Helping a host at a poker tourney

I found this site www.homepokertourney.com and while it's not really a place to play good poker advice (well there is some), it's an excellent resource for organizing a home poker game.

I've been organizing poker games at my home for 2 years and every time I do, I learn a lesson in some shape for form like I have said in a previous post. I did find an interesting post which talks about helping the host.

Some key things to remember when hosting a tournament:

1. In many cases you may know more about poker then the one who doesn't. If you don't know as much, you're going to have a tough time hosting.
2. Make sure you have enough chips. I can't stress this enough. My very first poker game was a ring game and I had 300 chips between 7 players. Needless to say I treaded water with a 5 dollar buy-in with a 5 dollar re-buy. In my next game I had more chips now totaling 800, but pay particular attention to the weight of the chips. 11.5g gives the feel of a real casino. I had 8g chips. They were playable, but a couple of people noticed. It wasn't until last year I upgraded my chips. Now I have 850 chips that are 11g which is good for a 16 player tournament. I haven't felt the need to go beyond this. I still use the 8g chips for my side ring game on tournaments.
3. Have food for the players to snack on. You can either designate a list where people can pick off and bring something or do it yourself. I usually have things for my guests. I will stock beer, but I always say BYOB so they don't expect it. This is going to bring me to number 4.
4. Do not expect your guests to chip in. Meaning, take a buck or two from guests. This can be construed to making a profit for playing in a "home casino" which can be illegal, definitely in California. People offer to drop money, especially when they won. I don't expect this and usually turn them down like an Uncle who took third did. Basically he doubled his buy in and wanted to give me the profit. I didn't feel comfortable with it because he was giving me his winnings. I was going to get my money back and then some (I took first, but even if I took second, I would have made money)
5. Finally you should be hosting because of the love of the game.

However if you do get invited to a game, people tend to leave the house once they are eliminated (which hosting a side ring game would keep them around). What would be nice to help the host would be to help pick up beer bottle which are laid out around the house. I swear I was picking up beer bottles for two weeks, I would stumble on to odd places like land mines after my last game. You can also help out with changing out smaller chips with big one as the blinds go up. You can player permanent dealer. Just little things to make the game go smooth.