A logical question to ask is why we play poker at our place so frequently.  Part of the answer is that we've got a nice set up (custom poker tables, beautiful poker chips and cards, a comfortably finished basement, etc.) but that'd be like saying the main reason we had a daughter was for an excuse to go to the Universal Studios theme park.  Poker is a pretty simple game with relatively few rules, but it offers lots of challenge in terms of figuring out what your opponents are up to.  Some of us appreciate having a structured event around which we can mingle with friends.  If a night of poker goes poorly you may lose around fifty bucks, but on a good night it's possible to bring in a few hundred.  Nobody's going broke or getting rich off poker nights at our place, but there's enough of a sting that folks do their part to try to win.

Peculiarities to Our Game

We do things a little bit differently than some other homes where you may play cards.  We like to think we do it better.

Shuffle Ahead

In an effort to reduce "crossing of the streams" (folks reaching across the dealer's flight path) and to best spread-the-load among players at the table, our self-dealt game uses "Shuffle Ahead."  This means the first person to act (after the blinds) collect discards, and at the end of the hand collects the board and the rest of the unused cards.  They will shuffle this deck (possibly prior-to being the big blind in the next hand or possibly while they're in the big-blind, which makes sense as they're the person who has the longest time before they have an in-game action) and when finished shuffling they'll put the cut-card on top (indicating it's a deck which has been made-ready for the dealer) and leave it between them and the player sitting in the small blind.  When the hand is all played out, then the person to their right will have a deck sitting available for them to cut and deal out the cards.

A lot of other home games have the dealer "clean up their own mess" after a hand, but this adds unnecessary complexity to the process.  As the game gets short-handed, they will be shuffling the last deck when it's their turn to take action in the next hand, when they're done shuffling they have to reach across to the person two to their left to present the made-ready deck, and they just had to do all the work the hand before — the least we could do is give them a little break before putting any obligations on them.  I've played in many games which dole out the shuffling duties either way, and one of the biggest benefits to the shuffle-ahead games is that folks tend to pay a bit more attention to what's going on at the table.  People zoning out (or sticking their noses in their cell-phones) takes away from the social aspects of a poker night out, and that's no fun for anyone.

Show Me Token

At the beginning of tournaments players receive a token (currently pink) which can be used to make an opponent show their cards at the end of the hand.  The token user must have put chips in the pot (more than just the ante) to utilize the "show me" aspect.  If a player is completely busted out of the tournament, the hitman receives any tokens the busting-out player may have accumulated.  For Season 15, we have an additional rule for use of the Show Me Token from your heads-up opponent: for them to get you to show your hand, they must show theirs as well.  If they can't show their hand, they're ineligible to use their show-me token.  (Non-heads-up opponents who have put chips into the pot may still use their token to see the winner's hand.)

Untimed Level

We start all our tournaments with one untimed orbit so that players can get comfortable playing without any undue time constraints.  Once all tables have completed one orbit we start the tournament timer and run the clock for the structure to advance.

Dealer Duties

In addition to "Shuffle Ahead", we ask the specific dealer for a given hand to pay a bit of extra attention and keep the game moving.  They should call out the number of players remaining in the hand before dealing board cards.  They should announce bets, raises, and folds (though not checks or calls) as action.  Bet and raise sizes should be repeated if verbalized by the bettor or raiser, and may also be spoken if it is an obvious amount as the chips lie.  If the player whose turn it currently is asks for clarification for the amount of a bet or raise, it should be the dealer who responds with exact amounts.

On Legality

Colorado and local laws say that "social gambling" (their term) is okay as long as we have a relationship separate from the gambling and that no one profits (with an extremely tight {and somewhat goofy} definition of the word profit) other than through the gambling itself.  The host can't solicit donations, take a sit-down-fee, or request a few bucks to go towards food and drink.  The game on this web page is not open to the public, all monies gambled are returned via prize pool, and we don't even make food or snacks pot-luck (though we do encourage folks to bring enough to share).  We're on the up-and-up (heck, a court case in State of Colorado even ruled that poker isn't gambling because the law exempts "bona fide contests of skill," and poker qualifies — though the Colorado Supreme Court denied to hear a challenge of this reasoning).  

Survey

The post-Season 15 survey has been completed and I put together some light reading walking through what we all had to say and how those statements will impact Season 16.