[renaud]

I've been hosting my weekly NLHE tournament for a few years now and we've always played with a max of 10 people. My table is a standard oval made from a full 4x8 sheet of ply. We fit 10 pretty well, but I'm wondering if I should try and squeeze 11. I usually restrict it to 10 since thats the normal setup, but this week I am having a hard time getting below 11. Should I be concerned about adding an extra guy? I think space will be okay, but are there other potential problems I should be worried about?

And before it is suggested, I don't have room for a second table (its a one car garage) so thats not an option. I know the standard is about 24 linear inches per person and I currently have just over that with 10 guys. Adding an 11th person drops it to about 22.5 per person.

Thanks,
Greg

[grbs1605]

I may be heading to Casino Windsor for a bachelor party so I went to their website to check out what games they ran. I noticed they said they seat 11 at their poker tables. So there is a precident for you.

[Harlequin011]

I'm not a big fan of 11 at a table. I generally like some room and I'm a big fella.

[MeridianFC]

If you squeeze 11 into your table you will utterly destroy poker for all time. Don't do it!

[hachkc]

I played 11 at a game on friday (NLHE cash) and it wasn't a big deal. Almost had a family pot at 1 point with 10 limpers

[OnTheButton]

11 is max for us on one table.

However if we play 11 an handed tournament, we don't offer re-buys or add-ons, but will instead just give up a bigger starting stack for the initial buy-in. (Like 5000, instead of 3000.)

We've done it and it's no big deal. A little slow at first, but nice that you don't ever have to change seats, just gain a little more elbow room as the game goes on.

I prefer to sit back and wait until a player or two has donked themselves out before I'll even play with that many at the table, and then target the chip leaders and their false sense of chip security.

We had 12 at our last tournament on New Year's Eve, and at the last minute decided to split it up and open a second table, for 2 tables of 6, and then merged to one when we got to 9. Had that last person not shown up, we would have kept it to one table of 11.

[omar]

I have had the same problem a couple of times. I have doen it on occasion, but don't really like to. the main issues is not space for me (althought that is a little problem), it's more the impact that playing 11-handed has on the game. It slows it down, thus I try hard to limit it to 10. But it is hard to say no to your buddies, I know.

[D3scride]

It's up to you.

I think 9 is the perfect amount of people per table, although I will allow 10 per table at my home games

[4ceps]

whenever i get exactly 11, 21 or 22 players, i do 11-handed tables. i just can't fit 3 tables in my condo. however, i consolidate tables at 10 players and i make the final table 10 players.

i don't think you will notice any slowing down in the action. using proper strategy, players should be tighter at bigger tables...who are we kidding? i'll bet half your players don't use proper strategy to begin with, much less adjusting their strategy for an 11-handed game.

go ahead, do 11-handed players...that's what i'm doing this wknd!

[jldecarlo]

Originally Posted by omar

I have had the same problem a couple of times. I have doen it on occasion, but don't really like to. the main issues is not space for me (althought that is a little problem), it's more the impact that playing 11-handed has on the game. It slows it down, thus I try hard to limit it to 10. But it is hard to say no to your buddies, I know.

11 will work, but it really does slow the game down. However, I think 11 is better than starting 5 and 6. With 21, I'll go with 3 tables of 7 and play down to 18 before dropping to two tables.

Don't even think about going to 12, though. Just say no (or play 6 at the kitchen table).

L