 Frequently Asked Questions |
| Q: Address/Phone
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| Q: How can I send money and make a withdrawal?
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| LIVE GAMES
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| Q: Why should I be on time?
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| A: Players who arrive by the announced start time will receive an "on time bonus" of around 10% of the starting stack. You must be physically in the basement by the start time, and we are strict about it! Even if we start a few minutes late for some reason (say because your host is busy handing out bonus chips, there's an issue with the game clock, etc) the cutoff for "on time" is the announced time. There will be a countdown on the tournament clock, you must beat the timer!
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| Q: Who deals?
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| A: In general we expect whoever is assigned the "1" seat (or the lowest number seat if nobody is assigned that seat) to be the dealer. That person gets an additional chip bonus and starts with the button in return for being the dealer.
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| First time players are generally exempt, and in that case or if the "1" seat refuses the role we will ask around the table lowest seat to highest until someone accepts.
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| Q: What's the setup like?
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| A: I have one nice poker table I built that comfortably sits 10 players and two old poker tables and can accommodate 8-10 each. If this return to live poker make it look like we will be needing a second table regularly I'll build another one.
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| Limits on the number of players are based on the tournament we're playing and how many are allowed for that game. Nine is the standard for Hold'em but as few as six players for a number of other games. So for a six-max game I only have room for 18, but for Hold'em and Omaha we'd have room for up to 28.
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| I will have a TV screen with the game clock high in the room. Generally we will want the dealer to be facing the clock so they can see when blinds are changing.
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| Q: What can/should I bring to the game?
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| A: Money and whatever you want to eat or drink. I supply some snacks, but if there's something in particular you prefer to snack on feel free to bring it. My snack choices are fairly run-of-the-mill. I'll also have some water bottles, but in general we don't keep a lot in the house for ourselves. As far as alcoholic drinks, see below.
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| Q: Is it open bar?
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| A: NO :-)
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| For beer you basically have three choices:
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- You can contribute to "the keg fund" and drink my beer. I have two kegs, usually a lager and an amber.
- You can bring your own - but if you do please don't feel like you should leave behind what you don't drink because I probably won't drink it. If you do leave something behind, it's fair game for the next event
- You can help yourself to what people have left behind from past events
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| The whisky is generally off-limits, but you can always ask. I have a large collection of whisky and many of them are hard to find and/or expensive but I will have some more standard bottles available like Jameson, Bulliet, etc.
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| Any of the other liquor would be fine, again with a contribution to the keg fund, but I probably don't have any mixers for you. Again, you're always welcome to bring your own (and again I would likely not touch your stuff so you can expect it to be around for next time).
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| Q: Why don't you drink what people leave behind? Not good enough for you?
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| A: I've heard that I have about four months from the time I tap a keg to finish it off before the beer starts to go bad. I have no intention of letting that happen and, well, there's only so much I can drink...
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| Q: How much are you looking for in the keg fund?
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| A: Beer costs me about 2/3-3/4 what it costs by the six-pack, one of the kegs will usually be some kind of amber. I'm looking for you to contribute a fair amount of money for the amount of beer you drink.
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| Please note that although the keg fund is a non-profit enterprise, contributions are not tax-deductible :-)
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| Q: If I'm first out of a tournament I just have to sit around and wait for the next one to start?
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| A: You're welcome to volunteer to deal or try to organize a cash side-game 'til the next one starts. There's the pool table, the pinball machine, TVs that can be tuned to your favorite sporting event...we have lots of ways to hopefully entertain you in the meantime!
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| ONLINE GAMES
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| Q: How do I sign up for PokerStars?
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| A: You can Download here
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| PLEASE NOTE: My understanding is that there is a mobile app for PokerStars, but home games do not work in the mobile app. You must be on a desktop/laptop.
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| Create a login, please email/text/IM your account to me so I know it's you, and:
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| Q: PokerStars won't let me play for money, how do we play for money?
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| A: We handle the money outside of PokerStars.
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| First and foremost, in order to sign up for games on PokerStars you must have "play chips". When you first sign up for PokerStars you are given 50,000 chips. You need 20,000 to buy into our tournaments and 17,000 to rebuy (and we do up to two rebuys). You have three methods available to you to get more play chips:
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- Click the "Get Chips" button at the top of the PokerStars screen, which will give you another 15,000. You can only do that every 4 hours.
- Win them. Chips are awarded for our tournaments and there are plenty of other tournaments for play chips available to you.
- Buy some. $2.99 will get you 500,000 but they seem to always have them "on sale" and I've seen 750,000 and 1,000,000 for $2.99 at different times.
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| Our tournaments are not a "zero sum game" because they "keep" 3000 of your 20,000 buyin, we can't just endlessly pass them around among ourselves. So folks do need to keep clicking that get chips button...
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| As far as money, see the next Q/A for details. You can see your current balance on the RSVP page plus there's a link to your transaction history.
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| Players are expected to keep enough cash in their "account" to cover any potential buyins and rebuys on our "cash" nights so please check your balance and make sure you have enough before you sign up.
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| Q: Is there any kind of chat room for the game?
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| Q: Why can't someone who stumbled on this website ask to be included?
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| A: Colorado state law says that our game is legal as long as there are no rules designed to insure a profit for any of the participants (i.e. if the house were raking the pot it would be illegal) and all of the participants have a relationship outside the poker game. Everyone involved in the game is either a friend of mine, a co-worker of mine or a friend or co-worker of someone else in the game. Sorry, but you have to know someone to join us.
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| Excerpts of a press release from the Colorado State AG office relevent to our game:
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Attorney General Suthers and Gaming Commission Caution Against Illegal Gambling Activities
08/31/2005
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| DENVER Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission Chairman Natalie Meyer today cautioned Colorado residents against participating in illegal gambling activities. With the increased popularity of internet gambling, televised poker tournaments and sports pools, much confusion surrounds the legality of these activities.
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| ....
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| Home poker tournaments and office sports pools are allowed under a "social gambling" exception under state law. For an activity to be considered "social gambling," all participants must have a "bona fide social relationship," meaning that they have an established social relationship based upon some other common interest other than the gambling activity, and no one other than the participants can profit from the game or activity in any manner, such as taking part of the pot in a poker game or a sports pool to be compensated for organizing the activity.
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| QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: ILLEGAL GAMBLING
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| Q: What is "social gambling"?
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| A: State law allows "social gambling" among participants who have a "bona fide social relationship" and in which all moneys wagered goes out in prizes. A "bona fide social relationship" means that the parties must have an established social relationship based upon some other common interest other than the gambling activity. Further, participants cannot directly or indirectly participate in "professional gambling," which is defined as "aiding or inducing another to engage in gambling, with the intent to derive a profit therefrom." This generally means that no one other than the players can profit from the game or activity in any manner. The profit does not need to be direct profit. For example, if a liquor establishment or other commercial enterprise derives increased sales or revenues by attracting customers, even without charging a cover or other direct consideration, as the result of gambling taking place at that business, the business is considered to have profited from the activity and the activity would no longer fall under the social gambling exception. These two criteria.a bonafide social relationship and no profit motive must be present for a gambling activity to be considered legal "social gambling." |