How to host a home poker cash game

A good home game feels effortless, and that’s because the host made the decisions before anyone sat down. Stakes, chips, the bank, the rules, the settle-up: here’s everything to decide, in the order to decide it.

Rules for private poker games differ between countries, states and cities. In many places, a game is legal only if nobody profits from hosting it. Check what applies where you play.

Pick the stakes

Choose stakes everyone can lose without it hurting. The blinds set the size of the game; the buy-in sets how much each player risks at once. A common rule is a buy-in of about 100 big blinds: $50 at $0.25/$0.50 or $200 at $1/$2.

If your group has mixed bankrolls, go lower. Nobody remembers the night they won $30. Everyone remembers the night someone lost more than they could afford.

Invite the right number of players

Six to nine players fill a table well. Invite one or two more than you need, because someone always drops out. Send the date, time, address, stakes, buy-in and how you’ll settle up with the invitation, so people arrive with the right expectations and the right money.

Chips, cards and the table

• Chips. Enough for every player’s starting stack plus rebuys, in three or four colours. Our guide to chip values has starting stacks for common stakes.
• Cards. Two decks with different backs, so one can be shuffled while the other is dealt.
• A dealer button, so everyone knows whose turn it is to post blinds.
• A table with room, about 60 cm of edge per player, and a felt or tablecloth so cards slide.
• A written card of chip values, left on the table all night.

Decide how the money works

There are three common ways to handle money in a home game:

1. Cash bank. Players pay cash for chips, the host keeps it in a box, and pays out cash for chips at the end. Simple, but someone has to bring change.
2. Settle at the end. Nobody pays during the game. Every buy-in is recorded, and players pay each other once results are known.
3. Mixed. Some players pay cash, others transfer or pay later. Workable, but only if every buy-in is recorded with how it was paid.

With the second and third, the end of the night is a settle-up, and turning results into the fewest payments saves a lot of transfers.

Write down the house rules

Keep it to a short list everyone sees before the first hand:

• Game and stakes, for example No-Limit Hold’em at $0.50/$1.
• Minimum and maximum buy-in, and when rebuys are allowed.
• Whether buying in on credit is allowed, and up to how much.
• Finishing time and the last time for rebuys.
• Players can leave whenever they like and cash out their chips.
• Phones away during hands; one person to a hand.

Our guide to buy-ins, rebuys and add-ons covers the money rules in more detail.

During the game

The host’s job during play is mostly bookkeeping: record each buy-in and rebuy as it happens, note when people arrive and leave, and keep the chip box in one place. Doing it as you go is far easier than reconstructing the night from memory at midnight.

Tally Poker was built for exactly this. Players join from a link or QR code, the host logs each entry, and each player approves their own from their phone, so the ledger is agreed by the time the last hand is dealt.

Ending the night

1. Count each player’s chips, sorted by colour.
2. Check that the total counted equals the total bought in.
3. If it doesn’t, find out why or decide who absorbs the difference. See when the chip count doesn’t match.
4. Work out each player’s result and the payments, and share them with everyone.

The host’s checklist

• Date, time, address and stakes sent with the invitation
• Chips counted into starting stacks, plus spares for rebuys
• Two decks of cards and a dealer button
• Chip values written on a card on the table
• House rules agreed before the first hand
• One place where every buy-in and rebuy is recorded
• A plan for settling up, agreed in advance
• Food and drinks paid for separately from the game

Hosting soon? Start a game in Tally Poker and let each player approve their own buy-ins.