I hadn’t played any home games in a very long time. The guys that I first got into poker with when we were young teenagers had stopped getting together for a while so I was left without a fun home game atmosphere to indulge in. But recently, they have started up again, although still infrequently and it has been a lot of fun. I’ve find that playing a leisurely game with friends whose style you know and are between fairly and highly skilled is a lot of fun. Some have significantly more advanced technical skill in the game than I have. I’ve been able to hang with them over the years with a combination of unorthodoxy in my play, friendly intimidation, and off the table gamesmanship (see an earlier post entitled such). The point is, that this kind of environment, at least for me, is a way to keep the game fun and connect to why I became interested in it in the first place. It was an ENJOYABLE challenge.

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In this post I will relate the card table demeanor of the shat man himself. I think this picture is a pretty good encapsulation of it…

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Hello everybody. As this is my first post, I am going to introduce myself to you all by regailing you with a story that I always tell when the conversation turns to either poker or Star Trek.

 ”Star Trek? what does poker have to do with start trek?” you say

“I’m glad you asked” I reply, “Let me tell you”

 It’s the early 90’s. I am far too young to care much about poker or gambling yet. However, as I was quite a little nerd, I loved star trek. My Mom, who played poker for a living at that time, was playing in the poker room at the Trump Taj Majal in Atlantic City. She was doing fairly well getting herself ready for a tournament later that weekend. The place was not very crowded when suddenly a bit of a crowd began to form by the door. Being the very intense and focused type (which added quite a lot to her success as a card player) she hardly noticed. But, as the crowd parted, a small cadre of people could be seen coming through. leading the pack was none other than… (more…)