Party holdem poker

As classy and nice as it would be to rent a bunch of poker tables, and hire professional dealers, you can have just as much fun for less money by setting up a bunch of tables and chairs and having players deal for themselves. You’ll need to invest in some chips, some cards, and have someone responsible for running the game, as a sort of floor manager. You also need a banker to manage whatever money is involved (or other prize if it’s just a freebee… I’m not sure if the “boys” are kids, or adults).
A poker tournament can be lots of fun, and it can be for any amount of money, or no money, just some token prize. For this, you’ll need maybe four different colors of chips, representing different denominations. This way, a small number of chips can go a long way. You should probably have at least two or three decks of cards for each table. I usually like to have one red deck and one blue deck, so whoever is going to deal the next round can shuffle up the next deck and have it ready to go for the next round. Different colors prevent the cards getting mixed up and spoiling the deck. A spare deck or two are there in case cards get bent, torn, wrecked. You’ll also need one timer for a tournament.
There’s plenty of detailed advice at http://www.homepokertourney.com/ to help understand the structure.
As much as people love poker tournaments, the downside is the fact that players will bust out one by one. Towards the end, you have more people sitting out than playing. This is okay if the poker is just a small part of a mostly social party. But if people want to continue playing cards after busting out of the tourney, they may want to play a “cash” game on the side (or a “play money” game). If you do run a cash game, you’ll need a larger number of just one or two colors of chips, so load up on extra whites and maybe reds for this purpose. Alternatively, players can run their own single table tournaments.
Have fun!