Level up your
home game.
Field-tested tips, strategies, and deep dives for hosts who take their poker nights seriously.
Chopping the Final Table: ICM Deals, Chip Chops and How to Settle It Without a Fight
Three players left, blinds eating 20% of every stack, and the result is now mostly a coin flip. Here are the three ways to chop the money, with the ICM arithmetic worked out in full.
How Many Poker Chips Do You Need? Starting Stacks, Chip Counts and Making a 300- or 500-Piece Set Work
Exact chip counts per player for 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 stacks, worked tables for 300- and 500-piece sets at 6, 8 and 10 players, and the reserve you must hold back for rebuys.
Rebuys, Re-entries and Add-ons: How to Set Them So the Night Doesn't Break
Rebuys and add-ons can double your prize pool or wreck your 10 PM finish. Here's how to set the window, cap the bullets and announce the rules so nobody argues.
Big Blind Ante vs Traditional Antes: Which One Belongs in Your Home Game
Antes change the math on every hand, but the wrong format slows your home game to a crawl. Here is how the big blind ante works, the exact TDA rules, and when to switch it on.
How to Host a Charity Poker Tournament That Actually Raises Money
Two money models with real numbers, a 20-minute structure, table logistics, a run-sheet and a printable checklist. Everything you need to run a charity poker night that raises serious cash.
What Your Chips Are Actually Worth: ICM, Risk Premiums, and How Every Decision Changes as the Tournament Goes On
A chip is worth less than a chip. We walk through the Independent Chip Model with concrete math, show how a 10,000 stack is worth different amounts at different stages, and translate the theory into hand-by-hand decisions — with a bounty-adjustment section.
Run Your First Tournament on Poker Timer: The Complete Walkthrough
Soup-to-nuts walkthrough of running a home tournament on Poker Timer — chip design, blind editor, remote control from your phone, mystery bounties, and the small moves that make the night run itself.
Payout Structures That Keep Players Coming Back
Flat vs. top-heavy payouts and how your curve shapes player satisfaction, rebuy rates, variance, and the ICM-driven style of play at your table. The math of retention, skill-rake, and optimal depth by field size.
Chip Denominations: Stop Making This Common Mistake
Most home game hosts use too many chip colors. The Rule of Three, the math of bet resolution, why a 1:5 ratio beats 1:4, and how to design a chip set that disappears from your players' cognitive load.
Mystery Bounty Tournaments: The Complete Host Guide
Everything you need to run a mystery bounty tournament at home — from prize pool math and bounty curve design to the ICM distortions that make chip leaders the most aggressive player at the table.
The Perfect Blind Structure for a 3-Hour Home Game
How to design a blind schedule that keeps the action moving without busting everyone in the first hour. The math behind level durations, SPR, the M-ratio, and why the geometry of your blind increases decides whether skill or luck wins the night.