Home Game MOVE - Structure Question

[XxGeneralxX]

Me and my brother have been holding a home game for the past couple of years at my house. We play with very close friends and like to keep the stakes small. We play $10 SNG's anywhere from 5-10 players.

Just this past weekend my brother (and his wife) purchased a house with a basement where we are putting a BALLER poker table.

We want to move our home game to his new house but this is where the problem comes in.

Our regular home game is in the same town where everyone who plays lives, like a 5 min drive. So its no big deal for someone to bust out of the $10 SNG and drive home (we never play back to back SNG's). My Brothers new house is like 50 minutes away from everyone so it really makes no sense to have the $10 SNG because people are not gonna want to drive 50 min for 1 SNG. So I think we are going to try to adapt to a cash game because it can last much longer and I think people will be more likely to drive the 50 min.

Me and my bro are pretty experienced online players and are comfortable playing higher stakes but we want to make it comfortable for our less experienced friends who play in our home game. I just dont want to have a $1/$2 NL game and have one of our good friends lose $500+ and have him never come back or ruin a friendship.

So what stakes should we play for in the cash game?

Should we play limit or no limit?

Should we just play multiple SNG's?

HELP!!!!!!!!!

[findingneema]

If you want to keep the stakes small and near your current stakes, why not NL with 10c/20c, 10c/25c, or 25c/25c blinds?

[Small Fry]

I assume you're playing freeze outs now so what about switching it up and adding rebuys. It'll keep players around longer and build a bigger pot.

[Taso]

I think we're gonna need pictures of the new table before we answer any more questions. :P

[Sir Folds A Lot]

Only one table? Give it time, and you'll have about three, but first you have to make it worth the drive. In my truck a 50 minute drive would cost mre than the buy in. You're gonna have to make that a pretty sweet game to make people wanna drive that far. You'd probably have better success finding players in that area.
To draw people to your "new" spot, you could try throwing a bigger kind of tournament. Get another side table or something, and throw that in the mix.

[XxGeneralxX]

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I think we're gonna need pictures of the new table before we answer any more questions. :P

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LOL we actually havnt built it yet. We just cut the wood and it should be done this weekend. Its on this website called Joe's Table.

http://www.homepokertourney.com/tables_build.htm

[grebe]

what about two games? Keep your tourney going at your house, but every other time, get a good cash game going at your regular place. You may end up finding a new crew for the bigger game.

FYI, the good mix of players games around here right now seem to be .50/$1 blinds NL games with a max buyin of $60. This draws the most number of folks, as it is hard to leave more than a couple hundred either way....good for the serious low stakes people and the poker for entertainment people.

Good luck with the new game and table.

[Javanewt]

I like the .25/.50 or .50/1 NL games. That said, I wouldn't drive 50 minutes for one. There are just too many options here.

You could also try a monthly tournament with a $25 or so buy-in. Maybe $5 could go to a jackpot for a "champion" tournament. You'd need another table or two to make this worthwhile, though.

Yep, I think you need to find a new group in the area or get a few more tables to keep your game going once a month or so.

[Ricky_Bobby]

You should definitely switch to a cash game. Tournies are so damn frustrating when you bust out early and have nothing to do. The thing is, some guys are suggesting .5/1 nl games and this is simply a huge jump when before no one could lose more than 10 bucks. There really isn't any way you're going to keep the game big enough to entice people to drive that far for the financial reward and keep it small enough for them to afford it. With 50 dollar buyins it would be very easy to lose 150-200 dollars and I'm guessing a lot of the guys in your group can't afford that. With a pool of only 5-10 players its unlikely that playing an SNG with a ring game on the side would work very well, unless people really like playing short handed.

My game is similar to yours. We are all very close friends and we like to play but we play for fun. We alternate location every weekend but someone always has to drive at least 50 miles. We play .30/.60 limit and .10/.20 NL/PL games and we incorporate about 10 different games into our rotation. Our max buy in is 20 and it isn't hard to lose 50 dollars, and that's a lot compared to 10. Plus we're all long term losers because of gas but we play almost every week because we love to hang out, drink, and play cards. I think the only way your game is gonna stay together is if your friends can have a good time playing when 30 or 40 dollars profit is all they can usually expect to make, and will usually only be a little up or a little down. (I did finish with 160 once in our game, and I have lost about 70)

It works for us because we all like the game and the social aspect way more than normal people. Plus, it's a lot cheaper than going to a bar most nights.

[ECS]

I think, as suggested your best bet would maybe to add rebuys. Just add either 1 or unlimited rebuys in the first hour and that way everyone is at least playing that long and probaly longer