Poppa P's Poker Night — Game Rules
No-Limit Texas Hold'em. Biweekly. This page is open to anyone so you can see the format before you come.
📍 Poppa P's Smoke Shoppe & Lounge — 1935 Mallory Ln, Suite 220, Franklin, TN 37067
When
Cards fly at 6:30 PM (Central). Come early to buy your cigars, grab a drink, find a seat, and get your buy-in. Hard stop at 9:00 PM — final ranks are decided by chip stack.
End of the night
- 9:00 is a hard stop. The hand in progress finishes — no new hand is dealt after 9:00.
- If more than one player is still in at the stop, final places go by chip stack (most chips finishes higher).
- Short stack, nothing to lose: when places are being decided by chips and you're behind, calling an all-in costs you nothing — you're already ranked where you are, so it's a free shot at moving up. Don't get bluffed off it.
- The host stays out of live hands — no coaching either player mid-hand. Got a question or a disagreement with a call? Raise it with the host after the hand; the ruling in the moment is final.
Buy-in & buy-back
- Your first cigar is your buy-in → 2,000 chips.
- Bust out? Your second cigar buys you back in for another 2,000 chips — available until 8:00 PM (≈ level 7) only.
Blind structure
15-minute levels. Times are approximate.
| Level | Blinds | ≈ Start |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 / 50 | 6:30 PM |
| 2 | 50 / 100 | 6:45 PM |
| 3 | 75 / 150 | 7:00 PM |
| 4 | 100 / 200 | 7:15 PM |
| 5 | 150 / 300 | 7:30 PM |
| 6 | 200 / 400 | 7:45 PM |
| — | 5-minute break | 8:00 PM |
| 7 | 300 / 600 | 8:05 PM |
| 8 | 400 / 800 | 8:20 PM |
| 9 | 500 / 1,000 | 8:35 PM |
| 10 | 1,000 / 2,000 | 8:50 PM |
Payouts — the cigar pot
Every buy-in and buy-back cigar goes into the pot. Off the top:
- 2 cigars to the employees working that night (the person up front + the bartender).
- 1 cigar to each table's designated dealer (otherwise the dealer button decides who deals).
The remaining pot is then split among the top three:
- 1st place — grand prizes from Poppa P (cutters, lighters, ashtrays, travel humidors, merch, cigar packs, and more) + 50% of the remaining pot.
- 2nd place — 1/3 of the remaining pot.
- 3rd place — 1/6 of the remaining pot.
Player badges
Names on the standings board can carry a badge:
- 🔥 Hot — finished in the top 5 in both of their last two games played.
- ⚡ Comeback — back in the top 5 in their last game played after four or more games played without scoring. (A player is never both Hot and Comeback — Hot wins.)
- 🃏 Regular — played all of the last three game nights here at the lounge.
Fine print: badges count regular game nights only — Special Players tournaments and cancelled games don't count — and "played" means the host marked you as attended that night.