GimmieUChips
Sitting Out
I used to play in a small very friendly $20 - $50 max beer-drinking type poker game. Only friends with an occasional new person. Over the years the game got bigger. It went from one table .25/50 NL $50 max buy in to start. Then to 1/2 NL $200 max buy to start. Then to 1/2 buy all you want. We started losing our friends when the game pretty much opened up to a lot more players. The original game was friends that were mostly regular middle-income types. When we started playing for $100 buy-in some of the guys were not as regular as they were in the past. They would play some but would leave when they lost the $100. It was a lot of money for them. Someone had to fill the seats as the game got bigger. So basically I feel like we kicked our friends out to play for higher stakes when we got several big fish in the game. I am talking guys that would lose $1000 to $5000 every time they played. At one point we had a guy that lost $3500 to $10,000 a session. We had 3-5 guys that were "outsiders" playing and running the game stakes up because they lost so much. That is how a 1/2 - $200 buy-in game turns to $200 first buy - $1000 second buy. We were playing a 1/2 game with $12,000 - $25,000 on the table twice a week.
I never changed the way I played. I never changed "my rules of play". I showed up at 6:00 and left between 9 and 10:30. I left when my eyes started to water and I got tired. No matter what, I tried to never play tired. Up or Down, I left the same time as always. Also, I never bought in more than two buy-ins. If I lost $400 in 20 minutes I went home. If I was card dead for two hours, I left. Why push it, we are going to play twice a week. I won when we started playing as friends and I won when the game got bigger and bigger. Then I got accused of winning and leaving by the new fishes. I had been going home at the same time for years. I hated to see our friends "save up" to "play with friends" and lose more money than they could afford - guys from the original game. Our friends. So part of the original bunch basically ran most of our friends off to play with fish they could beat. They can't win shit at any other game. They don't try.
I never played poker for the money. I played for the competition and love of the game. I played to try and get better. Poker is fun. I don't like the fact that our friends had to quit playing the game because of some rich assholes and greedy guys from the original game. Some "our friends" would come to sit and watch the game for hours. That's not the same. How do you get better when your playing guys so bad that you can start pulling in the money before they turn their hands over? These guys are so bad that they hit a flush on a paired board and go all-in. The biggest pot ever in the game was won with a 9 high flush against the bottom full house. The guy with the flush didn't realize he one outed the 9 high Straight Flush! He almost mucked his cards! $18,000 pot in a 1/2 game. lol I did not see the hand. But, there is one guy that is a member of this forum and you guys probably know him well that was there. He told me about it.
So my question is this. Would you guys jeopardize your friendship for money? Or, would you set up one of the two nights aside for a small friendly game so everyone can stay together?
I never changed the way I played. I never changed "my rules of play". I showed up at 6:00 and left between 9 and 10:30. I left when my eyes started to water and I got tired. No matter what, I tried to never play tired. Up or Down, I left the same time as always. Also, I never bought in more than two buy-ins. If I lost $400 in 20 minutes I went home. If I was card dead for two hours, I left. Why push it, we are going to play twice a week. I won when we started playing as friends and I won when the game got bigger and bigger. Then I got accused of winning and leaving by the new fishes. I had been going home at the same time for years. I hated to see our friends "save up" to "play with friends" and lose more money than they could afford - guys from the original game. Our friends. So part of the original bunch basically ran most of our friends off to play with fish they could beat. They can't win shit at any other game. They don't try.
I never played poker for the money. I played for the competition and love of the game. I played to try and get better. Poker is fun. I don't like the fact that our friends had to quit playing the game because of some rich assholes and greedy guys from the original game. Some "our friends" would come to sit and watch the game for hours. That's not the same. How do you get better when your playing guys so bad that you can start pulling in the money before they turn their hands over? These guys are so bad that they hit a flush on a paired board and go all-in. The biggest pot ever in the game was won with a 9 high flush against the bottom full house. The guy with the flush didn't realize he one outed the 9 high Straight Flush! He almost mucked his cards! $18,000 pot in a 1/2 game. lol I did not see the hand. But, there is one guy that is a member of this forum and you guys probably know him well that was there. He told me about it.
So my question is this. Would you guys jeopardize your friendship for money? Or, would you set up one of the two nights aside for a small friendly game so everyone can stay together?