local poker tournamements- yay or nay?

gags89

hi guys and gals,

i was thinking of starting a local midweek night poker tournament in my local area

does anyone have any experience, know how in the set up/running of these and whether they are worth the money?

i wouldnt be looking to make a living off it but a bit of extra cash will never be turned down!

the way i was thinking of structuring it was,

(texas holdem poker)
10er buy in.

blinds raised every 1/2 hour to keep people turning over

i guess getting my m8s to be set dealers for the night would be better than everyone having a go as people can cheat

the jackpot would be a % of total buy ins

do i need security?

are commuinity centres allowed hold nights like these?



thanks for any advice

Darragh29

gags89 wrote: »

hi guys and gals,

i was thinking of starting a local midweek night poker tournament in my local area

does anyone have any experience, know how in the set up/running of these and whether they are worth the money?

i wouldnt be looking to make a living off it but a bit of extra cash will never be turned down!

the way i was thinking of structuring it was,

(texas holdem poker)
10er buy in.

blinds raised every 1/2 hour to keep people turning over

i guess getting my m8s to be set dealers for the night would be better than everyone having a go as people can cheat

the jackpot would be a % of total buy ins

do i need security?

are commuinity centres allowed hold nights like these?



thanks for any advice

My local has a poker night once a week, I went down to have a look at it one night but didn't get involved in the game.

Forget about the jackpot for a minute and what other people get out of it. How do you make money out of it?

semibluff

you would get more info if you posted this in the poker forum

ive run nights like these before and have all d equipment etc. You'd really want 2 have a good idea if what ur doing though, rules and legality wise.

also getting numbers there is never easy. To answer your Q's;

most of these nights charge a small % or registration fee on the night. This is normally 10% (for casinos) but privately run games can be up to 20% (anything higher is too much imo). By charging this amount up front, there should be NO money taken from the prizepool. This way everything is clear and more prefessional and will install confidence in your customers.

you will need a larger buy in, large enough to make your % worthwhile, and small enough to make sure you get the numbers. Also depending on were you are holding this (ie a pub that has to be closed by 12) you will probably need 20 min blind structure.

Dealers are normally about 10 p/h and rising for the good ones. For an event with such a small profit margin for you, hiring dealers would be suicide to making money. This would change with a larger buy in (and in turn % for you).
Let it be self deal, and then deal the final table if you so wish. Once your rules are clearly stated and you know what your doing running it, then self deal isnt a major problem.

you shouldnt need security considering you wont have much more than 500euro on the premises.

Most places get away with holding small games like this, once there isnt too much noise created about them.

You really should have a think about this, because as stated by you in your OP, it doesnt seem like anything you'll make a penny from.

Feel free to ask any other advice here or in pm

goodluck

gags89

cheers, man.

em ok so this is what i was thinking of

8 tables 8 players at each - 64 players x 10er registration fee/buy ins

640 total raised

jackpot - €250?
ive checked with the local commuinity centre and for the night and max cost is 150

€40 pay back original cost buying the equipment ( via a small student loan or whatever so theres no interest)


€200 in my pocket,


promo in ways of notices at local pubs, shops, bebo?? word of mouth
theres a poker society in my college that holds big games on campus and they just need permission of the college to stage it and thats it but im not sure they make a profit from it tho and dont just give out all the entrance fees and the jackpot is 100% of all buy ins.



what ya think man?

Darragh29

I remember getting f*cked out of a pub not too long ago for playing a game of "coins" with my mates, aparently on the basis that we were breaking the law by gambling in the pub?!?

How do poker nights get around this???

shoutman

Gags unless all your punters are eejits you will never get away with that sort of reg on that sort of a prizepool.

People will realise that you are robbing them blind and wont play. Online for example the reg is 10% and live anything over then 20% is seen as pretty bad.

Do some quick research, ask people in your locality what the most they would pay entry into a poker tournament would be. Lower the %reg you get and you wont look like a rip off merchant and therfor you will have people who will actually play.

As far as poker games in pubs go it pretty much is totally down to the local superintendants views on it. The rules for any poker tournement are the same (apart from members clubs), pretty much once it doesn't cause any trouble there shouldn't be any trouble from the authorites,

If I was op I'd take the effort to go down to the local super and speak to him about your plans. He shouldn't have a problem.

Also it might be an idea to approach the local pub, say that you are willing to play the game in their pub (midweek night when it will not be busy), if they think it will be ok by their clients/if they have a conference room or anything like that, then they should jump at the opportunity of increasing midweek business.
Ask them to pay for the initial start up costs, a once off fee and say you will play the games in their pub for a specified length of time.

If you want to maximise your profits, the best bet is to run a rebuy tourney ie. players lose their chips within the first 60 minutes they can rebuy into the tourney, pub players will be more aggressive as thats what drink does to you for the most part so you will see prizepools growing by a large amount.

Just rambling here but hopefully you will get something out of it.

Best of luck.

gags89

hmm so what does the 10% mean like registration costs 10% of the jackpot or what?
im not like aiming to attract these pros at poker, my locale is a old enough area with a big empathise on commuinity, like theres bridge games etc held in the local iona centre which is kinda the elderlys church crowd hangout!
then theres alot of bored people on a wednesday night, the local football and Gaa teams all train on tues/thurs mostly so a friendly game of pokes wont hurt nobody, thanks for the advice with clearing it with the authorities too!

gags89

and also the rebuy idea for the first hour sounds good too!cheers!

MrPillowTalk

This is generally a bad idea.

In order to make money you will need to take a large % of the prizepool, which is fine but when the players realise how much is being taken relative to the prizes they will feel they are being cheated (even though they may not be) and will stop attending.

There are lots of people doing pub tourneys and all the pubs that will pull a decent crowd allready are catered for by an established operator, unless your very remote. Your estimation of 64 players is way too high Id say, you may get this many the first time you run it however if it settles at 30 players you will be doing very well.

The legalities of poker in licencsed premises is vague, it is legal to hold games of chance so long as the house does not stand to profit, in your case the pub doesnt directly make any profit you do however so Im not sure wheither its legal or not. As allready said it will be down to the local guardais view on it. There probably is a way of making money out of poker in pubs but I wouldnt imagine this is it.

Good luck.