[VARoadstter]

Tonight about eight of us will hang out together in my den for about 6-7 hours of poker. Lately it's been all $10 and $20 buyin NLHE tournies but one of the people coming tonight hates HE so we'll probably go back to dealer's choice silliness. No biggie, I'm up on my Omaha, Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud, etc. etc. etc. The games I detest are the "every other card in the deck is wild" games. Not that I want to see anyone leave early but once she heads home we'll probably immediately revert back to tournament play.

You may be wondering why I would put up with one person deciding whether or not we play HE or something else - it's a fair question. It goes back to when I started the game at my house. Back then we played anything and had a good time. It's all about kicking back with friends and drinking a couple cold ones anyway, right? So anyway, they don't want to play for particularly high stakes (our "limit" games are usually .25/.50) so for someone to get excited the pot needs to get big. Games like Midnight Baseball, Follow the Queen, etc. have the potential to raise pots of $10-$15 if enough people get playable hands. Win a couple of those and you're on a freeroll the rest of the night.

I play with another group when I want to get some money in play. Another game I go to is $1/$2 NLHE with an average buyin of $200. I would love to have the guys at my home game get to a higher limit but since we're all good friends and coworkers I am not in a hurry to make this happen.

I'll follow up tomorrow with an after-action report.