home game · house rules
Poker house rules.
Every argument in a home game is really about timing. The rule itself is rarely the problem; the problem is that it was decided after the money went in. Ten minutes before the first hand buys you an evening where nobody has to be talked out of a pot they thought they had won.
eight things to settle in advance
The middle column is a default that works, not the only correct answer. Real poker rooms differ on several of these, which is precisely why they are yours to decide. The right hand column is the part worth reading: it says why each one turns into an argument if you leave it.
| The question | A default that works | Why it needs deciding first |
|---|---|---|
| A bet made in more than one motion | Whatever went in first stands as the whole bet, unless the amount was said out loud beforehand. | Reaching back for more chips after seeing a reaction is the oldest way to get information for free. Saying the number first solves it entirely. |
| Said out loud versus put in the middle | The spoken word binds, even when the chips that follow disagree with it. | Someone will say raise and push a call. One of the two has to win, and if you have not decided which, the table decides it while annoyed. |
| An all in that is smaller than a full raise | It does not reopen the betting for anyone who has already acted. | This is the single most common argument in a home game, it always arrives late, and there is no obvious answer to reach for in the moment. |
| A card that touches the table face up | The hand is dead if it was in play, and the deal is redone if it happened before everyone had two cards. | A flashed card changes the hand for everyone, not only for its owner, so the rule has to be decided by the table rather than by whoever dropped it. |
| Acting out of turn | The action stands if nothing was skipped, and is void if it was. | An early fold gives the player behind information he did not earn, and being firm about it once is enough for the whole evening. |
| Phones, tablets and looking things up | Nothing that answers the question while the hand is live. | It is also the rule almost every real poker room has, so agreeing to it at home costs nothing and prevents the awkward version of the conversation. |
| Rebuys and how long they last | One rebuy each, closing at the end of a named level, and no exceptions after that. | An open ended rebuy turns a tournament into a cash game with extra steps, and it always ends with the same person asking one more time. |
| Money that stays on the table | You play the amount in front of you, and nothing can be added to a hand once the cards are out. | This is what stops a bigger wallet from becoming a bigger stack mid hand, and it is the rule that keeps an evening between friends friendly. |
One rule is missing from that table because it is not about cards. Agree who decides. One person, named before the first hand, whose word ends the discussion for that pot. It matters far less who that is than that the question was answered while nobody had anything at stake.
three things that are not yours to decide
Roughly half of what a home game argues about is not a house rule at all. It is part of the game, it has a fixed answer, and a table that votes on it ends up playing something that will not travel to the next house.
Which hand wins
Fixed by the ranking, and not open to a vote. The best five cards each player can make are compared, then the kickers, up to five cards. If those five are identical the pot is split, and suits never break the tie.
How the money splits when somebody is all in
Fixed by the arithmetic of side pots. Everyone can only win as much from each opponent as they put in themselves, and the rest goes into a pot that player is not in. It looks like a judgement call and it is not.
When the betting stops
Fixed by the structure of a betting round. It ends when everyone still in has either matched the largest bet or folded, and a round with no bet in it ends when it comes back round to the last player to check.
the rules that are really about money
Three of the agreements above are financial rather than procedural, and they are the ones that actually damage friendships. Rebuys decide how much the evening can cost somebody who is having a bad night. Playing only what is in front of you stops a bigger wallet from becoming a bigger stack halfway through a hand. And the third one is not on the list at all, because it never occurs to anyone until it happens: what to do when two people at the table share money.
A couple splitting one buy in, or one player covering another for the night, are not two independent seats any more, and the rest of the table pays for that whether anyone intends it or not. Say out loud before the first hand who is playing for whose money. Online this is a rule with penalties attached, which is the subject of the page on collusion; at home it is just a thing that is much easier to raise over the first drink than over the last pot.
the two decisions that shape the evening
House rules settle the disputes. Two other decisions settle whether the evening is any good, and both are arithmetic rather than judgement. The blind structure decides what time everyone goes home, because the blinds are the clock; pick the finishing time first and build backwards from it. The chip counts decide whether anybody has to make change during a hand, which is the quiet way an evening gets slow.
If you would rather not watch the clock yourself, the tournament clock runs the levels and the break for you, and everything that is settled beforehand is everything nobody has to settle at midnight. The rest of what a first evening needs is on the home game overview.
next step
The rules underneath the house rules.
House rules only cover the questions the game leaves open. Everything else has an answer already, from how a betting round closes to how a side pot divides, and knowing which is which is what keeps an argument short.
questions about house rules
What are poker house rules?
The decisions the rules of the game do not make for you: what happens when a bet is made in two motions, whether a spoken word binds, how long rebuys stay open, whether phones are allowed. They are called house rules because different rooms answer them differently, and there is no version that is correct everywhere.
What house rules should you agree before a home game?
At minimum four: whether a spoken declaration binds when the chips disagree, what happens when someone goes all in for less than a full raise, when an exposed card kills a hand, and when rebuys close. Those four cover most of what a home game argues about, and each takes ten seconds before the first hand.
Does an all in for less than a full raise reopen the betting?
That depends on the room, which is exactly why it belongs in your house rules. The common answer is that it does not reopen the betting for players who have already acted, since the raise was not a full one. Whichever way you go, decide it before it happens rather than while somebody has money in the pot.
Who settles a dispute in a home game?
One person, agreed in advance, whose decision ends the discussion for that hand. It matters less who it is than that it is decided beforehand, because a table cannot choose a referee fairly while it is already arguing.
Should house rules be written down?
Yes, and it is worth the five minutes. A page on the table settles every one of these in a sentence, and it removes the worst part of the argument, which is not the rule itself but the suspicion that it was invented after the cards fell.
Can house rules change which hand wins?
No. The hand ranking, the split when two hands are identical, and the way side pots divide are part of the game rather than the arrangements around it. If a table votes on those it is playing a different game, and it will not travel to anybody else house.