article("The Joy of Poker"), my own weekly home game only really took off with the purchase of a poker table last Christmas, and has been going strong ever since.

But what really makes for a good home game? What type of products does one really need? Where can one find quality poker paraphernalia? These are all questions that plagued me when I first set out in search of poker gear to improve my home game, but with a little persistence I was able to find what I consider to be the best, most important, and most decently priced poker gear available. And so, in an attempt to save you from the countless hours of searching, frustration, and disappointment which characterized my initial forays into poker-products purchasing and home game organization, I am writing this article.

The first key, in my opinion (biased as it is) to a successful home game is a table. This is the one area of the game where you DO NOT want to skimp. With a good table, everything else can fall to the wayside, and you will still have one heck of a poker game. Fold-out poker table-tops are available all over the internet, and at various online auction sites (ie: Ebay); however, I would not recommend them. Don't get me wrong, they are perfectly adequate for playing on, however, they frequently aren't large enough, are of less than exemplary quality, and are not all that stable (especially if you have friends who enjoy leaning on the edge of the table).

I would highly recommend going with an entire table rather than a table-top, not only for the reasons mentioned above, but because out-and-out poker table adds some class to even the worst home game. They come in various forms: pedestal base; bracket-legged; folding-legged (my personal favorite). Also, make sure to buy a large table, as many offered are too small to be practical (for example, the most widely sold folding-leg poker table has a width of 46" - a table with a 54" width is much better). Finally, don't invest all this money into a poker table and then get a vinyl top - spring the few extra dollars for a padded-nylon top, and try to get dark colors (ie: a mahogany wood finish with a black nylon top looks superb) as they are less apt to stain, and look very classy.

In general, a table such as the one described above will run you about $500-$600, but will be worth every penny. A good brand that you can feel confident about is "Kestell", a long-time manufacturer carried by most game stores. The table is the biggest investment you'll make in your home game, but it is also the most important.

The next thing you'll want to pick up for your home game is a decent set of chips (nobody likes fumbling around with cheap plastic chips) - and boy are there a lot of different kinds out there right now. If you buy a typical octagonal poker table, you'll never have more than about 8 people playing in any given home game, and so general wisdom would dictate that you'll need about 500-600 chips. Six hundred is the magic number here - any less won't do, and any more is simply unmanageable - go with 600.

As for types of chips, as I said before, there are lots of kinds out there, in lots of different places, for lots of different prices. Your best bet for a decent beginner set of chips is Ebay. There are Ebay auctions ending every minute for poker chips (usually with cases), typically costing the winning bidder between $80-$100 (shipping included) for their chips and a carrying case. These chips are 11.5g clay composite (a very pleasant looking and feeling plastic with a metal insert inside to add weight), and are simply unbeatable for the price. They look and feel great, and add a whole new dimension to any home game. (Tip: go on Ebay and search "600 poker chips case" to find the chips described above, and make sure to find a seller with a good rating).

The other route you can pursue, if you are a more avid poker player, are customized clay poker chips. Customized chips are MUCH more expensive than other chips, and it is difficult to find a manufacturer that does good work, and who you are sure you can trust. In my case, I went with pokerchips.com. Pokerchips.com has been in the business of making chips as long as anybody, and have made chips for a number of casinos (ie: Binion's Horseshoe) and movies (ie: Rounders). The company makes a variety of chips, some of which are almost completely customizable. Picture this: a real clay chip, with edge spots, custom colors chosen by you, a custom mold design chosen by you, a custom logo chosen by you (and designed by a graphic designer working with you). The prospect may sound to good to be true, but such chips are available at the Pokerchips.com website, which also hosts a very helpful and informative staff.

So why doesn't everyone rush out to get chips just like the ones described above? Two words: the price. A set of customized chips will run you $1 per chip! That's $600 for $600 chips (plus shipping). Some people may scoff at that figure, but the end result is nothing short of amazing for a true poker home-gamer - but you really want to make sure you know what you are getting into before you make an investment of that magnitude.

The next things I would recommend for a really smooth running home game (assuming you are playing hold'em) are dealer and blind buttons. How many times have you stopped playing poker to watch the big play in the game on TV, and returned with no one remembering who last dealed? Problem solved with dealer and blind buttons. There's really no way to go wrong with these, they are typically made of plastic, with the dealer button being white, with "DEALER" written in black across its 2" width. Blind buttons are generally smaller, but are similar to the dealer button, except with the words "BIG BLIND" and "SMALL BLIND" scrawled across them. Again, a great place to pick a set of these up is on Ebay, where all 3 together can be picked up for as little as $10 (shipping included), or at a reputable internet poker shop like pokerchips.com (though this route will cost you a little more money).

Lastly, a good deck of cards is key. The deck of choice at my home game is "Bee Premium Casino Playing Cards", due more to availability than anything else. These cards are much better than your run of the mill poker decks at dollar stores, and cost only $3 at any Wal-Mart.

So now you're set, you've got a great table, a set of chips, buttons, cards - how do you get a really great home game going? I tried for a while to organize a regular game right from the get go, and to find one night to hold the initial game where everyone could come - it didn't work. There is no one night where everyone you want to come to your game will be able to.yet.

Finally, I got fed up waiting. Rather than trying to plan the perfect first poker night, I just called up some of the guys and said that I was having a little card game, $5 a piece, no worries if you win or lose, let's just have some fun and see how it goes. We had 7 guys our first game, all of whom just happened to be available to play cards that night - all of whom made time to play cards every week since. What I'm saying here is, don't try to structure the game too much to start - just have some fun with it.

Since that first game, our methods of organization have refined a bit in ways you might find useful. We determined one night every week to play when most guys may (or may not) be able to come, depending on the week. After that, we worked out that each week, two different guys would bring snacks, moving down a list in alphabetical order. Finally, I got tired of the constant phone-calls asking when the next game was, or who's turn it was to bring chips and drinks; so I went on to a free web-hosting service, and built a simple homepage for our poker game. Each week, I update the site with the following week's game day, a list of who has already confirmed their intent to play, and a list of who's responsible for bringing snacks.

We've also formalized our game a little, while still keeping it light: we worked out a game structure by which the blinds increased (you can simply use the used by the PokerPages free online poker games - but be sure to lengthen the time between level increases to between 15-20 minutes to ensure a longer game); we designated a person we all trusted as the ultimate decision maker in the event of (inevitable) disputes regarding such things as misdeals - small things which go a long way to improving our home poker game experience.

So with as little as $600 (and the first time cost of chips and drinks), you could find yourself with a beautiful poker table, a set of chips, buttons, cards - and one heck of a first home game. And with a little sustained effort, and a genuine desire to improve your home game, you can make it better and better with each passing week, and keep your friends coming back for more.

And while my article probably won't address all your concerns about your upstart home game, hopefully it will save you some time, and some money - and maybe, just maybe.it will improve your home game. As for improving your poker winnings - you're definitely going to have to look elsewhere!!!