[punch]

Since I bought my house last year I've been having home poker games with my buddies just about every month. This weekend I really pushed and I'm expecting around 20 people to play. I've got all the gear ready. 800 soprano chips, a couple copag and KEM decks, a few full wide hold'em tables and some fold up octagon tables.

I made it a $15 dollar buy-in and I have a few side prizes i'm going to give away. I got a ocagon fold up poker table top (with carrying bag) to give away.

Two questions:

1. How should I give away the table? Best hand? Lottery for everyone who doesn't finish in the money? I'd love some suggestions that would be fair.

2. What can I do to make things more fun... What do you guys do at your home games to break up some of the boring spots of the night. I'm having a xbox 360 setup on a HD tv in my basement (aka poker room) so hopefully people will get into playing Project Gotham and Call of Duty.

Some suggetions from you guys to help make my big poker night more entertaining would be great.

[babujit1]

Could let people get a side cash game going if they bust out.

Let early bustouts rebuy to continue playing.

Booze lots of Booze, but not for you gotta keep those senses sharp.

[jojobinks]

Originally Posted by punch

Since I bought my house last year I've been having home poker games with my buddies just about every month. This weekend I really pushed and I'm expecting around 20 people to play. I've got all the gear ready. 800 soprano chips, a couple copag and KEM decks, a few full wide hold'em tables and some fold up octagon tables.

I made it a $15 dollar buy-in and I have a few side prizes i'm going to give away. I got a ocagon fold up poker table top (with carrying bag) to give away.

Two questions:

1. How should I give away the table? Best hand? Lottery for everyone who doesn't finish in the money? I'd love some suggestions that would be fair.

2. What can I do to make things more fun... What do you guys do at your home games to break up some of the boring spots of the night. I'm having a xbox 360 setup on a HD tv in my basement (aka poker room) so hopefully people will get into playing Project Gotham and Call of Duty.

Some suggetions from you guys to help make my big poker night more entertaining would be great.

to assign seats: players pick a card, which is matched up to a seat.

i played a tournament several times where the stripper showed up after an hour or two...(topless waitresses too!). not classy...not classy at all, but i think it does "break up some of the boring spots of the night."

then you've got your standard issue side game...

bounties or show 'em chips are good for that sort of stuff too.

[babujit1]

Try this site tons of info for tourneys.

http://www.homepokertourney.com

[punch]

Originally Posted by jojobinks

to assign seats: players pick a card, which is matched up to a seat.

i played a tournament several times where the stripper showed up after an hour or two...(topless waitresses too!). not classy...not classy at all, but i think it does "break up some of the boring spots of the night."

then you've got your standard issue side game...

bounties or show 'em chips are good for that sort of stuff too.

How do you do bounties or show 'em chips?

[Strange]

I'd go with re-buys for the first two hours (of a four hour tourney), so that you know everyone will be playing together for at least that long.

Then side games as already suggested by others.

You will be surprised how few 'boring' spot there are. Four hours can go very quickly indeed. Have a 5 minute break every hour and maybe 15 minutes in the middle. It sounds like a good way of slowing things up, but actually people from different tables get to chat about their games and it makes the whole thing more fun.

If you have a PC handy, use the Tournament Director. Really. Its fantastic.
If you find it useful, you should send a few bucks to the developer.

[krw17]

Originally Posted by punch

How do you do bounties or show 'em chips?

There are lots of threads on this board discussing bounties, just do a search for the word bounty. Here is one thread in particular that discusses its use.

http://chiptalk.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10891

The "show 'em chip" is just a chip that was created primarily for using as a bounty chip.

[daveyboy]

Originally Posted by punch

How do you do bounties...?

When we do bounties, for the first game, we usually put the bounty on the head of the person that won the most money during the last tournament held. For the following games, we put a bounty on the head of the previous game winner. The set bounty amount (whatever you decide) is taken from the overall prize money.

lIf you don't feel like assigning a bounty to only one person, another way to do it is by having each player put a couples bucks ($2 or $5 for example) in addition to their buy-in if front of them before starting the game. As you get busted out, you give your $$ to the player that took you out.

Another way to spice up a game is to set aside money for having certain hands (straight flush, royal flush, 4 of a kind, etc...). The octagon table could be given the person with the highest hand of the night. That will hopefully get people stay longer.

[bsoder52]

I was a a tourney where a couple guys ordered up a stripper one time, that seemed a bit interesting.

[enough]

we usually have around 18 people in our mini-tournaments and we end up reserving whatever the buy in is for a losers game made up of people who bust out early - the first 8 people to bust out start up the new game.

It doesn't reduce the first prize cash by much, and it keeps people entertained while waiting for 3-way or headsup action at the final table.

as for TVs / Strippers / Video Games, etc. - too much of a distraction!