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Poker, we need to use something insted of money

crazycat

crazycat

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2005
1,319
0
Well i just ordred a poker table with a bunch of poker chips to use as a once in a week thing we do as friends. We are about 8 guys that normaly hang out, we all dont know how to play poker but we will start soon.

The problem is that some of us can affored to play more then others, bet more, take bigger chances which will make for an unfair game. I know its like this in real life but some in our case its a problem. We want to use something insted of money, we will make our own reward system. Chips will replace money. We are doing a system such as loser buys dinner, winner decides where to go (movies, dinner extra) and more. I would like some input from the best place on the net (MR ofcorse) so that we can start as soon as the poker table comes.

Remmber we are friends and dont want any problems to arise between us so something that will still keep the friendship alive "AND" will be fun. A friend on mine tried to pla poker without money and it did not workout as most people just went all in without the fear of loss.
 
crazycat said:
Well i just ordred a poker table with a bunch of poker chips to use as a once in a week thing we do as friends. We are about 8 guys that normaly hang out, we all dont know how to play poker but we will start soon.

The problem is that some of us can affored to play more then others, bet more, take bigger chances which will make for an unfair game. I know its like this in real life but some in our case its a problem. We want to use something insted of money, we will make our own reward system. Chips will replace money. We are doing a system such as loser buys dinner, winner decides where to go (movies, dinner extra) and more. I would like some input from the best place on the net (MR ofcorse) so that we can start as soon as the poker table comes.

Remmber we are friends and dont want any problems to arise between us so something that will still keep the friendship alive "AND" will be fun. A friend on mine tried to pla poker without money and it did not workout as most people just went all in without the fear of loss.
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Easy. Play with beer.
 
Hell, play for pennies if that's what everyone can afford. Not enough flexibility with beers (I'll raise you a 6-pack? Ouch!), and clothes are only fun if you're "that" kind of friends.
 
mactastic said:
Hell, play for pennies if that's what everyone can afford. Not enough flexibility with beers (I'll raise you a 6-pack? Ouch!), and clothes are only fun if you're "that" kind of friends.
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No, loser has to take a drink for everyone above him and so on. Winner doesn't drink. Just play with chips but the payoff is beer.
 
Well beer is not a good idea, we will be drinking while we play. Clouths i s a big no no, last thing i want is my friends pants.

I was thinking od something that would be fun and make use play competively as if we were playing with money. Again the reason why we dont want to use money is because we want it to be fun for all and yet be competive for all.
 
If you have a constant buy-in, you shouldn't have that big of a problem one person being able to play more often because of money...particularly if that amount is less than one would likely spend on an evening out anyways. The bigger bets would only be had by the player who wins the most hands, or the hands with the biggest pots.

It'll be fair if everyone puts in the same amount of money and starts with the same number of chips...or am I missing something?
 
We used to play with Popeye cigarettes (They still were called cigarettes back then). Unfortunately, some of us ended up eating most of our gains.

That beign said, Poker doesn't work very well without real money. (my humble opinion). Maybe you could decide of an amount of money a person can bring to the table (An amount you're all willing to loose) and forbid to spend more?
 
All the losers have to shave off a square inch of their hair for every chip they're below the winner. For more fun, the winner gets to choose which bit of their head it comes off from. Chequerboard pattern, anyone? :D

Of course, you can only play it once a month or so that way.
 
Lau said:
All the losers have to shave off a square inch of their hair for every chip they're below the winner. For more fun, the winner gets to choose which bit of their head it comes off from. Chequerboard pattern, anyone? :D

Of course, you can only play it once a month or so that way.
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and please make it so its only the hair on their head.
 
Well i read some good ideas (limiting the money) and some bad ones (shaving hair) :p but i woudl still ove to find something insted of money.


srobert said - "That beign said, Poker doesn't work very well without real money. (my humble opinion)"

I agree, you are ment to play poker with money but in our case i dont want it to get in our friendship, i might be open to the idea of using money if we limit it but would it still be fun if we spend little money? will people still fear losing it? thats a problem.
 
That was the same with my mates so we all just bought quite a few bags of Haribo Gummi Bears. It is so tempting to eat them though.
 
crazycat said:
i might be open to the idea of using money if we limit it but would it still be fun if we spend little money? will people still fear losing it? thats a problem.
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You just have to make it enough to where it means something to win it, in my opinion. How many people are playing regularly? Let's say you have 6 people playing and you set the buy-in at $15. If you pay out to the winner, and even give 2nd place his money back, that's $75 for whoever wins. To me, it's a low enough amount to where I'd likely be spending more than that if I went out and did something, yet have the opportunity to earn an amount of money that is significant. You could even probably go down to $10 per person and it would still be worthwhile.

You can change the buy-in based on what you deem to be significant and the number of people playing.
 
What others have said about buy-ins... I play a weekly game also where the buy-in is $20. We all start with an equal number of chips, say $40 worth, and whoever finishes first gets the lion's share of the pot. With 6 people, we usually pay out to 2 or 3 spots... like $90 to the winner, $30 to second place.

Not playing for money also has the added disadvantage of how do you keep track of who owes what? Then there's the question of equality... what if one winner the first week chooses McDonald's for his prize, and the winner the next chooses his bar tab to paid in full for a night out?

Just set the buy-in to something that noone has a problem with losing.. even a $1. Some of the fun comes in the actual playing, as well as the satisfaction of having all the chips in the end.. but some of the fun comes from there being something tangible at stake.
 
My friends and I play poker about once a month. WE play £2 per round. And with 6 of us the winner gets £8, runner up £4. That we never actually spend that much and a win and 2nd place means that usually you end up even.
 
The *key* to having fun while playing poker is that there *has* to be something at stake. Remarkably, the stakes don't have to be very high to have a lot of fun. Admittedly, however, the best thing to have at stake is a little cash.

The way we usually play is a $5 buy in. This buys everyone the same number of chips and thereafter the chips can be assigned arbitrary values. We usually play with 5-8 people so the total pot is $25-$40. If a person loses all their chips they can (sometimes) buy back in for $5 or $10. The reason to up the buy in is make them add more to the pot while at the same time they increase their chances of winning by rejoining the game.

We also usually only play until there are two people left and they split the pot 2/3 and 1/3. This prevents the game from going forever. Also, you should learn to play with blinds and learn about increasing the blinds (perhaps each time a person drops out you double the blinds).

One variant that you might consider is that all of the pot goes into holding after each night with the top two players retaining their earnings on paper. You can keep track of this week after week and (presumably) each member of the group will occasional win proceeds that go into their "account." After a certain number of weeks of playing you could then let the top two winners decide where to get dinner and where to get drinks (this is what the actually "win") and you could use *all* of the pot money to pay for the night (or at least bring the cost down if you eat and drink a lot!). That would work pretty well, there would be something at stake, but everyone gets to enjoy the food and drinks. Mmmm beer.
 
crazycat said:
We want to use something insted of money, we will make our own reward system.
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my roommate and I (back in college) happened upon a Rock'em Sock'em Robots set up in the toy store at the mall. So we played for who would do the dishes when we got home.

how about you play for yardwork or something? Say you go all-in against your buddy, and you win. Because he's out, he now has to help you do a chore...rake the leaves, shovel snow, help you clean the gutters, etc.

So say it's further on in the game, and you go all-in against another buddy, and you lose. Now, you have to help him do a chore.

At the end of the night, whoever's left standing doesn't have to do anything. Put a time-limit on the task, too. Say that it has to be done before the next game.

Or maybe you could have a "big-task" night, where the last guy standing gets to corral all the others into doing something for him.

It doesn't involve any money, and it's a way you guys can hang out and screw around. The last time I helped my buddy clear some brush on his property, we got freakin' hammered. We cleared the stuff, but had a lot of fun doing it, too...
 
sb58 said:
for every hand someone loses, they get shot in the foot.
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Winner!

Play for like candy or something. Everyone buy like a pack of skittles, pour them out and then play with those. and winner takes home 8 packs of skittles!
 
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