Setting Up Your PokerStars Home Game

Setting up your own poker club with PokerStars Home Games is super-easy. It's just a matter of signing up for the site and then clicking a few buttons. If you've got 30 seconds to spare, you can set up your own Home Game.

Setting Up Your Home Game Step 1: Download and Sign Up

If you don't have a PokerStars account, you'll need one. Don't worry--signing up isn't a huge deal like it is at some sites on the web. You won't need to enter your Social Security number, name your cat's 12 babies, or solve a physics equation.

Just click here and download the PokerStars software. Then, fill out your player name and some basic information. After that, you're ready to go.

Don't forget--when you sign up, enter PSA1027 in the box labeled "marketing code". You'll get a sweet $600 bonus on your first deposit just by filling it in. Free money is always good, right?

Setting Up Your Home Game Step 2: Create Your Home Game

When you log on to the PokerStars client, you'll see a tab in the poker lobby labelled "Home Games." It's near the top left of the screen as shown in this picture:

Once you've clicked the button, you'll see the Home Games lobby. In the lobby, you'll see a button labelled "Create a Poker Club":

Once you've clicked, you'll see the Home Game creation menu:

Give your club a cool name. Make sure it's one that you and your friends will remember. Someone might want to search for the club sometime down the road; and if you name it something like SDFJASDGFASU, a search will be all but impossible.

Pick an invitation code. You'll send this to friends and players you want to join your Home Game. Think of it as a secret handshake--pick something that you'll remember, but that's also secret enough to be unguessable.

After you've filled out these two pieces of information, you're done. Click "Create Club" to complete the process and visit your poker club menu.

Setting Up Your Home Game Step 3: Invite Your Friends

Now that you've created your poker club, it's time to fill up the ranks. You'll want to send invitations to all of your friends, and anybody else you want to play against (fish, perhaps?)

If you want to invite a friend who isn't already on PokerStars, that's fine. Simply click the invitation button on your Home Game's lobby and fill in your friend's e-mail address. Your friend will receive an e-mail explaining all the steps he'll need to take to join your Home Game.

You aren't limited to inviting friends through the PokerStars client. You can invite anybody, anywhere, any way you want. All you need to do is give out your Club ID number and your club's invitation code to whoever you want to see join. All they'll need to do is click through to PokerStars, install the poker software, and enter your club information into the Home Games menu.

Setting Up a Home Game Step 4: Have Fun

You've set up your poker club and invited all your friends to join. Now you can set up a cash game table or schedule a tournament. You'll be able to play as soon as your invitees confirm their status as members of your online poker club!