Put Me In The Water - Poker Returns!

Posted by Amy Baranski

What a weekend! Water exercise first thing on Saturday, then grocery shopping, then crock-potting dinner together, then simplifying my work space, and finally a poker game played almost until midnight with some serious poker guests, including someone who often plays down in Olympia with other policy makers.

It was all in good fun.

I haven't played poker since the game nights Melissa and Jamie hosted last year during Poker month. I almost forgot how much I enjoyed the game. Maybe that's because I lost a lot. The epic battle while sitting around the table with good people talking about this-and-that for hours was/is delightful. Best of all, there were no computer, TV, or cell phone screens on (except the occasional and necessary Google search and a couple mamas checking on their young.)

This time I played "penny" poker which was really nickle, dime, and quarter poker. Previously I'd only played with chips and a pool of money. Playing with real money changes the game! I learned a ton of new games including Baseball, Screw Your Neighbor, Anaconda, and Bo Jackson. I even won a hand or two, but I did not come out on top. I think that honor went to our stealthy poker playing neighbor Carol. So congrats Carol and I look forward to winning my money back!

Drop me in the water

Posted by Melissa

The Baumgart's hosted the last poker night of May this past Sunday.  And like another lyric to the song I have been humming when it comes to my blog post titles of late, "And I'm comin' on the biggest fool of them all."  See, when it comes to poker, I feel like a winner.  I sit at the table and everything about how I feel when I get my cards and put my chips in, or even when I fold...everything just says winner in my head.  But I lose.  I have not won a singe game since poker month started.

I do feel like I have learned more about the game and the strategy, and therefor, I have found myself being second in line to the big money the last two games.  But still, like Jerry Seinfeld said in one his sitcom episodes, "Who wants to come in second?  Who wants the Silver medal? It's like you get to tell everyone, I was the best loser.  Of all the losers, I came in first." 

What did you do, Alex?

Sunday night's game was as fun as any this month.  Like I said before, I am smitten with this Texas Hold 'Em kind of poker and that is what we played again all night.  The good hands were making their way around the table and believe it or not, Bob, one of our usual winners, lost all his chips as there was one more hour to play.  Our house rules say you can buy back in, and so Bob did.

I was sitting pretty with a couple big wins under my belt and thought I was in the clear as far as Bob went.  That winner feeling I carry was starting to read more like a non-fiction short story and less like the romance novel in my head.

The last hand was dealt.  I had two aces in the hole...sweet. I was still keeping my poker face on though.  The river gets dealt and guess what?  It is another ace!  

"Holy shit!" I am thinking  "I am finally going to win."  

I dream of how perfect it all is, the last game, all my poker studying paying off, something really good to blog about.

I bet big, I got this.  

In the end, I think it was just me and Karyn that hadn't folded.  Bob did, even though his pile of chips was getting big yet again...but that was fine with me, because after this win, I had it all.  Time for the showdown.

Karyn flipped her cards and announced with a huge smile, "I got a flush."

"A flush!  A fucking flush!"  I sink inwardly as I mumble to myself.  

"That beats three of a kind.  Even three aces."  I say out loud.

And now, not to sound all non-evil, cause like Karyn said to me that night across the poker table, "I love that you're evil."  But seeing her smile from that win, after all of her threes and queens in the hole all night, gave me that winner feeling all over again.  

We'll have other poker nights.  Maybe I'll win.  Maybe I won't.  I still can't say I have let go of the intense winner feeling, or the desire to make it a reality.  I am thinking monthly games.  And maybe a bigger buy-in...if I get better.

This must have been after Karyn's big last hand of the night.  With Bob smiling right along since her win that hand cinched the overall win for himself.  (yet again)

Here's to all the winners, real and imagined.  And the losers too.

-Melissa

Take me to the River

posted by Melissa

This was the biggest money pot we had so far, $70.00 going to the winner.  The cream puffs weren't too bad either.  

We played Texas Hold 'Em for the first time.  At this point "the flop" was out on the table, the first three of the five shared cards that every player get to use in their hand.  

Carol gathering her chips after a big winning hand.  Carol is always a good poker player, no matter what game we play.

Here is Bob, with his signature lined-up stacks of chips.

These are the cards after "the turn" has been laid down, the fourth of the five shared cards in Hold 'Em.  The last one, not shown here is called "the river."  From those five cards, along with the two cards that you have "in the hole" (the two you got at the beginning, face down)   you make the best five card hand and hope you win.

Count 'em up.

Matt, seated to my right, walked away the big winner that night.  It was a close game after the last hand, which is what typically happens at our poker games.  By the last few hands, people start betting it all and the chips move dramatically from player to player.  Carol had been winning, and then after the last hand it was between me and Matt.  

Someone was holding a lot of chips at this point.  Probably me, sadly they were mostly the whites and blues, which were the lowest values, $1 and $5 respectively.

There you have it, one of our last poker nights.  I really enjoyed Texas Hold 'Em, and likely will host monthly poker nights playing the game.  Who's in?

cheers,
Melissa

unpredictable Highs & lows

Bob, our teacher.

Our neighbor, also Amy's husband, Bob, taught us a new game of poker last night.  It is called High Low.  Or at least that is what he called it.  We started the night with five card draw, simple, straight forward.  It was much like the simple five card stud and seven card stud we played the prior poker nights.  High Low on the other hand, is dynamic and unpredictable.

We played it like five card draw, only at the end the player with the highest hand and the player with the lowest hand split the pot.  And those pots were huge.  I guess because people knew their odds were greater, or because you could win with a losing hand, or it was the fact that the night was nearly ending; something definitely upped the ante, so to speak, in that game.  The pots were at least triple what they had been earlier in the evening.

Every player gets five cards dealt face down, with a round of betting following. Then you get to trade in up to three cards, after which you have to choose whether you are going to be trying to a "high" hand to win or a "low" hand to win.  When you choose, you need to mark your choice at that point, so there is no cheating/changing minds at the end of the game.  We used a chip, and either held it in our hand or put it under our leg on our chair.

So, now the big betting begins.  You place your cards in the order of your choosing and sit them in a stack in front of you.  The order is important because, if you are actually going low, you may want to psyche out your opponents by putting some higher cards in the same suit first...maybe they'll think you have a high flush and bet more for their low hand.  Also, a big factor is that aces can be high or low, a big game changer. (and how I won my one hand last night)


So, with every player having chosen their goal, high or low, and having their cards in a stack in front of them; we start the revealing.  Starting to the left of the dealer, you flip up your first card.  A round of betting ensues.  This continues with each of the five cards, and at our house, with lots of raising.  The pot grows and grows.


Finally the last card is revealed.  And after all the hands are inspected, who's suspected to be high?  and who is low?  Then we show what our intention was...was it what everyone thought?

The pot is then split between the person with the highest hand that was going for the "high" and the person with the lowest hand that was going for the "low."  Hands reach in and start grabbing, in an orderly fashion, of course!

Amy showed up late, so she didn't get to join in the big people poker game, and opted for a little penny ante five card draw with Tallulah.  I never did hear who won that game.  Amy?  Did you let her win?  Or did you get beat?

If you read my prior post, you already know that Carol was the winner last night.  She pretty much swept up the chips, all night.  Although Bob did give her a run for her money.  Karyn had a few big wins towards the end once we started the high/low game.  Pete had a few good hands, although I think the words most often heard when he showed a hand was, "I got nothing."  And Jamie and I were simply, well, the biggest losers.

I wonder how tomorrow night's game will turn out.  We are going to add in a few new variations to the five card draw.  Also, every time we learn a new game, that gets added into the mix and the dealer can then call a game from those we know for each hand.

It's getting exciting, folks.  And between now and tomorrow, I'll be reading up on poker strategy.  So, watch out.

-Melissa

"They call it poker, because the word f*#k was taken"

"Nice to beat you, er, I mean meet you."  Says Carol to Karyn.

posted by Melissa
I didn't win again last night.  Let's just get that out there in the open at the beginning.  Our neighbor, Carol, was the big winner.  Here she is grabbing all her money.  My money.  I really, really wanted to win.

It is interesting to notice the thoughts as I play along throughout the night.  When I start the evening, I am very hopeful, the faith that I will be a winner swells in my chest.  And then the first hand, I lose.  Second hand, I lose again.  "Hahahaha.  Isn't this fun?"  I say out loud.
While inside, I am deflating.

Then after a few more losing hands, I start to give up.  But wait, it's a good thing.  I am neither high, nor low, but now able to just have a good time.  Perhaps I can practice some of what I learned throughout yoga, and meditation month, and breathe in and out right from the beginning of the game and remain unattached to some outcome. (*winning*)  Just be in each hand.

"Let the chips fall where they may." This phrase comes to mind when I contemplate the above situation.  A mantra to not be so attached, so high on the outcome of winning.

It is a cliche in our vernacular,  and I always assumed it originated from the game of poker.  I decided to look it up online and it appears that it actually came from wood carvers.  Letting the wood chips fall "where they may" as they carved and chopped wood, hewing is a word they used for the art of turning a log into a squared piece of wood for building.

So, there must be some good poker phrases that have stood the test of time.  Any ones you all can think of?  Here are some quotes about poker that I dug up.  Not that I have heard of any of them, but some are a bit funny:

• There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about it. Now and then you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of the game, but the ignorance of the people is fearful. Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere and all that, who did not know the meaning of a flush. It is enough to make one ashamed of the species.  Mark Twain
• They called it Poker because the word 'F*#k!' was taken.  ~Phil Hellmuth
• I guess if there weren't luck involved, I'd win every time.   ~Phil Hellmuth
• If, after the first twenty minutes, you don't know who the sucker at the table is, it's you.  ~David Levien and Brian Koppelman, Rounders
• Poker is the game closest to the western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents and where - at least in the short run - the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens.  ~John Luckacs
• The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.  ~David Mamet
• Industry executives and analysts often mistakenly talk about strategy as if it were some kind of chess match.  But in chess, you have just two opponents, each with identical resources, and with luck playing a minimal role.  The real world is much more like a poker game, with multiple players trying to make the best of whatever hand fortune has dealt them.  In our industry, Bill Gates owns the table until someone proves otherwise.  ~David Moschella
• Most of the money you'll win at poker comes not from the brilliance of your own play, but from the ineptitude of your opponents.  ~Lou Krieger

So, perhaps I am inviting the wrong crowd.  Or that I don't have inept friends.  Great for friendship and life, bad for winning poker.

-melissa