State of Bar Poker

As the new year is just beginning, I would like to talk a little about the state of Bar Poker. I have said this many times on this blog, but it needs repeating again.

Bar Poker - a bar promotion that establishments use to create revenue and new customers.

If there is no revenue then there will be no bar poker. Now I know that many of you that read this blog are not the problem, but you can assist in helping to make changes by reminding players to purchase something. One of the first questions that many players especially new ask is what are the prizes. In the beginning of bar poker prizes were much higher then they currently are. In it's current state a bar can hardly spend more then $100 in a night towards a poker game. This includes paying the person or company to run it, money towards final prizes and the nightly pay outs. Most local bar games here get between 20-40 players a night. A soda cost about $2. if half the players only purchase a soda with 30 players that is only $30 of 100. That means that the other 15 players have to average $5 just for the bar to break even. How many businesses do you know that only want to break even. I once had a wise bar owner tell me that for every dollar he spend on a promotion he needs seven in sales to make it worth his while. Now I don't totally agree with his statement, but he would need $700 revenue for him to run bar poker. That is over $20 per person. It's been a long time since I have seen money spent like that at a bar poker game.

The state of play.
It seems that as bar poker evolves that the quality of play should improve, but is seems that the opposite is happening. I don't know if it is because the better players have become frustrated with bar poker and now only play on-line or at Casinos. I have always thought that if a person played several nights a week that eventually they would have to improve. Instead what I am seeing is the any ace player and I was on draw players playing more and more hands. And you know if you have 3 of those type players in every hand one of them will hit. It can be very frustrating for a better player. The other thing is betting compared to pot size. Even a raise of 10 times the blinds will usually end with several callers. At the end of the hand they will turn up K-10 suited because it's a big hand they had to play! Or even better yet is the raised, then reraised pot that two other players will join into because it's going to be a big pot so they couldn't fold.

Lack of rules at games.
All games have a standard set of rules. Pokers are controlled by the Tournament Directors Association (TDA). Why would you want to play in a game that doesn't follow the rules. There are several games in the St Cloud area that very loosely follow the TDA rules and yet they get some of the bigger turnouts. Then when they play a game run as mine are they get mad because we do follow the rules. A few of the big ones are rabbit hunting, pulling cards out the muck, and maybe the worst one talking about a hand that is still in play. Every sport and game needs rules, so come directors start using them.

This has turned into kind of a rant, but I am a person that has put a lot of my own time and money into the bar poker industry and I hate to see it ruined by a few.

Would love to hear your comments on the State of Bar Poker or your stories and I am sure that I have forgotten a few things.

Here's to a great 2011!