I would be pretty angry too.
Missing chips? Are you kidding?!? That is an unpardonable sin, beyond weakening the set it would make me worry that other things in the house might go missing or the bank come up short.
The regular who invited the ringer needs a KITN. Bad for the game and bad for the regular's standing in the group. Not only a ringer, but a bad - stupid one because he found a way to get banned after one visit.
I am happy to host. The players are our guests and we are going to treat them well. It helps that I win a little more than I lose. That being said there is an unspoken agreement about the players contributing something - bring drinks or snacks, toss a few dollars in the pot, even just say thank you. (best ever - the guys pooled their money and sent my wife a $100 gift card from the kitchen gadget store for all the nice meals she has made us. It wasn't the money, it was the big group thank you) More over, the winning players have a self interest in keeping a host happy. More so if the host is losing AND incurring the cost of hosting.
The prop bet wouldn't bother me, but the collusion is not appropriate to keep secret. I would request such side deals be made public since they will generally affect the game.
Changing the game in the middle of a session can go horribly wrong. Going to a game like PLO from hold'em is asking for trouble - the weak players are going to get slaughtered. The idea a new player would start this burns me up. I would offer one polite "no", a second not so polite "no" and then an invitation to cash out now while you still can. I hope you don't have troubles later on over this.
All in all it sounds like a rough night. And you got homework too, problems to patch over and a couple of players who need a little coaching about what not to do.
Still, you got to play with your nifty chips, in your home with your friends {mostly}. I was glad to see you didn't let the bad parts overshadow the good.
One of those nights -=- DrStrange
Nice post Doc!
I think you nailed a couple points.
The prop bet wasn't horrible in itself. Except that it was secret, and the way they paid off (ala Trading Places) to make it more poignant. These guys were sitting on either side of me, and though they've never done anything shady in my house (again, the've been my poker confidants), the potential for collusion or altered play (with action only known to them) was definitely not very kosher IMHO. We are often prop betting with each other over radio station play lists, or some-such.
The ringer (bourbon) is not getting an invite back.
The AH who invited him AND knocked over chips AND snuck in a double max allowable cash buyin AND secretly prob bet against me (is also not getting invited again). He was already on probation (this was his first invite back in over a year). I think he's 86'd. It's just not worth the trouble.
Additionally, I remembered that earlier on in the tournament, Bourbon had inquired about my WiFi password, so he and others could surf the internet during the tournament. I don't typically share this with random people I've just met. I don't even share it with my kids. One, my current wifi password is set to a variant of all my other passwords (which I keep close to my chest), and secondly, maybe I'm old school, but I didn't get WiFi so people I don't know could surf the net while at my house.
Truthfully, I didn't know the variant password off the top of my head. I'd have had to go rummage my office for the exact password (as I was not going to start spouting off variations of it to "try"). I was in the middle of playing (and running) a tournament, so I politely declined (for the reasons I stated, because I didn't have the exact password handy).
That said, I know that during the MTTD, I freely gave out the old WiFi password to attendees so people could blog, etc... Didn't bat an eyelash over it. I had no problem giving it out then. I also know that when I've gone to people's homes for special events (like the WCB), I've utilized their WiFi (but I'm not a sketchy individual, ha!!). So maybe I need to consider lightening up about this, ha!
I'm not uber networking savvy, but I think my router allows me to create a "guest" password I can give out to folks visiting for special events, etc...
Yup, Doc, you're last thoughts were spot on. Not a perfect night, but I got to play with nice chips/cards, etc... and thought there were some aspects that sucked, the good outweighs the bad. Most importantly, the majority of my guests didn't notice any major issues, so they had a great time (mission accomplished).