Pub Poker Set Up Help

[h3xusr]

I have recently been asked to set up a poker night at my local pub, with a max amount of players to 20 with £5 buyin £5 rebuy thats based on 20 players. I am looking more like 10 players to be attending regularly, its Texas Hold'Em that we will be playing and I have 500 Chips WHITE / BLACK / BLUE / GREEN / RED How would I go about setting up the denominations of the chips? I have poker rules that will be up on the wall as well as poker hand rankings ready to put on the wall too, going to be set up in a snug so no tv but close enough to the bar. Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience setting up a something like this, this is a country pub so wont be getting lots of passing trade so want to get this right, as I think if its done well enough people will keep coming back week after week, I have it starting on Thursdays from 7pm onwards, so guys heres me hoping you can give me some advice! Cheers! :nana

[Bart(UK)]

Re: Pub Poker Set Up Help Hi h3xusr & :welcome to Punters Lounge, Trial & error is usually the best way to sort out all the logistical elements such as when to start, how many chips to start with and how long each blind level should be in order to finish in a certain time period etc. Getting feedback from the players is also a great way to engage with your players, obtaining loyalty from them and to fine-tune the format. I would probably suggest running a couple of free trial nights so that you can see roughly how long a tournament takes given a certain number of players. The actual denomination of the chip colours isn't overly important, but having a good spread (e.g. 25, 50, 100, 200, 500 or 50, 100, 200, 500 & 1k etc) is more so. The starting stack will follow on from whatever denomination you decide on. Need to be sufficient to give players a decent run, but not too much that it turns into an all nighter :) An internet search will give you loads of suggested blind levels/starting stacks etc for any given number of players. I used to play home games with the guys from work and used 5k stacks, 30 min blinds starting from 50/25 for 6 or 7 players. Used to last from roughly 6.30pm through to 11.30pm, although the banter and laughter took a lot of the time up. There are also lots of software available to help with blinds timing that could be run on a laptop. Might be useful to incorporate a short break half way through to enable players to have a smoke and to allow the pub to sell more drinks & food etc. ;) Sorry just a quick brain storm to get you started, others will pop by with better suggestions no doubt. Welcome once again and good luck, let us know how you get on with it (and where abouts is it likely to be held by the way, maybe near to one or more of our members). Bart

[Bart(UK)]

Re: Pub Poker Set Up Help Just ensure that you meet the licencing & gaming commission rules re buyin, total prize fund etc or just play for league points.

[swampster]

Re: Pub Poker Set Up Help i started by running similar pub games with only a set of 500 (assuming you have the standard dice chips?). Managed to have just enough by using WHITE as 25s, RED as 100s, GREEN as 500s, BLACK as 1000s. Players got 2000 start chips with 8 WHITE, 3 RED, 3 GREEN. Rebuys were just another green chip chucked in (and could be changed later at the table if needed). I found that was sufficient for denominations in a small game. Lots of free timer apps for download now (bwin's is pretty good, for example) if you have a smartphone on you. If you have a laptop, Tournament Director is one of the best. (http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/) More on home game structures: http://www.homepokergames.com/setupstructure.php but