Home game help - marker problems

[PatekPhil]

OK - we have a wild and crazy home game, held overseas among the expat community. This is a $1-$2NL game with capped $200 buy-ins that gets REALLY crazy when the money is deep.

There are three BIG winners in this game, a couple of break evens, and the rest are donks.

We have a tradition of extending markers to players (not out of the bank, but from other players) and we have never had a collection problem. All markers are paid within 1 or 2 days of issuance.

Last night (this morning) one of our players was into another player for $1600. He busts out (again) and states 'I can pay you back in 3 months', and walks out the door.

Player who was extending the loans thought he was extending markers, payable within 24/48hrs.

Now - player who is owed $1600 wants his money (obviously), and we don't want to lose this donk from our game.

Any recommended collection techniques? (That don't involve baseball bats...)

-PatekPhil.

[pismeyer]

Sounds like this guy may have a problem beyond gambling debts (which is already bad enough). He should be cut-off immediately, no more loans until the mark is paid.

I'm assuming there is no juice runnning on the loan, that said, see if a payment plan can be set-up. If by chance this player is able to pay it all or a good portion back, then he can be permitted to play again.

If that doesn't work, then find a bat.

P [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[ericmalone]

Kind of a scary situation, maybe you guys should re-think your marker policy. Pismeyer is right, the guy may have a serious problem, $1600 in a $1/$2 game?! Did the lender keep giving the guy cash or what? That's 8 rebuys! I can understand 2 or 3, but 8 rebuys?

See if the guy can pay part of it and work on a payment schedule. Don't let him take loans out anymore, unless he agree's to pay w/in 48hrs, and don't loan him outrageous amounts like $1600.

Some of the other players might want to take a bit of the burden away from the guy out of $1600 too.

[PatekPhil]

I know the $1600 loss in a 1/2NL game (with a $200 buy-in cap) sounds ridiculous, but this is a ridiculous game. I've taken $21,772 out of this game since September last year, and only ever logged 5 losing sessions (biggest loss $330). The three regular winners can track over $55k in total wins between the three of us over this timeframe. We play 2X a week.

This particular player has had losses in the $1500 - $2000 range before for a single session. But I suspect that even he is realizing he simply can't keep up. We're not shocked by the loss, we're shocked by his attitude, since he hasn't been a collection problem in the past.

Clearly, he's not taking markers anymore, assuming he gets this paid and returns to the game. I'm not comfortable suggesting the marker gets shared out. We USED to loan out of our bad-beat jackpot money, and stopped that because we weren't comfortable with the potential for repayment issues. Players could've interpreted it as a 'victimless' loan if they didn't repay - so we stopped the practice. Now, loans/markers have become player to player transactions. The loaner decided to extend $1600 in credit to this guy, its their transaction. We'll keep the debtor out of the game until its paid off.

Hopefully it won't get ugly - its too good and lucrative a game to break up over one person being an idiot.

[cardshark]

There is an old saying:

"If you want to lose a friend, loan him some money."

I personally always have a problem with the idea of people borrowing money for gambling. If one person borrows form another individual let them figure it out. They are adult people and responsible for their own actions. Why get involved?

[TexRef]

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They are adult people and responsible for their own actions. Why get involved?

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