Setting Up The Best Poker Game

In order to really run the game the way I dreamed, to offer value and to make myself irreplaceable, I needed to process and analyze my players. I needed to get inside the psyche of the gambler. 

I was aware that this was not a traditional game of poker. The stakes were too high to make it a friendly at home game, complete with nachos and beer. The players weren't pros, and they were too rich to be playing for a living. 

My game was about escapism. 

In order to offer complete escape, I had to offer more than just chips, cards, and a table. I had to sell a dream- a dream of an even better more exciting life in which the recruit could hobnob with celebrities, beautiful women, and be catered to like he was the most important person at the table. 

The players could afford to escape anywhere in the world. I needed them to escape at my table, not in Maui or Aspen. Net worth had nothing to do with it- this was part of what made the table so interesting. Here was an eclectic group, brought together by some sort of genetic mutation. And, for all the negative stigmas, gamblers seem to have an endless reserve of optimism. They all believe they can make something out of nothing. 

So my assets were an ability to provide escape, a nose for sniffing out those with the gene, creating an environment where the excitement of the win could be fostered, and myself. 

Lesson one: make sure your players are always comfortable.

Lesson two: feed the machine new blood.

Lesson three: be irreplaceable. 

Lesson four: it's always about the money.