Poker Stars "Home Game/Poker Club"

Ok...soooo...when I first skimmed the information for PS’s Home Game/ Poker Club, I dismissed it at first as I didn’t think it would apply to our thing that we do.  But after digging in and really reading what they are offering, I realized that it is absolutely fabulous and plan to organize our game through the “home game/poker club” option on Poker Stars.  Now, I don’t know if we will be successful because you need to have at least 8 members…so if we don’t get at least 8 members, then we will have to play our games the way we have been doing.  Some of the differences by using the Home Game/Poker Club option on PS are:

1.      I don’t have to send out an email prior to the game…once you are signed up as a member of our “poker club” then every time I set the game up on PS, an email will automatically be sent to you with notification.

2.      We will be able to keep track of all kinds of stats on our members…such as:

·         Leader Board ranks members by points earned in tournament play

·         Sort club standings by points, games, average points per game

·         Choose which tournaments are included in club standings

·         Select length of Club Seasons: Yearly, Quarterly or Monthly

·         Stats: Points, Games, Wins, Finishes, In-the-Money, Knockouts

3.      We will have a chance to have a PS Pro join our home game with an additional $1000 added to the prize pool.  Plus we are also somehow eligible to qualify for a poker package for every member in our poker club to one of PS’s live events.  How all this works is not entirely clear to me at this point.  It appears as though the poker club manager (i.e. me) will get freerolls to compete to win these things (poker package, poker pro play our game, etc).  Anyhow, as I learn about it, I’ll let you all know.

4.      We will be able to play cash game if we want (setting up a private cash game was not an option before). 

5.      We will be able to choose starting chip amount!  This is really cool!  We may be able to set up the blind levels (time and value) and perhaps set up a rebuy option …???  I won’t know until I set up the poker club and investigate. 

The PS Home Game/Poker Club does keep track of TLB points…not sure yet if we will just use those, or keep with the format that we are using.  Anyhow, we can try the Poker Club out and if we don’t like it, go back to setting up the private tourneys the way we have been doing it. 

In the mean time, you all are going to get emails from PS letting you know that you have been invited to join our Poker Club…you have to log on to PS and “Join a Poker Club” where you will enter the Club ID, Invitation Code and your name.  Even if you don’t think you can play next week (or the next several weeks), join the club so that you will get the weekly game notices from PS.  (also, if you don’t want to participate, then I can remove your name completely from the list…just let me know).

Sounds exciting!  I can’t wait to try it out!