It was a bad night tonight. We've been having some nice low-stakes games lately, but tonight kind of stunk.
I schedule the games, I have the chips, I have the folding poker table. I agreed to have it at a buddy's house, because his pregnant wife wanted play. 7:00 start time. Their take-out food arrives at 10 after 7, so they're eating. 4 players no-show, and 3 show up at 7:30, which is fine, since the homeowner (HO) and his brother are still eating. One guy shows up (late) with his girlfriend (unannounced--I told him we could have a learning night sometime for those who, like her, who have never played). She spent the night looking over the hand order list, taking a minute to call any bet. HO's wife shows up to the table at 8:15, and he buys her in.
HO and his brother say they don't want to play a tourney where top two cash out (three after all ten are there). They always play winner take all, and every (dice) chip is a dime. Do you want to play cash, or tournament? We finally agree to tourney, and top three pay. Since we only have 6 at the time, we do deep stacks so we can play for a while. Do a card draw for seating assignments, and HO refuses to move from his chair for some reason (I missed this part, as I was busy handing out chips). I hand out the stacks and fire up the timer app. Then, 4 more players show up. There were 8 re-buys in the first 3 levels--everyone but me and HO. And now, I'm pretty much out of chips for color ups. Lesson learned.
Brother has all his 100's and 500's hiding behind his 5's. He bets 500 into my Aces up, I ask him how much he has, and he won't answer, so I suggest that the big chips should be out front. He and a new guy complain that it's a dumb rule, then he grabs a stack and puts 800 more in, and throws a fit when I tell him he can't do that. "You hadn't done anything yet, so I can change my bet." It didn't matter, since I was going to shove over him anyway. He calls and busts out. He and a new guy gripe at me about relaxing; those things don't matter anyway. It's supposed to be fun, right?
The aforementioned new guy gripes that he wants to go home at about 10:30. I told him he can leave, and we'll blind him out. He keeps complaining, so I ask him if he really wants to go home. He says yes, so I offer him his buy-in back, just to get him out of there. Then he wants to keep the 500 chips that he was up over his original stack and keep playing. Was mad when I wouldn't let him.
HO wants the blinds to stop at 50/100, pregnant mom also wants to stop playing, so we give her buy-in back. Then when my son busts out in 3rd (AJ vs AA), and HO doesn't want to give him any money, because "he lost".
Then, to top it off...I'm the big stack at the table, 4-handed. several limpers to me in the BB, I check with 72o. Flop comes 7K2 rainbow. I check, get a raiser, and a big re-raise from the homeowner on the button, and I shove. I barely have him covered, and he calls with K 10. Turn 5, River 5, and he wins with 2 pair, and acts like he outplayed me. (OK, this is just poker. I got my money in way ahead. It sucks, but I'm never tilted when I make the right play and someone sucks out on me.)
Honestly, if they wanted to run the game their way, it would be fine. I could play and have fun. They can get their own chips, invite people, etc. They could play Indian poker for pistachios all night, and I could enjoy myself. I jsut feel like I let the game get hijacked from me, and it's not the kind of game I would want to host. I should have known it would be like this. HO and his brother are both type-A personalities, and tend to run over people in a lot of different situations. Don't get me wrong, they're decent guys, and I like them a lot. Well...I like HO at least. Just on their turf, I should've known it would be an issue.
We have a FB page. I'm thinking about posting the kind of game I want to host, with a link to the PDF rules. If they want me to host the game at their house, I'll make announcements, I'll bring the chips, table, timer, rules, etc., but I run the game. If they want to run their own game, that's fine.
Rant over.