Should you chip in money for the host?

Ok, here is my situation. I really enjoyed playing poker, but having only 200 plastic chips and a bunch of buttons (please laugh, it was quite funny) my friends and I decided we need some real chips.

So after it was pretty much unanimous that we needed some new chips I saw some nice 11.5 gram ones with a case at a local discount store for 49.99 Canadian. Also there was a poker table top that is solid wood and comes with a carrying case. I figured it would be an awesome touch in comparison to an oversized rectangular table. The table top was also 49.99.

Since then we have played about 5-6 times at my house and never at anyone else’s' house. Granted I do have the best basement for poker.

Anyway, here is my dilemma. My mom (we are all seniors) always prepares a huge amount of food when my friends come over. But only one has chipped in 10 bucks to help pay for the chips/table.

Should I ask the others to put some money in? I think it is clear by now that they won't put it in on their own. Or is it accepted that the guy who bought the poker stuff pays for it and that’s the end of it?

I would really appreciate any input. Thanks guys!

Sounds like a good idea, I'll ask them to bring some money for pizza and mabye mention the table and chips.

If the games were rotating around houses this wouldn't be an issue, but it hasn't been anywhere but my house in the 8-10 times we have played.

I have a similar situation. I host the poker game every time, two or three times a month. I have the best basement for a large group of people, plus it makes me feel good to be able to host the party. I've done it so many times now, it's just easier for everyone this way.

Anyway, as we got more into poker I decided that I wanted to get the pretty things like chips, KEM cards, and build a hold'em table (here's a picture of my stuff http://members.shaw.ca/khabbi/pokertable/table5.jpg).

Initially I paid for everything on my own because I wanted to own the stuff outright and didn't have to worry about "splitting" it with anyone. I only bought 300 chips (which isn't enough, but this was over a year ago when chips were more expensive than they are now). Since then, one of my other buddies has bough an additional 500 chips, so now we have a great set.

The table was the biggest thing, it cost $280CDN to build. A couple of my friends chipped in $40 each for me, that was nice so for the first three months, the three of us were guaranteed to play at that table every time (I'd randomly assign seats until we were all at table 1 together). Now that the novelty has worn off, we play fair and take our seats at table 2 if that's how it works.

I don't server much food, but since there is always at least 10 guys, chips and dips usually end up costing me about $15 every time. I can think of only a few occaisions when other people have brought over a bag of chips or something, but I still look at as being cheaper and more entertaining then going to the bar.

This seems like I am taking a large hit every time that I host a tournament but the truth is that I am the best poker player of my group of friends. I think that giving them all this stuff kinda blinds them to the fact that I make more money on these events than I put out.

I can guarantee that I am not down as much money, including all these expenses, as some of the dead money friends that come over every time for a good time. I like being able to offer something to my friends and would never think of asking for anything in return.

Sorry, that went on for a long time. The moral of my story, get good at poker so that you can beat all your friends and use that recoup any expenses that you incur by having them all over.

My opinion:

You want nice equipment, buy it. You are paying to have nice things for yourself, its cheesy to try to get your friends to pay for something you wanted. The biggest problem with having multiple people cover the expense is the question of who own's it once its purchased. If they decide they want to host a game, are they free to grab the stuff they helped pay for?

As far as the recurring costs, there realy shouldn't be any. Just let people know that if they want to eat or drink something, they should bring it. Clear some space in your fridge or fill a cooler with ice and that should be the end of it.

Don't do entry fees. They are stupid.

As far as food and drinks go, I have a bring your own policy. People don't eat and drink the same amounts, so it's tough to say, "Okay, everyone here owes me $5 for food and drink." Some people won't have anything to eat OR drink, and yet they're expected to pay? Actually, it's those guys that are usually the ones that DO pay, but the assholes that eat all of your food and drink your drinks are sometimes the ones that don't pay enough.

What about chips and table tops? I bought my chips (1300) and table tops because I wanted to be able to host large tournaments at my house. I shouldn't expect other people to pay an entry fee to cover the cost of those items.

I look at those items as if they were, I dunno, like a fancy TV or something. I'm not going to buy a humongous TV, have a bunch of people over to watch the big game, and say, "Umm, hey guys, I bought this TV and since you're coming over to watch it I need you to help me pay for it."

And I personally don't like the idea of the house getting a tip, or whatever. I've only ever seen it once, but at my last tournament the winner received $340 of a $580 payout....and he threw $20 on the table and said, "Thanks for having me." I was like, "WTF is that for?" He explained it was for hosting such a big tournament, that if it weren't for me, he wouldn't be $300+ richer. I told him that was silly, but he refused to take it back and left my house.

I dunno, that's not something that I do. None of my friends do it either. You host a tournament you have to put up with cleaning up and other things....I shouldn't get (or have to pay) the amount of a buy-in just for hosting.

my coworkers and i have a biweekly game that we all look forward to. it started out with a bunch of guys on a dining room table with no felt and a bunch of mistmatched plastic chips and we now play on a custom made table with decent 11.5 gram chips and Kems. I bought the chips, all the Kems are mine and me and a good buddy went in halfers on the table and if one of us has to move we have decied to build and identical table, split the cost, and flip for the new one.

now all together, i figure i have put in about 350 bucks overall, while some of the people i play with regularly just show up. i'm cool with that, i like owning all the stuff and people appreciate what i have done. the only time i asked for anything from any of them was when i was building the table. we built a racetrack design and after we were done we decided to put in cupholders. the only thing we could really afford was the $1.75 plastic ones when we really wanted the stainless steel ones. one of the other regulars suggested they each spring for their own, and they all did. believe me, they are glad they did every other friday night.

i guess the bottom line is, if you want to play with quality things, you need to take on that responsibility, otherwise, stick with the plastics until someone else buys some nice stuff. if it means enough to you to play with quality, then do it, but don't expect others to fund your decision.

Well, although I fell my situation is a bit different because everyone hated playing with buttons and they all agreed to chip in for some chips... But it seems like i'll suck it up and pay the 114 bucks for the chips and table top because I did something about our complaining.

I have 2 games a month. I bought chips, Copag cards and am working on a table. I dont expect anyone to give me any money for those things. I make that money back by winning Smile

regarding beverages, i have a BYOB policy (i provide cups, ice and water).

For the first game i had everyone bring a snack, we ended up with mostly chips, so i proposed taking care of the food and we agreed on $3 each to cover the costs. So for each game i get an array of chips, pretzels, dips, sandwich materials, plates, utensils and napkins.

It has worked out well and so far everyone is happy.

One of the guys that plays with us also plays in a different weekly game. Thier game rotates from house to house. They do BYOB but the host at each house provides the grub and they dont contribute any cash to cover the cost since you are responsible for food when the game is at your house

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Should you chip in money for the host?

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Should you chip in money for the host?