Does anyone else feel the growth of poker clubs is kind of like that of the fight clubs in "Fight Club"? At what point will home tourneys be liable for polce raids? How can you promote your tourney w/o any mention of stakes? Any suggestions would be helpful.
We keep ours limited to invite only. I use invite loosely because many of the players are friends of friends or friend's co-workers. You get the idea, it's word of mouth. We just ask that people bring along people who are cool, respectful, and good sports whether they win or lose.
To keep everyone up to date with what's going on we have been using email. Our game is growing and I am now running a web site. My web site requires a password to keep out people who accidentally stumble upon my site.
Right now we don't really worry too much about getting busted because it's a private game without a house edge. These poker clubs are probably more like fantasy football than they are like fight clubs since there is no violent activity (in most cases anyway). Hope that helps.
I found this link:
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Law-Summary/State-Gambling-Law-Chart.htm
Social Gambling Allowed: The question here is whether playing for money in a purely social context is allowed, or at least probably legally overlooked. A "social context" usually means that no player or other person, like a bookie or the host of the game, makes or earns anything other than as, and on an equal footing with, a mere player in the contest or game.
Now look at the chart and see if there is a YES next to your state. If so, you should be cool.
I do mine by a special invite only. I allow certain players to invite friends. Those that I trust. This also helps so you can be a little more comfortable with the cheating aspect of it.
I have about 30 players that are interested at all times so it is not a problem to get a game going.
Thanks for the suggestions and link. It would appear Michigan is a no/no state as far as home games and/or internet poker. What a farse! I guess I'll have to use extreme caution when promoting my tourneys. "promoting" is probably a bad choice of words. There is no house take/rake and our buy-in's are only $50. I think I'll cap it at a 50 man max. Also, our games are very sportsmanlike with plenty of beer to boot. I only used the "fight club" analogy to compare how we up here in Motown have to use caution even when an office pool (squares or March Madness) is put together. I've heard of $10 sqaures being busted up. Oh well! I guess we'll remain somewhat underground.
My home game i started up contains about 8-9 people and sometimes more .ALL friends or know friends and we play 10-20-30-40-50 dolars buy ins and having 8 pot can get to 450 .Invite only
Yeah, generally the best rule of thumb is that as long as the house is not taking a rake or taking a piece of the action then it is a legal social game. If however there is a rake or the house takes a piece of the action then it is illegal, at least in most states.
I live in Michigan too, but not so far south as you I live in northern mi, where even the cops play poker with you in the back of bars. I think your best bet is to keep it on the downlow and only invite people you know, or certain people you trust in. Just dont do stupid shit like send flyers to everyone in your subdivision telling them there is a nl holdem tourney at xxxx maple street @ 6:00 hosted by xxxx Johsnon in his living room, park in rear, bring $1000. Really, michigan doesnt allow it because they dont make any money from you gambling at home with your buds. they want you to go to greektown or the mgm in detroit. Nevertheless, keep gambling in your basement, nobody will bust you as a "card house".
You are pretty much smallfry compared to everyone else that the cops should be concerned with. It's not worth their trouble to raid a small poker game in ur basement.
I think they'd make more money catching someone going 10 over the speed limit.
The logic is: we all do it, but it's not worth the cops time to bust us for it.
Kinda like recording them movies we rent from the video store (we all do it...), but who's gonna put the manpower into raiding ur house to bust you on copyright laws over you dubbing "The Hulk".
We play in Twin Cities area south of the rivers.
We get together every couple months or so. Most of us in our 30s, have families (some with newborns), and have regular day jobs. That makes it hard to get together any more often.
As I posted earlier, we keep it limited to friends and their friends. If we ever decide to invite outside people, I will be sure to post that.
I understand about games turning from legal to illegal if the house charges or takes a rake. Or turning from authorities looking the other way to being raided.
But, what if the house takes only their actual expenses. Example - renting the clubhouse, cost of about a thousand chips, etc.
Would it be illegal if every cent not spent on the game was paid out?
$2,400.00 - 24 people at $100, no buy backs.
$ 250.00 - receipt for clubhouse rental
$ 109.50 - receipt for new chips
$ 60.00 - receipt for sodas
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$1,980.50 - total payout
