[c]
Congrats to Jeff[/c]
[c]
(aka Man-with-the-ever-changing-poker-moniker)[/c]
We didn't plan on a tournament style game, but after the dust settled Jeff was the last man out the door with everyone's money - including my wife's!
Thanks for everyone for joining and I'm glad we were able to put the game together in only a couple hours notice. Hank, thanks for bringing over the high class beer. The poker play was very good, and the winner deserved every lousy chip he got.
Interestingly enough last night's game turned into a litmus test for a few things.
Single Chip Denomination
It was our first game using only one chip denomination and I think it went very well! It certainly made comparing chip stacks easy to do and with all-in bets there were no necessary conversion for unmatched denominations. Similarly there was also no need for chip change during the game.
I still like the idea of using two denominations especially with eight or more players, and possibly three for larger tournaments, but it was also nice to see it work well with just one denomination.
$50 Buy-In/Re-Buy Chip Count
Basically each buy-in/re-buy got you 50x$1 chips with $1/$2 blinds and it could not have been simpler or more effective. I think those of us at the table all agreed that having $500 in chips was too unrealistic which is probably also why Steve, Mark, and others would consistently refer to the chips by their actual value rather than their assigned value - with the exception of the bets over $100.
If you think about it, there really is not much of a difference in game play between $500 in chips with $5/$10 blinds and $50 in chips with $1/$2 blinds with the exception of the perceived value.
We had the same level of action and chip movement as in previous games, but the value seemed far more realistic and thus also apparently improved the emotional impact of making and calling big bets.
Next game though, I'd like to try buy-ins with $100 in chips and two denominations = 50x$1 chips + 10x$5 chips with $1/$2 blinds and maybe bump the blinds later in the evening should the stacks get too high from re-buys.
Best Hand Wins Big Blind
The way this works is when players fold their hand they still hold on to their cards, then after the hand is decided everyone shows their cards. The player who would have had the best hand after all five community cards are dealt out wins the big blind.
For friendly low stake games, I’ve played this rule before and it not only is fun, but can really help those who are just learning the game to get an idea of smart ways of playing your cards. In many ways it makes it like what you see when watching WPT, WSOP, and other poker tournaments where you see everyone’s hole card – but of course in a game this is done after the main hand is finished.
For obvious reasons you would never do this in a tournament or high stakes game, but it worked really well for our game last night, and I believe it would be a positive experience for all our games - not only for the entertainment
(as the results can be quite entertaining), but it would also really help improve the game play of those who are new to the game.
This may also help encourage some of our fellow HTFers who are on the fence about learning poker and joining our games to jump on board. After all, I think we can all agree that once they get started they will realize very quickly why we all enjoy our games so much, and not just the poker.
Hosting Games at the Luehrmann Residence
Another experiment was once again hosting games at my place which I had not done for some time due to my concerns over family duties and the noise level in the house with sleeping children.
Neither became an issue and in fact my wife enjoyed joining the game and so I even got her endorsement for future games at the house.
Larger Poker Table
I was also curious about using our main dining room instead of the poker table as it can be configured to fit anywhere from 8-14 people quite comfortably. I had not considered it before because I was not happy with the quality of the felt that I bought to cover the table as it had a tendency to catch cards when dealing. We ended up using an extra table cloth and that seemed to work just fine.
Eventually though I would still like to consider making a DIY professional poker table as discussed before. Doc had a recommendation for a good fabric provider, and we discussed some good ideas for a padded cover which the felt/velour fabric would get attached to.
Bottom-line
The game was not only fun, but educational and will hopefully lead to me being able to host more games and with perhaps a more comfortable setting than my poker table top.
Of course, I won't mention the brand.
