How I Started My Own Poker Game
I started doing some online marketing work for Party Gaming, which runs the big online poker room, PartyPoker. After reading about poker all day long, I decided I’d learn how to play. So I started playing online at a few different poker rooms, mostly PokerStars and PartyPoker. I’d play mostly free rolls or cheap Sit N Go tourneys. I’d play online for a few weeks, and soon, I found that quite a few of my friends also played.
I had a perfect spot to play, so I welcomed all my friends and their friends to come play at my place. I loved playing at my place, mostly because I didn’t have to go anywhere to play. I loved playing live. We started playing $0.10/$0.20, then soon moved to .25/.50. I would just call my friends every night and those that could come play, would come over. It was usually enough to be at least 8-handed.
There were times when we couldn’t gather enough players, so I decided to start a Facebook group. A lot of college students found out about my game that way. So after about 2-3 months of playing, a few of my players suggested I start taking a rake. For those of you who don’t know what rake is, it’s a percentage of the pot that the house takes. I was hesitant for awhile because I didn’t want to scare the players away. But after talking to a few of the players, most of them didn’t mind. I still remember my first night starting the raked game. I went out and bought 3 huge bags of candy, 150 piece chicken nuggets from McDonalds, and 4 two-liter sodas. I spent a little under $100 in food and drinks. We started at about 9:00 pm with 9 heads. Around 10:00, we had 2 people in line waiting to play. I had to work the next morning, so unfortunately, I couldn’t stay up all night. I ended up going to bed around 2:00 am and awoke at 7:45 am to find that they were still playing! I usually spent about 15-20 minutes getting up for work, so by the time I was about to leave, they were finishing up. I went over to check the rake. The total rake was $355! So thoughts of ($$$) immediately passed through my mind. I thought damn, this could be really profitable. And the rest is pretty much history.
I would begin hosting games 2 nights a week, .25/.50 and .50/$1. I invested in a flat screen TV, a new custom poker table, and some custom chips. In the first 2 months, there were times when the game would struggle to get some players to come play, but after about 3-4 months, I never again had that issue. My games usually had at least 2-3 waiting in line to play. My average rake was around $400 a night and the game typically would last 8-10 hours. So that’s how it all started. I don’t do it quite as heavily now. Due to some personal issues, the game has slowed down a bit, but I’m confident I could bring things back to normal if I desired it. Anyhow, look for an upcoming post that will provide some tips on what to do to start your own profitable home poker game.
Home Poker Blog Begins!
When I first had thoughts of starting a regular home poker game, I did quite a bit of research. I talked with the few guys that I knew that ran a regular home poker game and just asked as many questions as possible. I was surprised to learn though, there really wasn’t an abundance of information on the web about starting or hosting one. There are a few articles here and there, but none dedicated to running a successful one. Lol, probably because it’s not really a “legal” thing, although there are probably thousands of games in this country. Anyhow, after starting my own game and being successful with it, I think I’ll show those aspiring to start their own successful home poker game how to make it happen 
.