My friend Tim called me last week and told me about a home poker tournament at a friend's house for Saturday. There would be two back to back tournaments with about 15-20 people entering and a $20 buy in for each. I told him I would go to both and I would see him there. He would come late and probably would miss the first tournament.
I arrived at 8:00pm and there were 14 anxious players sitting around, and I quickly realized that what they knew about poker came from the penny games they might have had in college or from the poker they had watched on TV. This was looking to be a good night! We started on two tables of 7 players each, and the host asked for suggestions on how to pay off the $280 that was collected. It was agreed that 1st would get $180, 2nd-$80 and 3rd-$20. Although the play was atrocious and the suckouts were happening frequently, I managed to survive down to 5 players with my chip stack at about 4 big blinds. One guy had 30 big blinds, another two players had about 15 big blinds and the other had 2 big blinds.
Just as the blinds were coming to me again, my friend Tim arrives and when I told him what the chip denominations were, he gave me a look of quiet disconcert, knowing full well that I would have to suck out to get in the money. But, I had another idea brewing in my mind. I suggested to the remaining players that we should split the pot and start the other game since so many others were getting restless and we were here for fun. One guy asked what each would get, at which point, the host (who was out of the game) started splitting the $20 bills in five stacks. One of the stacks had only $40, while the others had $60 each. When he mentioned this, one of the players with 15 big blinds offered to take the $40 since it was all for fun and he would have made a gain of $20 that he could use to buy into the next tournament, and therefore, play for free. God...I love these guys! From getting trampled by their suckouts to making a gain of $40!
We started the next tournament and decided that this time, it would be a rebuy tournament. I busted out half way through and right before the two tables were combined, when I tried to bluff with an all-in on the river. I forgot that you shouldn't try to bluff people that have no clue about betting ranges on teh flop. However, my friend Tim was still in it and I decided to stick around and see what he would do. I also volunteered to be the dealer so the game can go faster. When it got down to 5 people, Tim was down to 4 big blinds, so I raised the idea that since it was getting late, they would perhaps want to split the prize money. There was a total of $320 collected, so I suggested a split of $60 a piece with the extra $20 going to the house for hosting the poker tournament. One of the guys quickly turned down the idea, saying that the house shouldn't get anything, and that they should continue playing and the winner would get the extra $20. They all agreed, so each of the 5 got $60, but then one guy with a small to medium stack said that $20 for the winner is too little, so they should all put back $20 each. I looked at Tim and although he didn't want this, he couldn't really refuse since he was small chip stack and it would appear as though he was taking advantage of them...LOL
So now, the 5 players were playing for the $120 winner take all. In two hands, the guy that had said to put $20 back into the pot was out and there were 4 players left. Again, I suggested an even split of the $120 with each getting $30. They wanted to keep on playing, however, and Tim, who was going to be all in in 1 more deal, said that he needs to go and would agree to the $30 a piece. Seeing that they just wanted to continue playing since they were having fun playing poker for the "first time", I looked at Tim and asked him how much he was willing to take. Getting my cue, Tim said $20 was fine with him, so I asked the others whether they agreed to give Tim $20 and then they could play for the remaining $100. They all said OK, so Tim got his $20 (total $60) and gave back his 1.5 blind remaining chip stack. Two hands later, I excused myself and said that I had to leave.
I met Tim outside and we laughed our asses off. I hope that these guys never find out about this blog because I want to be invited back to this home game.
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