Been a while since posting. But I’ve hosted a couple times (my bad).
Notably, I hosted up north (at the Lazy Bear Lodge) and invited neighbors (a bunch of locals) and @sergiophil…. This game was brutal, and the play was atrocious. I lost a couple buy ins, but luckily these locals didnt play big stakes, so my loss was minimal.
then I’ve hosted in the Fat Tire poker room a couple times, which had mixed results. One was a winning session, the other losing. I think I won twice what I lost, so I’ll take it…
@BukNaked36 contemplates his life choices, lol….
This weekend I played a fair bit of poker.. A long running bar tourney (dormant during Covid) resurfaced and is now being played at a golf course clubhouse a couple miles from home…. Played that Friday night (40 players) and binked it.. dice chips and (I kid you not) white plastic folding tables, so no photos taken.. up a few hundo.. cool.
then last night I was invited to a neighbors house for cards. I agreed to play, but didn’t realize until arriving this was a group of players who play insane stakes and are very good.. it’s a 1/2 NL/PLO orbits game, but plays more like a 5/10 game. standard opens were often 10x ($20 or $25) but it wasn’t unusual for people to open for $40, or even $100 in straddled pots. I’ve played with this group before, but the game has gotten bigger…. And of course I was sitting to the right of the loosest deep stack, who loved to gamble… and raise every amount I put into the middle..
The players play deep, and the $600 in 2 bullets I brought felt woefully small. I think many were into the game for around $5k. Ugh.. buckle up, it’s a wild ride! Min buyin was $300, so that was my plan…. Dip my toes in…. And after an hour my aces got cracked by Jacks to the host…. Ugh.
…bullet #2 went slightly better. I can’t tell you the hands, but action was wild. The level of aggression was mind numbing. Luckily things went in my favor, cashing out for over $2k. Played for 6 hours.. and as a side note, this group only plays with dealers, but the last minute dealer “arranged” by the host was new… and although the group was kind, you could tell they hated him. They tipped a little, but often forgot.. maybe because the game was moving so slow they were falling asleep, lol.
eventually the dealer reached his bed time, and had to go… I volunteered to deal (and play) full time, and the group seemed to appreciate a more “professional“ dealer. They commented as much and thanked me over and over.. and they tipped good.. crazy good. I think next time I might just deal full time and not play. Ha.
I can tell you one crazy hand…. my only involvement was as dealer. One guy flops a royal flush, vs another guy who flops top set…. Gross. It was a big pot, probably 2k… The way it was played, I dont see how the top set doesn’t lose all their money…
ya, plastic slugged chips from this host.. but here was my cash out (minus the $ I shipped as a tip to a host who was stuck 3k).
On a side note, a number of these players have really nice chips Of their own. One guy has a couple thousand minty Paulson Pharaohs when he hosts, and another (the maniac to my left) actually bought my Benny’s set a few years back…. So the plastic chips and the table were “beneath“ this group. The host is a guy I’ve known for a long time, he used to run a meh casino party business, and the table is a hold over from that. Kinda weird, as he just moved into a 1-2M, 9,000 sqft house, and I’d have thought he’d have nicer chips and have improved his table by now.