[OnTheButton]

We keep a cash register in the poker room.

In it is a couple of hundred dollars in small bills for change at cashout time.

If you are a regular player at our games (have played with us at least 4 or 5 times) we offer to loan you what we call "An Elvis" which is a special color laser printed "$22 bill" with The Kings face on the front, instead of a dead president.

You sign and date the back, and we put it on the cash register, and hand you $20 "per Elvis" that you want to borrow. This way we have an easy way to tally who borrowed how much and when. The bills stay in the register as if they were cash.

If you "buy back" your Elvis's (Elvii?) at the end of the same night you borrowed them, they only cost $20 each. This means you won some money, broke even, or went down to the ATM later on and got us cash, or wrote us a check.

If the $22 Elvis bills are in the register, even just overnight, they will cost you $22 to buy back per $20 bill loaned.

This seems to work well for our group, with most people say borrowing $60, and then either hit the ATM when the game breaks (or they get busted out again) or simply bring us $66 the next time they play, and "buy back" their Elvis bills with a service fee.

[shadesofgrey]

I loan money... but thats just me and I wouldnt recommend it.

I havent been burned yet, but we'll just say there is about $2k out there that should be in my pocket.

I can concur that people who do indeed borrow money do tend to have to borrow more and its a slippery slope. I dont play poker with little kids, and being that we are all adults there is an unsaid rule that "tho shall repay debt asap"!

[guinness]

Originally Posted by ink_junkie

If they're borrowing money to gamble, then they have a gambling problem.

I guess every poker player I've ever met has a gambling problem. Sometimes laziness is the reason for borrowing (didn't stop at the ATM...didn't bring enough....etc). We have had a dedicated weekly game for many years and we all know each other well enough to loan out of sincerity vs addiction. Hell EVERYONE borrows who's serious about poker and plays alot.

[ink_junkie]

Originally Posted by guinness

I guess every poker player I've ever met has a gambling problem. Sometimes laziness is the reason for borrowing (didn't stop at the ATM...didn't bring enough....etc). We have had a dedicated weekly game for many years and we all know each other well enough to loan out of sincerity vs addiction. Hell EVERYONE borrows who's serious about poker and plays alot.

I think what you're talking about (didn't swing by the ATM, but has the money available) is different than the opening OP (borrowing against half of your future paycheck to gamble). I'll stick by the latter being someone with a gambling problem.

In the former, I'd say they're an immature gambler and not someone I'd loan money to. If someone else wants to do so, more power to 'em. If it were me, I'd tell 'em to head to the ATM and they can play when they show up with cash in hand.

The obvious exception would be professional poker players. Loaning, stakehorsing, and so on is part of that business and to be expected. Far different scenario than someone borrowing against future earning at a home poker game.

[whataboutj]

Ink Junkie hit it right on - borrowing against future paychecks

That is a bad deal all the way around - especially since no juice is being charged (I am not condoning loan sharking). I could understand loaning money against future earnings if there was juice invovled, but for free makes no sense. At some point it will come back to haunt u

Theother question is if the person is boroowing from you in this manner they are probably borrowing from elsewhere too. You are helping them dig a deeper hole. If they are a friend I would stop loaning money to them simply to stop the hole digging
Just my $.02

[guinness]

Originally Posted by ink_junkie

I think what you're talking about (didn't swing by the ATM, but has the money available) is different than the opening OP (borrowing against half of your future paycheck to gamble). I'll stick by the latter being someone with a gambling problem.

Hah...too funny and true. I concur....I didn't originally pay much attention to the half paycheck thing. Our regular game usually has ~$125 brought per person so thats not life altering if someone brings $40 and needs a hundo. Well...I guess its altering for Curt (inside joke for the NH CT'rs).

[Derf Design]

Most of the players who need more money are donating it right back to me and a couple other of my good buddies who are very good players.

I try not to let them get over their head with me, but I can't control the other loans they receive. When their limits are reached most of the other good players will also loan out a little cash to keep the game going for obvious reasons.

Right now I only have one player who may have to work off his dedt. He's a local charity dealer who has delt for our table a few times. He has lost many weeks of pay checks around town and I may have to have him work off the dedt dealing for a day or two.

I like the 22 dollar bill idea and I may give that a try.

[MetalSlug3]

Funny loan story.

When I started playing 1/3 No Limit at Morongo Casino, there was this player who took some nice pots off of me by sucking out on me a number of times. He was pretty much a donk and liked to gamble. After someone does this enough times to you, you remember him. Well, I started to play at the casino enough to the point that we got to know each other by name ("Joe," not his real name).

One day, we're at the same table, and he's getting his ass kicked, down $400 or more by the time he decides to switch tables. I'm doing particular well at this table, up between $300 and $400, and see Joe at his table on my way to the restroom.

Fast forward, a few hours. I go to the restroom and Joe follows me in to tell me about the horrible bad beats he's been taking and how he's down about $900. I commiserate with him, tell him it's not his day, and that he should really go home. With visible embarrassment, he then asks me if he could please borrow $60 (a man asking me for money in the men's room!!) so that he could try to recoup his losses, and he promises me he will pay me back. I give him the $60. In the spirit of making conversation, or so it seems, he then asks me where I live. I tell him, and recognizing that he lives in an area that is on my way home, he ALSO asks me if he could have a ride home when I leave, as his buddy left without him.

At one point when I check on Joe, he seems to have turned the $60 into around $300, but ended up going bust, again, within a few hours.

I gave him the ride home. Poor guy was pretty down and worried about his wife's reaction as she hates when he goes to the casino, and he basically hides it from her when he goes. At one point on the ride home, he points out to me the K-Mart where his wife works.

Never saw him or my $60 again.

[dad604]

Originally Posted by Derf Design

To Loan or Not to Loan

I have a cash game about five days a week and a lot of my players always want to borrow money to get in a game or buy back in after they bust out. I don't charge any interest and expect to get paid back on their pay day. My Max limit is set to half of their expected pay check. If I have to bug them to get paid back after their payday then their credit limit is lowered to less than 50.

I haven't been screwed yet, but i'm sure that day will come.

Should I loan players money or am I just asking for trouble.

5 times a week? Are you running it as a business and taking rake, then the risk of lending is part of the business. For my home game, once in a alwhile someone runs short and someone does lend but not often and it is always make up at the next game. If someone is constantly asking to borrow every game and it is a friendly home game, someone should take that fellow aside and talk to him.

[the3rd]

Originally Posted by dad604

5 times a week? Are you running it as a business and taking rake, then the risk of lending is part of the business.

I was thinking the same thing.

I never take money, and don't have any to lend nowadays. In my teens and early twenties, everyone was welcome at The3rd's National Bank. I put the sub-prime mortgage lenders to shame. There were always a few guys who thought they could default. I don't like being a thug anymore.