How to Host the Perfect Poker Home Game: Who to Invite

These are a few of the basic groups that you can choose, or choose not, to invite to your home game. If we have to add a personal note, take a lot of time to think about your invite list closely. It can make or break how much fun you have.

• How to Set up and Invite Friends to Online Private Games

Who to Invite to Your Home Poker Game

Best Buds

This is your bread and butter. You want to invite your closest friends because you know they are trustworthy and good people to be around.

You can call them up on short notice and fill out your game if you need.

Pros

• It’s way better bluffing someone you’ve known for years
• Even if they dominate you at the table you may get a free drink out of it later
• Ability to taunt your friends for years to come

Cons

• They’re probably going to borrow money
• They may not leave
• They’re pretty damn offensive

Co-Workers

Co-workers are a great source for fodder at the poker table because you know they make money!

Putting the word out in an office is a good way to build your game quickly.

Pros

• You know where your opponents work so collecting is easy
• Poker can be a bonding experience
• You’ll all be equally tired at work the next day

Cons

• Bluffing your superior out of a $100 pot could make things interesting the next day
• Things get awkward when crazy Phil from accounting suggests everyone put their next paycheck on the line
• Bill Lumbergh keeps reminding you about your TPS reports

Members of the Opposite Sex

This is a tricky one. If it’s an all-guys game it sounds great to get a couple good looking women in on the game. The thing is it can change the dynamic considerably.

Remember you’re not going to look very attractive to a member of the opposite sex if you bluff them out of a $100 pot and dive onto the table to perform a chip backstroke.

Conversely ladies’ poker nights work very well and sometimes women feel more comfortable just playing with other females. Proceed with caution.

Pros

• Game tends to be more civil
• Your home game could conceivably double in size
• The game is usually more relaxed and fun

Cons

• Game tends to be more civil
• Sleeping on the couch for check-raising your wife/significant other sucks
• If you’re a guy, losing a massive pot to a girl who had “double kings” might hurt your ego
• In the poker game of life, women are the rake

Professional Poker Players

Poker pros are a long shot, of course, and will arguably destroy the game for everyone else.

On the plus side you have a shot at getting your game televised!

Pros

• Good story to tell all your friends

Cons

• You will lose all your money
• Several pros keep nagging you for a buffet comp
• Phil Hellmuth keeps referring to you as an “idiot from Northern Europe”
• They’ll convince you to “play with the pros” then simply take all the money on the table and wait for the DOJ to come for it

More articles on How to Host the Perfect Poker Home Game:

• Part 1: Equipment
• Part 2: Hand Rankings
• Part 3: How to Play
• Part 4: How to Set Up
• Part 5: What to Drink
• Part 6: What to Eat
• Part 7: Who to Invite
• Part 8: Etiquette
• Part 9: How to Beat your Friends
• Part 10: Cheaters
• Part 11: More Games, More Gamble
• Part 12: Odds and Exceptions

Additional Home Game Tools:

• Which Poker Hand Wins Calculator