Are you a venue thinking of starting a weekly poker night?

Not sure how to begin?

Do you want to join a poker franchise or keep it in house for your customers

Well I will help you out with my top recommendations for running a successful night.

Like the Scouts “Be Prepared”. Failure to anticipate problems will impact on the success of the game.

First of all decide what night of the week you want it to be on and what time you would like it to start and end. A 4hr game is generally the best way to start so a 7-7:30pm starting time is what you should aim for and the end of the game will be around 11:30pm. Be advised that some games may run shorter or longer than this on occasions so some leeway should be given if the game runs a little long.

The quieter early to midweek nights, Monday to Wednesday, are probably best and try to avoid clashing with other events like a snooker, pool, darts or quiz nights especially if you have limited space as you will need a big area to host the poker.

Secondly, think about who will run the game, whether it would be yourself, a designated member of staff or hire someone like me to guide the staff member on how oversee the set up, player registration, collect buy-ins, enforce rules and pack away the equipment after the game is finished.

Thirdly you will need to reserve a large enough area to set up at least 2 to 3 tables (8 or 9 players per table) with enough seats to comfortably sit the players. Make sure there’s is enough space between the tables for players to easily get up from their seat without inconveniencing the other players. Cumbersome large chairs will make it awkward to fit everyone around the table and possibly leave little space for for people getting past.

Now that you have decided on a night, reserved an area and have figured out who is running the game here comes the expensive bit - the equipment.

You can buy your tables and chips independently from eBay, Amazon or a poker specialist like Redtooth Poker or Riverboat Gaming among others, although the cost can quickly grow depending on the quality of the items as well as how quickly the game could grow.

I recommend you get chips with the denominations on them as players will hate having to keep asking what the chips values are worth. You want be buying chips that weigh around 10 to 14grams and come in values of 25,100,500,1000’s. I also recommend buying extra higher valence chips in 5000 and 10,000 values to help with chip management throughout the game

100% plastic playing cards are essential as they are less prone to marking or bending and easy to keep clean so they will last longer than basic playing cards with less replacements needed. Players will bend and mark the cards, albeit without deliberate intention.
I recommend the Dark Knight cards by Redtooth Poker. Great value at around £6 per deck or 12 decks for £35 via an offer on their website.

Table-tops are ideal for most most venues as they fold out and set up in mere seconds onto existing tables. They are also easy to storeGet ones that are at least 180cm in length to accommodate 8 players. Avoid at all costs the basic hexagonal poker tops as these are just horrible to play on, are really crap to deal cards on or even for the players just trying to pick them up.
Make sure you have large enough tables to lay the poker tables on as laying them across smaller tables pushed together can cause an uneven surface and in the long term cause the table fabric to stretch. The fold-out oval tables are 180cm so you want the tables to around this length.
If you have the storage space and space in the venue , then invest in free-standing tables, a little more expensive but you can fit more players around them.

Invest in a decent poker timer app that you can connect to a TV to display the current blinds, next blinds and upcoming breaks. It will give a more professional feel to your game. Nothing annoys players more than keep having to ask what the blinds are or the game runner forgetting to tell people. In some cases players who are using their phone to run a timer may get knocked out the game and go home and someone else has to take over.

I recommend BlindsUp on iOS as it’s almost a complete casino poker management app without the need for a heavy laptop and you don’t even need an internet connection. It can track player stats, league stats and is fully customisable. See my review including the updated extras on here for a full breakdown.

Additionally buy some Seating Cards from All In Accessories to help organise the players. Friends like to sit next to each other and discuss the hands or people argue over seats especially if there is sport on so they can watch the TV. These cards help with random seat assignments and cause less arguments.

Run 1 or 2 promotional games to garner interest before committing to a long term plan. The better run the game is the more likely you will have keeping regular players and who in turn will then spread the word and about a good game and encourage more players to attend.
A bad game experience will spread like wildfire and cause a struggle to improve player numbers.

Advertise around the venue, especially on darts/pool/quiz nights as there will invariably be a crossover over people who like poker as well the other sports.

Also you really should offer table service for drinks as players will buy less if they spend time waiting at the bar for service and miss playing poker. Drink sales will generally increase by a 30% if a staff member comes round just once every 20mins.

Other things to consider:
Offer some free food like chips, popcorn chicken, sausage rolls etc at the break for poker players as this will encourage more drink sales.
Or alternatively mayb a 10-20% discount on drinks for players with a discount card..

If you wanted to join a poker league like Redtooth Poker the will provide you with 2 tables, 2 chip-sets, guidance on how the league works and all the paperwork you need Blinds Upu started. It cost around £350 for the first season and then the subscription can be paid monthly.

The league consists of 4 seasons per year, 13 games per season, with 4 players from each venue qualifying for region finals at the end. The players play for points and/or optional low stakes prizes. The qualifiers will go to a designated casino and play for a chance to win a weeks trip to Las Vegas, USA to play for the title of UK Pub Poker Champion.

The benefits to this are players will be guaranteed a game each week, it builds a busy environment on quiet nights and increases sales and cheaper than buying all new equipment separately.

The downsides are it can take a while to establish decent numbers but don’t give upearly give it 2-3 seaons, some players aren’t interested in points and just want play for money, it quite a big upfront cost to start without any guarantee of its viability.

Read my reviews on the products I use to give you more information.

Links

https://www.allinaccessories.co.uk/

https://www.redtoothpoker.com/

Poker timer by BlindsUp iOS in the App Store or on Android use Blinds Are Up.