Longmont Dealers Choice, June 14, 25/50 cent stakes.

Contact me if you would like to come to my game.

Friendly relaxed home game, with no rake or tipping.

We had eight players for the game last Saturday, four of them were there for the first time! A special welcome goes out to Robert, Larry, Bihn, and Bruno. It was great to have you guys join the game! It's been so long since Ken joined us that it almost seemed like he was a new player too. Welcome back Ken.

New Rule: Let me just say first that this paragraph is about adjusting expectations, and NOT about scolding any particular players. I see this as my failure as a host, and not as an issue of players being rude. I have historically been pretty relaxed about showdowns, but I think that's starting to create problems so I'm going to tighten up just a touch. In the past, the players only had to show the cards they wanted to at the showdown. I'm going to change that. To claim a pot you have to show all of your cards. The caller has the right to see all of the bettor's cards, before he either mucks or exposes all of his own cards. If you want to claim the pot, just turn your cards over. If you don't, muck 'em. None of this one-card-at-a-time stuff.

Having said that, I will sometimes, as a caller, show my cards before the bettor does to let him off the hook. When the caller shows his cards first, the bettor has the option of mucking rather than showing. But if you're the bettor, it's bad manners to delay turning over your cards hoping that the caller will turn his over first. You bet and were called. Just turn 'em over please.

Ok, back to the fun stuff. Nobody took me up on the pizza offer. My wife did something new with the queso that got rave reviews and it seemed like that and some nuts, pretzels, and donuts were satisfying enough. It's still a standing offer though. If y'all want a pizza or two, I'll spring for it for as long as my games are starting at 6:00 (though September).

As for the game, let's just say I have a deck of cards that LOVES Bruno, so I'm going to have to get rid of it. Everyone ended up down except for Ken who won a little during his brief stay at the table, and Bruno who nearly tripled his buy-in. Wow! There's just nothing to be done against good AND lucky except try to lose the minimum. It's ok though because he regaled us with many a hair raising and funny tale as he collected our chips, so we all felt just marvey about giving him our money.

It seemed like everyone had a lot of fun with lots of joking and laughing. Robert was playing his first live game and his first dealers choice game, but had fun despite being card dead. I felt his pain because I shared his fate. I only managed to put five or six hands together the whole night, and managed to minimize the value of most of them. Larry and Chris kind of got cold-decked, and Bihn and Dewight put up valiant efforts with wide variance though the night.

Dewight called a new game; 7 Stud Hi/Lo with no low qualifier. That meant that every hand would have a high-low split. I had a tough time with it folding my T9652 because two other players were showing something like A25, there was lots of betting and calling, and some more babies were spread over the rest of the table, and I just didn't think T high was going to take it. It turned out that Q high took the low half of that pot. Who'd-a-thunk? I think I folded the winning low hand 4 times over the course of the night and I still don't know if they were good folds or not.

Robert employed a VERY interesting strategy on that game, sitting out every other hand. It was sort of like watching a smart moth deal with a bug zapper. It went something like this; "I know if I go to the light I'll get killed... But it's such a pretty, pretty light! Ooh! too close, too close... Beautiful bright light... Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

Chris blew half his stack on his first round of that game, and the other half on NL Texas Hold'em in the following round. He made a re-buy, but Larry was intrigued by the 7 Stud H/L game and called it again. At that point Chris decided it wasn't his night and cashed out having played less than three rounds. We didn't play any straight low ball games, but we played a good variety of high, and high/low games throughout the night. I think we played one round of pot-limit (but nobody ever potted it) and the rest no-limit (but Larry and Chris were the only ones who ever got all in).

One last thing. Robert was so dazzled by his first live dealers choice cash game experience, that he completely forgot to do his networking. He asked me to mention to y'all that he is an artist and would offer a 25% discount to those contacting him through me (hmmm, I wonder if I can get some vig here). His web site is http://www.roberts-oils.com

That does it for last Saturday's game. We've already got six seats taken for July's game so don't wait too long to make up your mind on that one. Good luck everyone!

Don

Can I get more info on the game. House rules, maximum # or raises, types of games played, when/where you play etc.?

Thanks

Jim

My game is always the second Saturday of each month. Over the summer, I'm starting my games as 6:00, but most of the year I start them at 2:00 in the afternoon.

The rules are pretty standard. Minimum bet is the big blind (or bring-in) minimum raise is the preceeding bet/raise. The dealers calls both the game and betting structure. If no betting structure is called, then it is assumed to be no-limit. So if you wanted to call a limit game, you would specify the max number of raises.

We play a lot of Texas Hold'em of course, because it's so popular these days. Lately a lot of people have been calling Omaha 8 also. 7 Stud and it's variations are popular with a number of my players. We don't play low ball games very often just because nobody is calling them. We even made up a game once. The thing about my dealers choice game that is kind of unusual is that the dealer calls a game and we play that game until the deal gets back to the guy who called it (so if I have 7 players we play that game 8 times), then the next guy gets to call the next game.

There is no rake or fee, and no tipping. Dealer deals his own cards, unless he needs some help for some reason.

I change the stakes for my game every month. Most of my games are 25/50 cent stakes (small blind or ante is 25 cents, and the big blind or bring-in is 50 cents). I host three nickel/dime games per year for newbies and people who don't want to take more than a few tens of dollars risk, and three $1/$2 games per year for those who want a more substantial game. I don't limit the buy-in. You can buy in for whatever amount you want. A typical buy in is 100 to 300 times the big blind (so for 25/50 cent stakes most people will buy in for $50 to $150) but, like I said, you can buy in for any amount you like.

You can go to my web page for a lot more info about my game. Let me know if you have any more questions, or would like to be added to my invitation list.

Don