As with any other party, hosting a poker night can last at least 3 hours which means you need to prepare food for guests to munch on while they are playing the game. Light snacks such as chips, vegetable sticks, bread sticks, tortilla chips and salsa, cookies, and mini-sandwiches are perfect for poker nights. A poker party or casino night is a fun theme party idea. Black and most the green is the perfect! Decorate your space with fake money, chips and cards.

Playing rounds of poker with your friends is a great way to spend an evening. When you’re gathered around the card table, you and the guys can relax and unwind as you enjoy some friendly competition. Whether you host a poker night on a regular basis or you’re getting ready to host your first gathering, keep these tips in mind to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Choose Your Guests

If you already have a great core group of guys, then deciding who to invite is easy. If not, be sure that you’re including people you actually want to hang out with. All of the players don’t need to know each other. In fact, it’s nice to have some new guys around for fresh conversation.

Aiming for five to six players is a great place to start. That’s enough people to keep the game interesting without being overwhelming. After you figure out who’s coming, take a few minutes to decide on the house rules. This allows you to make sure that everyone is on the same page before you deal the first hand.

Consider Comfort

Since you’re likely going to spend hours around a poker table, it’s important to make sure that you and your guests are comfortable. You don’t have to invest in a professional poker table and luxurious seating, but make sure that your table is at the right height and that the seats you offer are comfortable.

You don’t want poker night to be delayed because you don’t have the right equipment so be sure that you have an extra deck of cards and plenty of chips on hand. Try to have everything set up before the guys arrive so you can leave as much time for playing as possible.

Focus on Fun

Although poker night revolves around the popular card game, don’t become so focused on winning that you don’t get any enjoyment out of the evening. Friendly competition is great, but you can’t win them all.

If you start getting frustrated because the cards just aren’t coming your way, remember that there are other ways you can increase your winnings. Plan to play your favorite slot games online when poker night is over, and spend the evening enjoying some downtime with your friends instead of stressing about winning.

Don’t Forget the Food

One of the best parts of poker night is getting to enjoy delicious snacks and beverages. Even if you’re not a gourmet chef, you can still make sure that all of your guests are fed and happy. You can’t go wrong with finger foods such as small sandwiches, chips and dip, fruit and brownies.

If you’re planning poker night on a tight budget, don’t be afraid to ask your guests to bring something. One guy can bring a dessert, another can handle the drinks, and you’ll simply need to throw together a couple of appetizers.

When you take a few extra minutes to make sure that your guests are comfortable and keep a relaxed environment, you’ll be able to enjoy a great poker night without stress.

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So you’re planning a poker night with your friends and family? That sounds fun! But in order for you to successfully host a poker night you need to have a plan. Luckily we’ve made a to-do for the perfect poker night.

1. Know your rules

First you need to decide what kind of poker you are playing. There are lots of different types of poker games out there so you need to choose which game to play. The most common poker game is Texas Hold’em. Next step is to know all the rules, how big your buy in is and how the hands are ranking.
We’ve made a quick and simle video showing you How to Play Poker.

The Perfect Poker Nights

You should also plan on when you raise the blinds (or if you are doing this at all). When I play poker I normally like to raise the blinds every 15 minutes.

The Perfect Poker Nightmare

Bonus tip: If you plan on having a cash buy-in, then make sure to collect the money up front. This makes sure that no one forgets about it after the game. It’s also very motivating for players when they have actually seen the potential winnings in the pot.

2. Have the right facilities

You will need (of cause) a full poker set with playing cards and poker chips (or the EasyPoker app). Other than that you should have a big table and chairs to sit all players. If you are a perfectionist the table should be round or oval and have a green tablecloth. Remember to leave enough space for the players chips, cards, beverage or what else they might need while playing.

If you are a cool host you should plan a surprise visit from a massage therapist that can massage players during the poker game. This will truly make you popular among the friends and can help you focus even better during the poker night.

3. Use music to set the tone

Music is an important element of the poker night. It should just be a subtle thing in the background to set the tone. I like to use a mix of jazz, old songs, classic music and some soundtracks from Casino Royale and Rounders.

Feel free to use our Playlist on Spotify.

4. Create an Atmosphere

Music is a great way to set the tone. But you will also have to create a more casino like vibe in your house. Clean up your place, lower the lights and pull out the heavy Chesterfield furniture (if you have those).

Make sure to keep the room darken with a light on the poker table. LED strips and Hue lights are also great for creating an exciting poker night atmosphere with warm tones.

5. Snacks & Beverages

It is important to have finger foods and snacks such as chips with dip, nuts, crackers, popcorn, pigs in a blanket, pretzels etc. Everything that does not require the player to have a plate will work.

It’s a good idea to have both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages when playing. It’s always cool to have a straight up whisky or cognac but if you don’t like that, you could go for a whisky sour (one of my favorites).

Poker Night wherever you are

Hosting a poker night is fun but also a lot of work. You often need to plan your night of playing poker weeks in advance. But what about those spontaneous poker games when you’re just hanging out? Chances are that you are not carrying around a poker set, so you will need to figure out something else (or end up not playing at all…). But don’t worry – we have your back. Just download the free EasyPoker app and you’re ready to go. No need for poker chips, playingcards or a table.