You’ve done it. You have all the supplies necessary for a great home poker game. You bought a nice set of chips. You have a felt tabletop to throw over the kitchen table.

You’ve arranged a loser’s lounge where eliminated players can hang out. The fridge is filled with beer. You’ve bought a dartboard package with a new set of darts just like the pros use. The TV is switch on to a sport event so the degenerated gamblers you call friends can make silly prop bets.

All your friends have arrived and it’s time to begin. Except, before you start, there are a few things you need to settle. For starters, you have to iron out the rules of the game so there will be no problems, but more importantly, you have to estimate the stop time of the game.

The Stop Time

Simply put, the stop time will be the time the game is over. You can’t play a home game all night long. Well, you could, but most players won’t go for it. Johnny needs to work in the morning. He can’t play all night. The game needs a pre-determined stop time, and this time needs to be established before the first hand begins.

Prepare a Strategy

Estimating a stop time before the first hand allows all players at the table a chance to develop their strategy for the game. If a player knows the game will end in three hours, they will also know, in a nutshell, how the stages of the game will unravel. In the early stages of the home game, you may be more apt to play conservative and wait for a great hand. Conversely, you may choose to play aggressive in the early stages to accumulate a chip stack. Either way, by knowing exactly when the game will stop, you have the opportunity to develop a strategy, shift gears accordingly, and have an end to look at without exception. A stop time gives the game a sense of completion, and it is a goal all players look ahead to.

Setting the Blinds

If playing a no-limit home game, having a stop time then gives the host or coordinator the opportunity to set the blinds accordingly. If the game is going to last 120 minutes, and everyone is comfortable with 10 rounds of increasing blinds, then it will be established that the blinds will be raised every 12 minutes. This is a very important aspect of a home poker game. You can’t have a proper home poker game without an organized sense of order, with regards to blind levels, and a stop time. You need these things categorized so a player can develop a strategy and play according to the strategy they develop.