We try to do weekly games but most of our old farts keep coming up with lame excuses and backing out. $20 won't go far for somebody. We usually figure bring $40-50 and just hope you don't have a terrible night. Are you talking about poker with wildcards and different games or straight up poker with maybe 1 game like Texas hold em? We usually rotate the dealer who can call whatever hand he likes, wildcards or not.

i hate playing dealers choice. i'll play, but it's gotta be one game, don't care what the game is...

That's what I meant... not the basics of the game, but teaching them betting patterns, reads, tells, strategy, etc. etc.

if the newbs want to play with us, we will only confuse them with dealer's choice games. if we do play dealer's choice for the weekly game, then the monthly tournament could be a standard game like omaha, 7-stud or hold 'em. of course details need to be worked out, but i don't see how that would affect the weekly get-togethers. having different faces each week would add to the game, so no need to make it to every game. as long as at least four people show, then the game is on.