If you can get a big enough group together, it might be imperative to use multiple tables at your home game. Oftentimes, hosting 12 people or more warrants the use of a second table. If you’ve ever tried to play poker 12-handed, you know exactly why this is. The action slows down to a snail’s pace and one hand occurs every 10 minutes. The bottom line is that large-scale poker isn’t fun, as many aficionados of short-handed games understand.

If you expand your home game to use two or more tables, here are some rules to keep in mind:

1. Understand how re-seating works. If you use multiple tables, inherently one table will eventually have a lot more or a lot fewer people than the others. When this occurs, it’s important to re-seat players accordingly. It’s up to you to determine how to pick which player is moved. One way is to make it a random draw. Another way is to spot which seats need to be filled and then move players who occupy in those same seats at other tables. In other words, if there’s an opening on Seat 6 at one table, find a player near Seat 6 at another table and move them. That way, the player who is moved isn’t forced to pay blinds or act out of position any more than they normally would.
2. Appoint someone to be in charge. In a one-table home game, this isn’t very important. However, when you have players spread throughout a person’s living room, garage, or in some cases an entire house, it can be easy to lose track of who’s where. That’s why someone needs to be in charge. This person can be playing, they just need to be able to stand up once in a while, look around the room for lopsided tables, and then determine who should be transferred. Oftentimes, the host of the tournament can serve this purpose.
3. Round up extra supplies. With so many people involved, losing critical supplies like playing cards and chips is common, so make sure to have backups. Keep 2-3 decks of cards tucked to the side just in case. Keep extra stacks of chips handy in case a player who splashes the pot or knocks over an entire chip stack in anger loses track of their own. Keep an extra dealer button and a backup timer. Remember that when you have two tables, you’ll need two dealer buttons and four decks of cards, along with enough chips for the number of players involved.
4. Research tournament programs. There are a number of programs out there that will manage multi-table like tournaments for you. They include Poker Timer and The Tournament Director. A computer is needed in both of these cases, but the screen will display the time left in the current level, what the blinds are at, and the payouts for everyone to see. It’s just like being seated at the World Series of Poker and makes for a memorable twist to any home game. There are also stand-alone tournament clocks that can be purchased for a nominal fee. Just fire up Google and search for “tournament clock” to see what pops up. The bottom line is that any of these tools can help you manage your home game better.
5. Use breaks. Just like you would at a single table home game, breaks are even more important when the action spreads to multiple venues. Breaks allow players time to stretch and loosen up from the grind of poker. More importantly, breaks serve as an important social opportunity that takes on even more importance when players are spread across multiple tables. Make sure to include a short break at the end of every blind level or every other blind level.