Guides · Getting started
The first structural decision a home game makes, and the one that shapes the whole evening: do people buy in for chips they can cash out at any time, or does everyone start level and play until one person has all of them?
Cash game
Chips represent money directly. A $1 chip is a dollar. Players buy in, play as long as they like, and cash out for whatever their stack is worth whenever they want to stop.
- People can arrive and leave whenever. The single biggest practical advantage for a weeknight game.
- Losing does not end your night. Bust and rebuy, and you are back in the next hand.
- No fixed finish. Which is either flexible or a problem, depending on your group.
- Settling means counting chips and comparing against buy-ins.
Tournament
Everyone pays the same entry and receives the same starting stack. Chips have no cash value — they are just a scoreboard. Blinds rise on a timer, players are eliminated, and the prize pool goes to whoever finishes highest.
- Everyone starts equal, which suits a mixed-ability table.
- It ends. The blinds rising guarantee it, usually in two to four hours.
- Your maximum loss is the entry. Genuinely valuable if anyone is nervous about the stakes.
- Busting means you are done, unless rebuys are allowed early.
- Settling is a payout structure, agreed in advance.
Which suits a home game
| If your group… | Play |
|---|---|
| arrives at different times | Cash game |
| needs to be done by a set hour | Tournament |
| has wildly mixed experience | Tournament |
| includes someone anxious about losing | Tournament — the entry is the cap |
| hates being knocked out early | Cash game |
| is new to hosting | Cash game — less to set up |
For a first game, a cash game is easier to run: no blind schedule, no timer, no payout structure to agree, and latecomers are not a problem. Most regular home games are cash games for exactly those reasons.
The compromise most groups land on
A tournament first, then a cash game for whoever is still around. The tournament gives the night a shape and a winner; the cash game gives the people who busted early something to do that is not watching. It is more work to run and it is the structure that keeps the most people at the table.
The money side differs more than the poker
A cash game settles on counted chips against recorded buy-ins, which is what this calculator does. The count either balances or it does not, and when it does not you need to know by how much.
A tournament settles on finishing position against an agreed payout structure. Agree that structure before you deal — a common split for seven or eight players is 50/30/20 across the top three, or winner-takes-all for a small field. Arguing about payouts after somebody has won is the worst possible time to have that conversation.
If you run rebuys in a tournament, the prize pool grows, so the structure has to be a percentage rather than fixed amounts.