There are few things that bring the guys together better than a night of playing cards. It can be a lot of laughs, raucous, and a real bonding experience. It can also be a dud or a disaster if things don’t go according to plan. Some poker nights can devolve into arguments and even broken friendships if you’re not careful.
It takes careful planning to make sure that doesn’t happen and that the night is successful in other ways. Planning it out with a system in mind will go a long way toward the event going smoothly and fun in the way you had hoped. It takes making sure that you get interesting card decks to play with and that the food is ideal for playing cards.
In this article, we will go over the essentials to keep in mind when hosting your next poker party.
1. Set a time limit
There is nothing worse than a poker game that goes on much longer than it should. The problem is those who are losing money want to keep playing to get it back and those that are winning want to stop so they can quit while they’re ahead.
Another problem is that games that drag on make it less fun as time goes on. At a certain point, you’ll want to wrap things up so you can clean up and get some sleep.
The best way to avoid any of these problems is to set a time limit. Make sure that it is understood that no matter what is happening in the game that it ends at midnight, for example. Those that are on the losing end should be made to understand that they will have to wait for the next game to try to win their money back.
2. Card friendly foods
Finger foods are the ideal thing to serve so you can play and eat at the same time. In fact, this is how the sandwich was invented. The trick is to provide food that is going to be filling, tasty, and most importantly, not messy to eat.
Pizza may seem like a no-brainer, but if you shell out good money on a nice set of playing cards the greasy fingers are going to ruin them. Make sure the food is something like small sandwiches that are not going to create a mess when people are eating.
3. Allow buying in again
It’s no fun for those that end up busting after the very first hand. They can only sit there and watch others having fun or go home. That is unless you allow them to buy back in.
This is a good way to make sure that everybody can have fun and are not punished for having one bad hand early in the game. As long as the buy-in is not too much money that is a sub-rule.
Make it affordable to play so if somebody does lose they don’t end up losing a lot of money which will create hard feelings amongst friends.