Nobody remembers who rebought twice at 11pm. That's the whole case for writing buy-ins down.
A home game doesn't need much structure to track money well. It needs a few habits, started before the first hand.
Pick one person to keep the record
It doesn't have to be the host. It should be one person, not "whoever's closest to the notebook". If everyone writes, nobody checks.
Write it down when it happens
Not at the next break and not at the end. The record should be updated at the moment the money or the chips change hands. A buy-in written down ten minutes later is a buy-in that gets forgotten.
For each buy-in, note three things:
- Who bought in
- How much
- How it was paid: cash into the bank, owed for later, or paid straight to another player
The third one is easy to skip and painful to reconstruct. If Tom handed his 50 to Lee instead of the bank, that changes who is holding cash at the end.
Decide how rebuys work before the first hand
Every argument about rebuys starts with "I didn't know that was allowed". Agree on:
- Whether rebuys are allowed at all
- Whether a player has to be below a certain stack first
- The size of a rebuy, and whether there's a cap
- What happens to a player who rebuys and then leaves right away
Rebuys count as buy-ins in the tally. A player who bought in for 100 and rebought twice has 300 in, not 100.
Keep a running total, not a list of events
A list of buy-ins is hard to read at 1am. A running total per player is not:
- Dana: 100
- Marcus: 100, 100 (200)
- Priya: 100
- Tom: 100
Add the column totals and you know the money on the table at any moment. That number is what the chips should add up to at the end.
Notebook, spreadsheet or app
A notebook is fine for a table of six who play every week. It's cheap, it works without a phone signal, and everyone can see it.
A spreadsheet is better for history, but someone has to build it and maintain the formulas, and it's awkward to use on a phone at the table.
An app is worth it when the group is bigger, when you play on credit, or when players want to check their own balance. Bink is built for this: log a buy-in in two taps, and every player can see the live ledger from a link without installing anything.
Whichever you pick, the habit matters more than the tool. Write it down when it happens, keep one person in charge, and agree the rebuy rules first.
When the game ends, the next step is working out who pays who.