Hosting A Poker Tournament For Fundraising

Posted on3/14/2022by admin

A charity poker tournament or Casino Night can be a glamorous way to achieve your non-profit organization’s fundraising goals. The benefits of hosting a poker tournament are many – donors will look forward to the event and you will likely have the opportunity to introduce new supporters (who love playing poker) to your organization. This leaves plenty of room to achieve your fundraising goals with tournament ticket sales, rebuys (which are additional poker chips available for purchase, either to buy back into the game or to add to a pile of chips), fundraising raffles, and other activities. We’re here to walk you through how to run a charity poker tournament fundraiser and raise the fundraising stakes for your organization.

One of the best ways to promote a charitable cause is with a fundraiser and poker tournaments are one of the most proven, effective fundraising activities. With over 30 years of expertise, Vegas Concepts is the leader in charity fundraising events. Follow this guide to ensure success with your charity fundraising event! A charity poker tournament or Casino Night can be a glamorous way to achieve your non-profit organization’s fundraising goals. The benefits of hosting a poker tournament are many – donors will look forward to the event and you will likely have the opportunity to introduce new supporters (who love playing poker) to your organization.

1. Research the Costs Associated with a Charity Poker Tournament

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As with many fundraising events, planning begins with how much you want to raise from your poker tournament. Poker tournaments can be lucrative events, if well-organized and well-promoted. For a smaller event with lower ticket prices, organizations can raise $5,000-$8,000. For larger tournaments with higher ticket prices, you can raise upwards of $25,000. Plan with your committee what you’re looking to raise and how many attendees you project for your event. Before deciding the gross fundraising goal, understand the costs that are associated with a poker tournament:

Venue
Poker Table and Accessories Rentals/Tournament Staff (Dealer, Pit Manager/Tournament Director)
Hors d’oeuvres and Beverages
Fundraising Software
Other Marketing Costs

Shop around for the best pricing for the service and quality that best fit your needs. With projected costs and a fundraising event budget, it is easier to understand how to determine ticket pricing and attendees needed to reach fundraising goals.

2. Plan the Fundraising Goal for the Tournament

Once you research the tentative costs, the following projections should be determined:

What is the gross fundraising goal (how much to cover your fundraising goal and your costs, before any deductions are taken out)?
What are some potential projections of how many tickets are needed to be sold at a certain price point? For example, how many seats would you need to sell at $50 per person? At $75 per person? At $100 per person?

When deciding the price point, consider that re-buys and add-ons can contribute around 30% of your fundraising amount. Consider this when projecting how many tickets need to be sold.

3. Discuss Poker Tournament Format and Additional Revenue Channels

The most popular format for charity poker tournaments is Texas Hold Em’.

You will need to have at least one poker expert on your planning committee that assists with format choices and all rules. The tournament director dictates how quickly the blinds (minimum bet of the game) rise throughout the duration of the game. Throughout the tournament, as more players are eliminated, the tables are combined until a final table is left. The final remaining three to five winners will have a choice of winning an appealing, high-priced prize.

Keep in mind that charitable gaming is legal on a state-by-state case basis. Often prizes cannot be actual cash tender but need to be non-monetary prizes. Of course, perform due diligence to find out your local and state laws on gaming and charity poker tournaments before planning. This information can be found in the office of the state attorney general.

A given additional stream of fundraising comes from the rebuys and add-ons. Another option is to utilize the poker tables that have been eliminated to run smaller and quicker poker games for smaller prizes. Other forms of fundraising can come from side games, which are other card or casino games such as roulette or blackjack. Casino Night fundraisers offer tables with all of these games to choose from.

Non-gambling related options include selling raffle tickets for a chance to win appealing prizes or hosting a silent auction. In addition, a charity poker tournament could be held in conjunction with a fundraising golf tournament, gala, or other special events.

DoJiggy offers fundraising raffle and charity auction websites to make it happen.

4. Plan Promotional and Graphic Collateral for the Charity Poker Tournament

Once the venue, date, and time have been determined, it’s time to plan the marketing and promotional collateral. Poker tournaments typically exude a concept of “a fun and classy night out.” The marketing collateral should express the same concept or theme. There are inexpensive flyer and collateral templates available online if your nonprofit organization doesn’t have anyone with graphic design experience. Marketing collateral may include the following:

Poker tournament event invitation
Flyers
Website Banners and logos
Printed items for the event (signage, tickets, step-and-repeat banners, sponsor signs)

The physical or digital flyer and the invitation should include the following information:

Date and time of the tournament
Location
Poker tournament format (Texas Holdem’, 7-Card Stud)
Attire requirements, if any
Pricing of Buy-in and Re-buys
Promotion of desirable prizes
Sponsors
The mission of your organization or charitable cause
How the money raised will be used

5. Build an Event Website to Register Tournament Participants

DoJiggy event management software allows organizations to easily manage the entire life cycle of fundraising poker tournaments, including event promotion and marketing, sponsor and sponsorship management, secure online event registration, donations, detailed financial reporting, and day-of-event operations. The following are just a few features of our software:

Online ticket sales with the ability to create custom ticket packages (think VIP)
Sponsor registration and promotion
Real-time financial reporting
Volunteer management
Brand customization for your organization and event
Easy-to-use interface
Secure credit card processing

Consider our low fees and we think you’ll agree that DoJiggy is the best fit for charity poker tournament management.

6. Initiate Sponsor Outreach for the Tournament

The poker tournament will only be as appealing as the prizes, so in-kind sponsorship procurement is one of the pivotal steps in organizing a charity poker tournament. Sponsorship support is also important because, in a charity fundraising game, cash tender prizes are not typically allowed by state regulations and laws (the specific legalities of your state should be researched).

Typically, there should be sponsorship outreach to procure prizes for the following: the top winners of the main poker tournament, side games prizes, raffles, and/or silent auction items. The retail value of the tournament prizes should also be considered, especially in comparison to the buy-in price. Here are some great prizes to consider:

Restaurant gift certificates for high-end restaurants
A seat to the World Series of Poker ($10,000 ticket value)
A ticket/suite admission package to sports games
A week-long or week-end vacation or retreat package

Always start with your connections. Consider casting your net out to your poker planning committee to see if there are employers or business owners here. For cold outreach, delegate the team accordingly so that outreach for both corporate sponsorship and local business sponsorships are performed.

7. Begin Event Promotion and Tournament Ticket Sales

Once all the details are in place with the venue, time and place, and top prizes, it’s ready to share the news with the world. Here are some places to garner ticket sales:

Existing Supporters
Past Sponsors
Local Businesses
Local News Outlets/Event Calendars
Meetups
Past Collaborators

Keep in mind to consider the most effective approach to soliciting ticket sales by what type of relationship is present. Existing supports, past sponsors, and local businesses are best approached in a face-to-face manner or with a warm phone call. Local news outlets and Meetups may be best with an e-mail sent to the main contacts. And as with many ticket sales, the magic behind the sold ticket is consistent follow-up. Send everyone to your event website for easy registration.

8. Prepare Volunteers for Tasks and Vendor/Venue Check-In

As the date of the charity poker tournament approaches, it is vital that the event has an all-star team on deck. That means that there is a lead volunteer or event coordinator that knows the agenda and the tasks involved throughout the night. Once these tasks are planned, finding volunteers to make sure that everything is handled is essential to event execution. Here are some volunteer and/or vendor roles to consider filling:

Registration
Greeter
Event Set-up and Breakdown
Master of Ceremony/MC
Prize Presenter
Coat Check
Photographer/Videographer
Raffle Sales
Food and Beverage Servers (hors d’oeuvres should be provided as part of the ticket price)
Runner/Back-up Volunteer

Approximately 1-2 weeks prior to the event, hold a meeting at the tournament venue. Vendors and volunteers should all attend, to assure that everyone is on the same page with the event agenda and their assigned tasks. Also, if there is any use of audio/visual equipment at the venue, perform a technical rehearsal to assure microphones work as expected and videos or slideshows play accordingly. This is also a great time to work and rehearse with the MC (master of ceremony) on the flow of the event.

9. Hosting the Charity Poker Tournament

Hosting A Poker Tournament For Fundraising Organizations

Be sure to run through all the materials that should be brought by your organization the night before the tourney. Prior to arriving at the venue, have plenty of cash on hand to handle change for rebuys and raffles. Also, it’s best to arrive at the venue several hours early to work with the poker table rental company to set-up the tables in a way that works for the venue layout. Run through the tasks one final time with the volunteers before doors open, offer a venue tour as needed (to know bathroom locations and other information) and assign them to their locations. From here, enjoy the evening as the games begin!

10. Wrap Up the Tournament with Numbers and Thank-Yous

Host a meeting with your tournament committee within a week of the tournament to discuss the successes and failures of the charity poker event. What can be done differently in the future? Keep a file with this information for next year’s committee. Another agenda point is to review the feedback received during the event to see where there could be room for improvement at future events. Turning a charity poker tournament into a successful annual event is contingent on how much fun your supporters have during the tournament.

Hosting a poker tournament for fundraising organizations

The amount of funds raised will also determine if a poker tournament should be a comeback occasion. Work with your treasurer or committee to review how much money was raised from the event, after all of your final expenses are figured.

Don’t forget to send off hand-written thank-yous to your sponsors and attendees and let them know what impact they’ve had as a supporter of your organization or charitable cause. This is an important step that is not to be skipped! And that’s how to run a successful poker tournament fundraiser in 10 steps.

More Charity Poker and Casino Night Resources

Still looking for fundraising ideas?

Buy-In

Buy-in is the dues (usually cash) every player pays to play at a poker tournament . These dues are put in a prize pool to pay the tournament winner(s).

Typical amount of buy in range from $5/player (small house games) to $10,000/player (world series of poker main event). Sometimes the buy-in is in the form of $50+$5. This means that every player will have to pay $55 to get in the game. However only $50 of it goes toward the prize pool and $5 goes to the “house”. The $5 fee is usually to pay for the host’s costs and profit.

If you are hosting a poker tournament you need to specify the amount of the buy in before the game. Use the following points to choose the best buy-in amount:

How large (number of players) you want your tournament to be. A larger buy-in translates into fewer players. Therefore, if you want to host a large tournament (Ex. a charity poker tournament), you’ll be better off with a smaller buy-in.
The amount you and other poker players at the game are willing to lose.
If you are offering dedicated dealers at every table, free food, or for your own profit, you can add a 10% fee to the buy-in amount.

Advice on Buy-In:

Following are some Buy-In advice and notes to help you run a smooth and organized poker tournament:

If you are playing for a large amount, it’s better to set longer blind periods such as half an hour. When players pay a considerable amount of money, they want to at least stay in the game for a while. Long blind period stretches the length of the game.
Players play tighter when the buy-in amount is large. So if you are hosting an expensive tournament with 3 tables or so expect a long tournament (at least 5 or 6 hours).
As a rule of thumb take cash only for the buy-in money. There will always be players that “forgot” to bring cash with them or want to play on a loan. Keep in mind that YOU (the tournament host) are responsible to pay the winner at the end. So make everyone pay up front. You can simply tell players in question that you “don’t have enough cash at home to cover them”.
Write down the name of all players and mark their names “Paid” once you take the buy-in money from them

Rebuys

Imagine you’re hosting a tournament with 15 players and your friend busts out early. He has to sit around and watch everyone play until a new game has started. This is where rebuys come in. The rebuy allows the player who just lost all of his chips to buy back in the tournament.

The rebuy amount should be the same amount as the original buy-in amount.
Players who rebuy should get the same amount of chips as they received in the beginning of the game.

Advice on Rebuys

A rebuy tournament has it’s own rules and constraints. Following are the most important ones:

Hosting A Poker Tournament For Fundraising Event

The number of times that players can rebuy should be set before the game starts. It can be 1, 2, 3 or unlimited.
Rebuys are only allowed in a limited amount of time in the beginning of the tournament. This time is usually set by the number of times that the tournament blind has increased. For example 2 rebuys per player can be allowed during the first 3 blinds.
Rebuys can be allowed when a player loses all of his chips or the his chip count goes under a certain level. For example in a tournament where players start with 2500 in chips, rebuys can be allowed when a player’s chip count goes under $500. This rules has to be set prior to starting the tournament.

• Players can only add enough chips to make their stack the original amount. In the above example if a player loses his chips down to 400, he can do a rebuy, but only receive 2100 in chips from the tournament manager.

Hosting A Poker Tournament For Fundraising Cards

• If the player wants to rebuy when he still has chips (less than 500 in the above example) he will still have to pay the full amount for rebuy.

Hosting A Poker Tournament For Fundraising Parties

If you do allow rebuys in your poker tournament, make sure you write down the name of players who rebuy with the number of time they have re-bought.

Once you decide to have rebuys at your tournament, you need to decide how many re-buys you want to allow per player. There are two different ways that you can handle this:

Limited rebuy: A limited rebuy is when each player can rebuy only certain number of times. After rebuying that many times, he/she is out of tournament.
Unlimited rebuy: In an unlimited rebuy tournament, players can rebuy (buy back) as many times as they want, until the rebuy period is over. A good tournament structure would be to allow unlimited re-buys during the first two/three blinds. Unlimited rebuy also creates larger prize pools.

A poker tournament that does not allow rebuys is called a freezout tournament.

Effects of rebuy on the game:

Once rebuys are allowed in a tournament players know that they can buy back if they bust out so the game tends to be looser than normal. This varies by the amount of buy-in and rebuy, but in general you are going to have a looser game with rebuys than without rebuy.
Rebuys tend to create large prize pools. Let’s say if you have a $10 buy in with unlimited re buys for the first hour with 16 players. Without the rebuy you will have $160 in the prize pool. With the rebuy your prize pool usually doubles or triples. The reason for that is $10 is not much and once people lose they want to get back in the game so they spent another $10 and mostly don’t keep track of how many times they’ve bought in.

Basic Strategy Tip

If you are playing at an unlimited rebuy tournament, try to double and triple up fast, but don’t play too loose, and keep in mind if you are doing a rebuy for the fourth or fifth time, you probably should call it the night. After your fourth or fifth rebuy, other players stacks are going to be much larger than the original stack (which is what you would get if you rebuy). This makes it every hard (if not impossible) for you to catch up and be able to make plays if you are re-buying late in the tournament.