When it comes to hosting a home game, people tend to focus on the players and neglect the (ahem) losers. Whenever you play poker, there’s always going to be a pperson on two who ends up getting knocked out pretty early on, and there’s no need for him to go home early. Some of the best games I’ve played in have had the losers stick around after they’ve been knocked out, hanging out and watching the action. It’s not that hard to keep people sticking around; most players don’t plan on going home early, you just need to give them a reason to stay.
I’ve found that competition is one of the best ways to keep losing players occupied-a loser’s table will allow early losers to keep playing poker online, but if there aren’t enough players for another table, a little video game action will do in a pinch. Sports games that anyone can pick up and play are always popular. I’ve had a lot of luck with the Fight Night series, since it’s easy to pick up and play, but the Wii sports games are always a big hit. There’s nothing like virtual bowling to take the edge off of an early bad beat. Or keep the laptop around and tell them to play on Everest Poker.
