Inspired by reading Zombie's post ~
I've been on here for a while, but haven't really been paying attention until Zombie told me about a shift to here, so I came to look. While I knew how to play poker as a kid, we never played for money or had poker chips. We used dry beans. I always loved table games. I spent a lot of time in college playing Monopoly, Risk, and Clue. I was in the band, and bands (high school and college) played a lot of spades for some reason. I played some tournament Monopoly (3) and Risk (2) in college (total of 5 tournaments, but I won 4 of them and finished 3rd in the other one). Some people think we have a lot of games, but Zombie would laugh at our game collection -- probably 2 dozen games at the most.
I played a lot of chess growing up, and decided to play on the high school chess team my senior year. I thought I might do that in college, but quickly discovered that the college chess group was way above my level. Our high school team, which went 6-0 in tournaments the year I played, wasn't even in the same ball park as college chess. In fact, we weren't even in the same county. It's only because Texas is so big we were even in the same state....
In college, I had a chance meeting with a professional poker player. A friend (who knew this guy, but I don't know from where) and I had gone to eat on a Friday night, and he was at the restaurant. We got to talking, and we went over to his hotel where he taught us to play poker. That was near the end of the spring semester. He was in town for a big game the next night, and was going to stay up until 5 am before going to bed. I was willing to learn as long as he was willing to teach.
Over the summer, my friends and I started playing for fun, but I started applying what I learned and discovered I could win pretty consistently. When I got back to school, I found a $.01 ante, $.10 limit game in the dorm and started playing. I played some more the next fall at school. I found another group of guys to play in a $.25 limit game. That seemed expensive back then (I could eat a pretty decent meal for about $2.50 then, at least at the kind of places college kids could afford). I enjoyed great success (relatively speaking) in both games, primarily due to the other players ranging from poor to horrible.
When I graduated, my friends and I started playing for small stakes. In December 1983, we thought it would be fun to host a Texas Hold 'Em tournament, WSOP style. Few had even heard of a tournament, but we had 9 players the first year. We did that for 4 years, and our group had an internal "Root Beer Gang" (what one of the player's boss dubbed us) tournament 2x/yr. Then we started having tournaments so players could buy their way into the annual tournament and we did those 6x per year. We played a weekly game that came to an end when I went off to grad school. We played in the summers some, but when I graduated (law school), we only played rarely. When one player died, we never got another game up. Since then my wife and I moved about 40 minutes away, so that old group doesn't exist. But the RBG had a highly developed set of rules considering how little info was available to us (no internet).
I kept looking for a game, but didn't travel in the right circle. Then I got involved in our HOA (Home Owners Association). One guy had written down "North Dallas Poker Group" and I asked. He played, so we started a game. Eventually (after 2-3 months), we decided to try a tournament. Our group quickly switched to tournaments because we found it so much easier to get players. That game stopped because a couple of people dropped out, it we couldn't find replacements. A few years went by and I played in a game over Labor Day. It inspired me to re-start our group. Three years ago this month, I hosted the first game. In January, still trying to recruit players, it turned out a neighbor two doors down got an email invite from me, contacted me, and invited me to a weekly game about a mile from my house. I played there, and several of those players played in the newly named North Texas Poker Group. Two years ago, I decided to make it a club and have a season of sorts. We've had as many as 27, but are normally 20-22. We play monthly.
My quest for more players eventually led me to a second monthly game, which attracted a couple of more players for my game.
Like Zombie, and I'm sure others, I participated in the group buy and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my custom labeled CC chips. I like chips, but don't have a real expensive set. I have our regular tournament set, which are 9 gram plastic denominated NexGen chips. I have a set of hot stamped with denoms super diamonds that I use for sit-n-go's, and about a year ago purchased 700 China Clay 8V chips with labels. I got them so our group could play cash games after our tournaments, and as soon as I got them, the game after stopped and never has restarted. I've yet to use them. I think I posted a pic somewhere on this forum some time back. Then I have a non-denominated set of 8 gram chips that are decent and suitable for a 10 player tournament. I've not used them since I got the hot stamped super diamonds. When my new ones come in, I expect I'll sell at least one set of chips. I've sold two others within the last year, so I tend to not accumulate sets and not keep them if I don't have a use for them.
Hopefully this site will be a little more active than the others.
I've been on here for a while, but haven't really been paying attention until Zombie told me about a shift to here, so I came to look. While I knew how to play poker as a kid, we never played for money or had poker chips. We used dry beans. I always loved table games. I spent a lot of time in college playing Monopoly, Risk, and Clue. I was in the band, and bands (high school and college) played a lot of spades for some reason. I played some tournament Monopoly (3) and Risk (2) in college (total of 5 tournaments, but I won 4 of them and finished 3rd in the other one). Some people think we have a lot of games, but Zombie would laugh at our game collection -- probably 2 dozen games at the most.
I played a lot of chess growing up, and decided to play on the high school chess team my senior year. I thought I might do that in college, but quickly discovered that the college chess group was way above my level. Our high school team, which went 6-0 in tournaments the year I played, wasn't even in the same ball park as college chess. In fact, we weren't even in the same county. It's only because Texas is so big we were even in the same state....
In college, I had a chance meeting with a professional poker player. A friend (who knew this guy, but I don't know from where) and I had gone to eat on a Friday night, and he was at the restaurant. We got to talking, and we went over to his hotel where he taught us to play poker. That was near the end of the spring semester. He was in town for a big game the next night, and was going to stay up until 5 am before going to bed. I was willing to learn as long as he was willing to teach.
Over the summer, my friends and I started playing for fun, but I started applying what I learned and discovered I could win pretty consistently. When I got back to school, I found a $.01 ante, $.10 limit game in the dorm and started playing. I played some more the next fall at school. I found another group of guys to play in a $.25 limit game. That seemed expensive back then (I could eat a pretty decent meal for about $2.50 then, at least at the kind of places college kids could afford). I enjoyed great success (relatively speaking) in both games, primarily due to the other players ranging from poor to horrible.
When I graduated, my friends and I started playing for small stakes. In December 1983, we thought it would be fun to host a Texas Hold 'Em tournament, WSOP style. Few had even heard of a tournament, but we had 9 players the first year. We did that for 4 years, and our group had an internal "Root Beer Gang" (what one of the player's boss dubbed us) tournament 2x/yr. Then we started having tournaments so players could buy their way into the annual tournament and we did those 6x per year. We played a weekly game that came to an end when I went off to grad school. We played in the summers some, but when I graduated (law school), we only played rarely. When one player died, we never got another game up. Since then my wife and I moved about 40 minutes away, so that old group doesn't exist. But the RBG had a highly developed set of rules considering how little info was available to us (no internet).
I kept looking for a game, but didn't travel in the right circle. Then I got involved in our HOA (Home Owners Association). One guy had written down "North Dallas Poker Group" and I asked. He played, so we started a game. Eventually (after 2-3 months), we decided to try a tournament. Our group quickly switched to tournaments because we found it so much easier to get players. That game stopped because a couple of people dropped out, it we couldn't find replacements. A few years went by and I played in a game over Labor Day. It inspired me to re-start our group. Three years ago this month, I hosted the first game. In January, still trying to recruit players, it turned out a neighbor two doors down got an email invite from me, contacted me, and invited me to a weekly game about a mile from my house. I played there, and several of those players played in the newly named North Texas Poker Group. Two years ago, I decided to make it a club and have a season of sorts. We've had as many as 27, but are normally 20-22. We play monthly.
My quest for more players eventually led me to a second monthly game, which attracted a couple of more players for my game.
Like Zombie, and I'm sure others, I participated in the group buy and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my custom labeled CC chips. I like chips, but don't have a real expensive set. I have our regular tournament set, which are 9 gram plastic denominated NexGen chips. I have a set of hot stamped with denoms super diamonds that I use for sit-n-go's, and about a year ago purchased 700 China Clay 8V chips with labels. I got them so our group could play cash games after our tournaments, and as soon as I got them, the game after stopped and never has restarted. I've yet to use them. I think I posted a pic somewhere on this forum some time back. Then I have a non-denominated set of 8 gram chips that are decent and suitable for a 10 player tournament. I've not used them since I got the hot stamped super diamonds. When my new ones come in, I expect I'll sell at least one set of chips. I've sold two others within the last year, so I tend to not accumulate sets and not keep them if I don't have a use for them.
Hopefully this site will be a little more active than the others.
