Need some help starting up a poker room

[borgataboy7]

yes, i play at the borgata but I am not from NJ. This game would not be in NJ.

[goofyballer]

[ QUOTE ]
so if we just ran a game there and took no rake and no tips the police wouldnt care? They will care if the dealer gets tipped a few bucks a night?

[/ QUOTE ]

My parents moved to Redmond, OR a few years ago and there used to be a bar downtown that spread some sick juicy 1/2 PLHE and PLO8 games. "Social gambling" is legal in Redmond, so they weren't allowed to rake the game (so...I'm still not entirely sure why they ran it, maybe just to get people into the bar and hope they ordered drinks?), and according to the people there this extended to tipping the dealer as well. The result: A jar next to the dealer saying "soda machine donations" (since free soda was provided) which obv everyone at the table knew was really going to the dealer.

The game eventually got shut down by the State. I have no idea if it was over tipping or what, and the reason the State used was that the game provided competition to the video poker machines in the bar. But yeah, in this instance even tipping wasn't ok.

[Rottersod]

I've got just the thread for you:

TwoRooks

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
im very open to ideas, but most of the feedback seems to be coming from people with firm opinions but no personal experience running a small game

[/ QUOTE ]

don't be naive, what makes you think none of us who have responded have ever operated a private game before? Your not supposed to announce these things ya know, the walls have ears. There is one promoter and one dealer from underground clubs here. In this thread.

[gamblar]

[ QUOTE ]
I've got just the thread for you:

TwoRooks

[/ QUOTE ]



nh sir...I obviously suck at searching the tubes

[five4suited]

[ QUOTE ]
yes, i play at the borgata but I am not from NJ. This game would not be in NJ.

[/ QUOTE ]

I suggest Boston, MA or Chicago, IL if you want to be able to juice the cops in with confidence.

[Mr. AtlanticCity]

Good thing your not thinking of running your game in northern NJ. The Soprano crew runs the "Executive Game" in that area, and if you get in their territory, you won't have to worry about the NJ police.

Respect Paulie Walnuts.

[BillD]

Vaseline. It will make your stay in jail easier.

[steamboatin]

I find myself seriously considering starting a home game so I can play limit O/8 without driving to Argosy or Aztar. I can run it from a friend's business location and probably wouldn't even rake the game just need to figure out how to compensate the dealer(s).

[GeeBeeQED]

I've played in such rooms for several years. Although I've recently quit and play only at Casino's due to the owner (of my most recent fav gray game) not being able to keep the game tight and clean enough for me. That's another story....

First, I've been a member of 3 different clubs that all made it over a year, one 2 years old, the other I think is 4 or 5 years old. The cops don't care to much if they don't get complaints. When husbands go home broke week after week the wife calls the police. You must throw out these terrible losers or you'll eventually get too much attention. If they can't afford to be there you don't want them there. Believe me 95% of all players are losing money in the game just like 95% of all your friends and buddies are. If there was no rake, on average we'd all be break even.

Every successful card room needs to be located next door to an all night business like a bar or strip club. (the pool room might be perfect) Now that sounds odd but bear with me. When a building without an liquer license has 20 cars parked in front of it after last call it gets attention. All the rooms I've been a memeber of have such locations so the cars all blend in. However they stupidly stay open beyond the cover business's hours which I think is a mistake. Close down with the pool hall.

You can't let anybody in unless somebody you know brings them in. 100% no exceptions.

You can't let any drugies or thieves in period. If you do, one of them is going to turn on you (they'll tell on anybody) to get the heat off them when they get in trouble with thier other activities. They'll be the ones to bring in the cop and get them signed up.

Incidentally this is exactly how one of our local clubs got shut down about a year ago.

Understand cops play poker too. My last club has every kind of person you could imagine in it, a couple police officers (trusted in the poker community obviously), school principle, business owners, pawn shop owners, housewives, retiries, everything even some guys with no visible means of support. ;-)

Your going to grow a big game and a very profitable business very quickly regardless of what your thinking, just forget about that "just a few buddies" mentality, it's a fantasy. The money will change you, trust me.

You'll be expected to feed and water everybody. Pizza is ok for a while but it gets old.

Start each day with a tourny that moves on to live action as players get knocked out. This is how you attract players and build customers for a few busy nights a week.

Get a real dealer. Players who are being raked want a professional dealer, not a home dealer who's pretty good if the salt and pepper shaker are out of the way. A real dealer will deal out many more hands per hour which is how you bring money in. Everything I've ever been told and witnessed at my local clubs (and I known several of the dealers) tells me the pay they get is the tips they collect. For a good fast dealer that's around 15 hands every 30min. Oh yea, you need 2 dealers, nobody can deal without a break. They normally work on 30min shifts. You need at least 1 more dealer than the number of tables your running.

Get real tables or build nice ones. Nobody wants to play on some crappy home table or poorly built one. This is a big part of what keeps them coming back. A good proquality table even used might be $400-500 before you spend $100 to recover it.

Play by the rules, all of them all the time. Let somebody leave feeling cheated and you've started down the hill to failure. If you can't control this your game will gradually degenerate until it isn't any better than a home game or worse. And trust me, people will cheat where money is involved, they'll hide high value chips, soft play thier buddies, play more than one person to a hand, stack off thier hands (or othewise signal hole cards), peak at other players cards, you name it, they'll do it and you have to be watchful and nip these problems in the bud. Usually these types are terrible losers if they can't cheat and when they see they can't run teams (or whatever thier scam is) they'll move on to another game.

Rake the pot by the same rules as the nearest casino and consider doing it for $1 less per pot. You have to give your players incentive to play with you and also a reason to protect the club. If you over rake, more players go broke faster and it results in them not staying involved with in poker as long which eventually costs you.

It's hard work to do it well. Your job is to keep the game going and full and you'll have to back players especially at first to accomplish that. I've sat in as a shill many times to help my club owner (we split the profit if any on the stack he gives me.) It's also your job to ease the players loses and when they have a bad night. They need somebody to tell the bad beat story and that will be YOU. Remember, most of your players will be there to have a good time, your the host, make sure it happens just like that and you'll have a good game going.

Be sure to invite me. ;-)

Dave