Need some help starting up a poker room

[psandman]

I would stay away from jackpots, they require that you maintain a chunk of money (which could be a draw to robberies) and they require that your players have faith that you won't just pocket the money.

As far as chips go, don't worry about fancy, don't worry about having nice chips, just make sure that you have unique chips so that you don't worry about someone ringing in.

How much competetion is there in this market? are their legal rooms nearby, many underground games? If not much competition I would consider bringing your rake up to $5 max and be more genrous with your freebies. Buying people dinner isn't a huge expense and really goes a long way for goodwill.

Also every underground game that I played in the operator of the game had to put money in, either by staking players, or lending money (much of which would never be paid back). This is just a cost of operating and keeping a game running, but its another reason to rake $5 instead of $3.

[Bulldog]

I'm not sure about this, but you may be able to find a related thread if you search. Perhaps in Home Poker?

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In before ....

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nothing [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] We wont lock this thread. The policy on underground games has always been only the owner of the card room and discuss his or her business, if the OP wants to take that risk than so be it.

OP - what state will your card room operate in? Make sure you have a tax attorney , and a criminal attorney on hand and prepared in advance. You will need both for sure, don't wait until after you open because its inevitable that someday you will be busted; this is par for the course.

[rubixxcube]

OP my guess is that you are in NJ since your username is borgata boy.

I know 2 guys that run a similiar type card game that started out very similiar to yours.

Realize a few things:
Other people in the pool hall will find out about the game. They will see lots of traffic up and down the stairs to the game etc... the game will not be as secretive as you think.

Eventually the pool hall where this game ran was closed down and the game moved to a rented office. 2 weeks ago they got robbed.

Reason for this, they had 0 security and let just about anybody come. They let friends bring friends who brought friends etc.

It is entirely up to you whether you do this or not but as psandman said i believe, its only a matter of time before you get busted or robbed.

laslty sandman is also correct that you will be a huge source for lending money. People are going to go broke and want to borrow from the house. You may know want to but you may need to in order to keep the game going.

It started out in a back room at a pool hall.

[mrkilla]

get Chips with atleast your name or logo on it and order it from a website and not just some local "HAI I can Engrave your Chips" duder. If you use some run of the mill chips they will be easily faked.

Are you opening in an area with a bunch of diffrent card rooms? Or is there one main room and a bunch of little rooms keep getting shut down? If so there is a reason for this, try and figure that out on your own. Make sure you aren't stepping on anyones Toes, capice.

Prepare for a Raid , its coming, I promise. No drugs, no guns no nothing else. You will be arrested (its a matter of time) don't give them anything extra.
Get Camera and tape and see if you can get the recording stored off site.

BBJ in an underground rooms isn't whats attracting players [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


It almost sounds like you are raking a home game, I doubt you will have much issue if thats the case

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Get Camera and tape and see if you can get the recording stored off site.

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I agree, this is very important. Get the tapes off-site, standard VCR with multi-camera solutions will just get you in trouble in the long run. Remote video stored on your hard drive - at a safe location that is not your home is the only way to go, I hate them but X10.com can help.

[borgataboy7]

thanks for the replies people. I know of the risks going in, but honestly I dont know if my idea will create so much action that itll invite attention from police or people with bad intentions. The room will likely just be 1 table, much like a home game, but with a nice table, efficient dealer and rules, good cards, television, nice chips, and a small rake. We could probably skip the rake altogether and work off tips but we need to pay the place that gives us the space.
Do you really think a place like this (it will likely only run for a few months while I build a bankroll), will likely get visited by police? We arent attracting people from all over and we're not relying on this to be an everyday game.

[kyleb]

You're just going to get robbed. I doubt the police will show up.

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thanks for the replies people. I know of the risks going in, but honestly I dont know if my idea will create so much action that itll invite attention from police or people with bad intentions. The room will likely just be 1 table, much like a home game, but with a nice table, efficient dealer and rules, good cards, television, nice chips, and a small rake. We could probably skip the rake altogether and work off tips but we need to pay the place that gives us the space.
Do you really think a place like this (it will likely only run for a few months while I build a bankroll), will likely get visited by police? We arent attracting people from all over and we're not relying on this to be an everyday game.

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eventually it will be raided, might take a year or so but eventually what comes up must come down. NJ (assuming your in NJ) has some of the toughest anti-gambling laws in the nation, jailtime is likely if they raid the game.

[psandman]

If you don't start to build a bigger base then just your immediate friends then your game is a home game.

And you need to ask yourself the following questions:
Is it worth $150 for this space to play your home game.

And your guests will start to ask why am I paying a rake to play a game with my friends. I can invite my friends over to my house and we can play for free.

As to police attention

well one thing is clear, playing your home game at a billiard hall clearly has more risk than playing your home game at home.

Will it get police attention well that depends on a lot of things such as where you are, local police's priorities, whether you have problems that force police attention. You have a brawl at the game, or even just at the billiard hall. Someone thinks they got ripped off and goes to the police. Where i played the police didn't care about these underground games. One game I played in was actually going on whne the police raided the club for bookmaking even though they found the game going they made no arrests for the poker game (some players were targets of the bookmaking investigation, but the guy running the poker game wasn't charged and the dealer wasn't charged. All the money was taken, but given back the next day. Another game I played in was robbed and there were gunshots fired. The police actually lied to the local media and told them it was just a friendly home game when in fact it was obvious to anyone including the police who walked in what was going on. But in another town they have reacted differently.