HOST A LADIES' POKER NIGHT

Poker nights are no longer just for men – especially now that women have discovered the joy of playing poker! Women also like to hang out with their girlfriends without their husbands around, have a few drinks and let the girl talk fly, all while playing a friendly game of poker. You don’t need much to host a poker party for your girlfriends, nor do you need to spend a lot (or any) money to do it. And you don’t even have to be a good poker player to host a ladies’ poker night – you’re playing for fun, not a bracelet at the World Series of Poker!

1. GUESTLIST AND INVITATIONS

The first thing you’ll need to do is to decide who you’re going to invite and how many people you want to play at the table. Five or six people is a good number – you don’t want too many more than that. You can call and let them know about the ladies’ poker night, send them an email, or if you want to get techno-fancy, you can create an event on Facebook or send an e-vite from an electronic invitation website for those few people who aren’t on Facebook. You should also consider the skill level of the people who you want to invite – it would be a bit unfair to invite one absolute beginner to a game of seasoned experts. But don’t hesitate to invite beginners if everyone else’s skill is about average. Hosting a ladies’ poker night is an excellent way for new players to get comfortable with the game; you could suggest they sign up at PokerStars.com (they’re the biggest online poker cardroom and totally secure, so you can feel confident recommending them to your friends) and play Texas Holdem on the free tables to get a feel for the game before they come to your ladies’ poker night.

2. GAMES AND RULES

Make sure you have some house rules in place before you begin play and that the other girls are aware of what they are. You should also make sure everyone knows the games’ rules before starting – you can print out the list of poker rules from this site to have on hand when you’re playing in case you need to reference it (or just have a laptop handy that you can use if need be). If you have friends coming over who are brand new to poker, perhaps also include the link to the rules they can read prior to big night (and PokerStars.com). There are also different poker variants you can play, but the most common is Texas Holdem, and most players only know how to play that one, so you might want to just play that all night. If your guests know Omaha or Seven-Card Stud, by all means play those, too, but be aware that not as many people know how to play them as well as Texas Holdem.

3. STAKES

You need to decide in advance what the stakes are going to be so your friends know if they’re playing for ten cents or ten dollars. This allows them to decide if they can afford to play at your game (if you’re playing for pennies or quarters, this shouldn’t be an issue) and to make sure they show up with a big enough bankroll to last the night.

3. SUPPLIES

You need at least one deck of cards, or two, preferably, in case there’s going to be a lot of drinking and eating and the original deck gets dirty. If cards get food or any other markings on them, it could make it easy for perceptive players to be able to identify the cards, so just keep another deck on hand and replace them if the original one gets a little dirty.

A poker table is a nice feature, but it’s totally not necessary; the kitchen or dining room table is just fine. Chips, though, are cheap enough these days that you should buy some for your game. You can use anything to bet with – it doesn’t have to be chips – but they’re really convenient to use and you can use them again in future ladies’ poker nights.

4. FOOD AND DRINKS

Now what’s a ladies’ poker night without some cocktails? And anything with cheese – we love our cheese, don’t we, ladies? You can prepare all the food on your own in advance of the game and not ask your guests to bring anything, or you can do a potluck and everyone brings a little something to snack on. Same for the drinks – either you can supply them or have your guests bring their own. If you’re supplying the drinks and you don’t want to leave the table to mix fancy cocktails, consider making a huge batch of Sangria with fresh berries for the ladies to enjoy, or fill a punch bowl with a delicious tropical-fruit-and rum punch. If you’re serving alcohol to your guests, make sure everyone has a safe ride home (or will be spending the night) as you will be held responsible if they cause an accident from drinking and driving.

If you don’t want to go too crazy in the kitchen before the game, a bag of chips will suffice, and if you have time to bake some sugar cookies, you can buy cookie cutters in the shape of the four suits, which is a nice touch for a poker night.

The most important thing of all is to enjoy the company of your friends and have a great time!

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