The gambler.

Hold 'em

So I like to play poker, almost any variety. Have done so since college at least, though I have friends who played "seriously" in high school. But I really only began playing regularly once I became a Faculty member at Mississippi State, first in a Monthly faculty low stakes game with a lot of luck games like night baseball. As the TV poker craze took off. I joined a second game, originally composed of folks who worked at Boardtown Corp. which was then bought out by TuCows.com. The game started at P's north-side apartment, but has since removed to his south-side digs on Peach St. It's also transmogrified into a bi-weekly affair. It's always been a winner-take-all tournament with a $5 buy for chips and unlimited rebuys until the 5th betting round. If we have nine players, second place gets their buy returned.The fun thing about a recurring game like this is you can get a sense of your growth as a poker player plus learn how to read other folk's hands as you accumulate more and more information about the playing and betting styles of each individual player over time. Plus how else a you have this much fun for an evening on a mere $5!



Fold 'em
Here's an insider's view of the world of TNIPN (Thusday Night IS Poker Night) #6: The "Red White and Blue" edition at the Peach Street Poker room. Here the chip buys are being prepared on the table.



We use a tournament computer program which keeps track of which round we're on, the amounts for big and small blinds, counts down the 20 minutes per round, and alerts if with 1 minute to go.



Pre-flop players checking their 2 holes cards.



After four rounds, we color up as blinds have rise above usefulness of our white 5 cent chips. For each you get 1 blue quarter chip, You get one extra blue for final 5s from 1-5. Note the neat stack of whites below ans the dealer grabbing some blue chips . . .



with which he replaces the withdrawn white chips.



My play last night: good early—I was the first to bust somebody on an all-in, but it was early so they rebought and ultimately outlasted me though with $10 as opposed to $5 invested up front. No glory this week for fils, but père was the big winner.