How to Introduce and Teach the Game of Poker to Clueless Friends

The popularity of poker continues to rise. Recent legislation in the United States though made online play for money a thing of the past. As a result of this legislation, many people are interested in hosting home games for their friends, but not sure where to start. Many people that have friends who are serious about the game have little trouble starting a home game. Yet, starting a home game for friends that like the game and want to play, but are not serious players can be harder than you think.

LIMITS
One of the first things you should do is set reasonable limits. If this is a social game, the whole idea of the game isn't to win a lot of money, but to have fun with your friends while playing poker. I have found that sometimes it's a good idea to set two types of limits. One involves the amount of money people bring. If everyone brings the same amount it will eliminate the problem some games have where people with more money than their friends try to "bully the table", or bet big to drive out their opponents while knowing if they lose the hand they still have plenty of money to buy more chips. In a truly social game my suggestion would be limiting the amount to $20-40 per person for the night. Also I suggest making a limit for the highest bet in each better round, in games I've attended I've found a $2-3 limit is a good guideline.

VARIATIONS
The next item to consider is the type of games you will play. Some might assume that the game should be kept as simple and straight forward with just a couple varieties for new poker groups. I've actually found that isn't necessarily true. In a social game people tend to enjoy games with different ways to have wild cards, and learning new games from their opponents. Keeping just enough luck in the game makes the game less serious and more social. Another piece of advice is to build off the games that you play and create your own home versions. One final suggestion as far as the type of game goes, is to have frequent split pot games. This keeps more people in the hand. In a social game it's never fun to have to fold over and over again, with split pot games you have a higher likelihood of having a chance of at least half the pot.