Quote Originally Posted by Running Gag
This has been bothering me, because I play with these people all the time, and I can't seem to win because of stuff like this. I can't put people on hands at all, and it seems the level of play wouldn't change if we weren't playing for any money at all.
I've had this issue, and I suggest you try this: see if you can talk them into playing one night (a week or so down the road) for 3-4x the buyin that you usually play for. You might also try to work a more generous payout structure.. at least 60/40 (I like 50/30/20 better if you have 9-10 people). Tell them its just for kicks... whatever you think will work for them. I promise that when that game comes around you will see a big difference in the way they play. At least it worked for me, and after that the play in our regular game stepped up several notches as well.