Guides · Getting started
Hosting your first home game is mostly logistics, and the parts people get wrong are almost never the poker. Here is the whole thing in order, from deciding stakes to paying everyone out.
Decide the stakes before you invite anyone
The single most important number, and the one to agree first, because it decides everything else. A buy-in of $20 is the most common starting point for a friendly game; $25 and $50 are both normal. Above that you are no longer running a casual night.
The test worth applying: nobody at the table should be able to lose an amount that changes their week. If someone would have to think twice about rebuying, the stake is too high for that group — and the person it is too high for will not say so out loud.
Six or seven players is the sweet spot
Fewer than four and the game gets thin; more than eight and hands take long enough that people start looking at their phones. Six or seven fits one table, keeps everyone involved, and settles quickly at the end.
Invite one more than you want. Somebody always cancels.
What you actually need
- Chips — about 50 to 60 per player, in three colours. See choosing chip values for what those colours should be worth.
- Two decks of cards, ideally plastic. One is being shuffled while the other is dealt, which speeds the night up more than you would think.
- A table everyone can reach, and enough light to read a card across it.
- A dealer button — any distinctive object works.
- Somebody keeping the record. See being the banker.
You do not need a felt table, a shuffler, or a timer. People buy those after their third game, not their first.
Agree the rules before the first hand
Almost every end-of-night argument traces to something nobody decided at the start. Five minutes now saves forty later:
- What are we playing? Texas hold'em unless someone objects.
- Cash game or tournament? See which one suits a home game.
- Rebuys — allowed, and until when? "Unlimited until midnight" is a normal answer. Not having answered is what causes trouble. See rebuys and late entries.
- When does it end? A stated last hand stops the night drifting to 3am.
- How do we settle? Cash, bank transfer, or an app. Agree it before anyone is owed money.
Running the night
Collect the buy-ins before the first hand. It is the least interesting part of the evening and it is over fastest while everyone is still standing up.
Record every rebuy as it happens, as its own entry rather than adding to a running total. A record reading “20, 20, 20” can be checked. One reading “60” can only be believed.
When someone leaves early, write their count down before their chips go back in the tray, and mark them cashed out so the number cannot drift afterwards.
Settling at the end
In order, and the order matters:
- Everyone counts their own stack, in front of somebody else.
- Each number is recorded before those chips move.
- Only when every player is down do you compare the total against the buy-ins.
- They should match exactly. If they do not, say so out loud before anyone pays anyone.
The calculator does the last part: enter what everyone bought in for and cashed out with, and it works out who pays whom in the fewest transfers. If the count does not balance it says so, in which direction, and by how much.
The things first-time hosts regret
- Not writing rebuys down. The commonest cause of a count that will not reconcile.
- Stakes set to suit the richest person there.
- No stated finish time.
- Settling before everyone has counted. Money moves, then the last stack comes in wrong, and now you are unwinding payments as well as hunting an error. See five ways a settlement goes wrong.
None of these are poker problems. They are all bookkeeping, which is why they are easy to fix once and never think about again.