Vegas baby, Vegas!!!

Well its not really Vegas, but it is poker night at the Togo mansion. I have a regular monthly game for some of my friends and family at my pad. It's a time where we can get together, play some cards, win/lose some money and just hang out and relax after the long work week. Usually have a pretty good turn out too...between 8-12 people on average. $10 minimum starting buy-ins gets a little cash flow going into the mix. Its a great time and I look forward to it each month. I thought about expanding it to maybe twice a month, but between my schedule and the wife's I don't think that can be done.

What's poker without 1) beer and 2) tasty treats? Well we always have an abundance of beer so that's never a problem. However people always seem to skimp out on the treats. Now I start my game at 7pm and most people have to drive a bit to get to my house, so there really is no time for a real dinner for anyone. I always try to provide at least a few snacks, but I'll be hornswaggled if I'm gonna foot the whole bill. So I depend on others to augment my offerings. We usually get a few bags of chips if we're lucky. Sometimes some dip to go with it. Now I don't know about you, but when I get hungry I want REAL FOOD, not chips. This time however we should have a decent spread. I'm gonna go all out and make some hot wings and taquitos. Giving the pizza poppers a rest this go 'round....the wife thinks we need variety. Could be a bad choice as the poppers have been a staple of poker since Day 1. We'll see. Also, my good buddy Carrie is bringing her AMAZING spinach dip. Hopefully others will follow suit and step up the snacks...I have been dropping less than subtle hints.

I never know quite what to expect when we all get together either. I have such a wide range of friends that its hard to tell how people will relate. Some gel really well, others not so well. There are a few clashing personalities and its always fun to see what happens when you mix them. It's like my own private chemistry experiment. For example, last time one of my buddies (who has a bit of a temper) got more than a little agitated that he AGAIN lost all his money. Rather than blame his own skills he blamed the person that took the money. He got a little upset and said he was sick of ALWAYS losing ALL his money to this person. Now, he usually loses his dough, but I think he maybe lost to this particular person one other time in the history of our game. He proceeded to get up from the table, walk outside to "smoke" and then launch into a giant raging tirade about how pissed he was and how sick he was of losing to so and so. We could all totally still hear him outside and we just laughed.

Another friend of mine (we'll call him "Biff") has some "quirks" if you will. One of Biff's quirks is that he is extremely superstitious. A few games back, someone brought out a penny to use as a card holder. Well you would have thought that someone just layed down a dead body on the table by his reaction. He freaked out and started going on and on about how he can't play cards if there is a penny on the table. That penny will suck all his luck/mojo/powers/whatever out and cause him to lose all night. After much ballyhooing, the penny was removed and the game continued. This event and my friend's fear of pennies lived on however and we used it as a cautionary tale to all new players. We still rib Biff about it from time to time and this is fueled by the fact that Biff now brings a plastic cube with suspended pennies in it to every game as his luck piece. His reasoning is that this is ok because the pennies don't touch the table. He's just asking for trouble. So. last game, one of my old buddies (we'll call him "Cake") was finally able to make it for the first time so we warned him about Biff and the penny. Biff and Cake also know each other from way back when we all used to work together. Cake is a pretty easy going dude but he likes to push people's buttons sometimes.

As the night progressed, Biff and Cake discussed the penny issue a couple of times over a smoke. Biff explained his reasoning and Cake seemingly understood. After one particularly long hand in which Biff and Cake were going head to head and Biff won, we decided it was time for a break. The smokers (including Cake) all got up to go outside. As Cake got up he turned to Biff and said "Good hand dude. Here's something extra" and he flipped a bright shiny penny down on the table right next to Biff's stack. We all laughed but Biff lost it. He started ranting and raving about disrespect and rudeness and all manner of thing and then actually started gathering up his stuff to leave! We all just stared in disbelief. WTF? He is seriously leaving over a PENNY??? I told him not to go over something so dumb but he was all butt hurt. Finally one of my buds said "F it dude. Let him go home if he's gonna be a little girl about a penny. No one wants that here. Just go home!". Well apparently this calling out showed Biff that he was indeed being a little baby and he decided to stay....but not after having a 30 minute heart to heart with Cake outside. Fun times indeed.

So yeah, my poker nights are fun and crazy and you never know what  kind of drama you're gonna get. All I know is its nice to hang with friends and family. Oh, and I'm now on a two game losing streak so I think tonight's the night I turn stuff around. I plan to win big tonight....Papa needs a new video game!