Home Games in Action!

In the last week or so I've played in 2 different friendly home games, something I haven't done in a while and I truly forgot how fun they really are. One of the first tournaments I've ever won was the called the 'Beatrice Invitational' at my brother Rob's house and his two roommates/friends Ryan and Matt. Man it feels like it was yesterday when when I got the call from those guy's saying they are going to host a $50 tournament. I fell off my chair, I was like, "What? 50 bucks, are you crazy, that's a lot of money"..with the quick response of, "Yeah, but you can win 350 bucks".. And those sweet words officially started my poker career!..lol The tournament was seven handed and I remember it lasting forever (oh yeah I forgot to mention, this took place about 3 years ago). I managed to knock out every player and won the first ever Beatrice Invitational winning the $350 dollars which at the time felt like thousands. About a week ago I was talking with my brother and we thought it be a good idea to host a Beatrice Invitational II while watching football on Sunday. So we called up all the boys, pulled out the old table top and chips and the games began. Its kinda funny because I've played tournaments with buy-ins well over $1000 and had zero nerves going into them but with the Beatrice Invitational I was a bit nervous of losing . I was the defending champion.. I couldn't lose! haha
The table consisted of myself, Ryan, Matt, Rob, Mike Wilner, and Two. The very first hand I lost half my stack making a donkey move and I felt the title slipping through my finger tips.. I ended up flopping some big hands and grabbed some chips and made it heads-up with Two. When I went heads-up with Two, I knew he was going to do one thing and one thing only... try to make a big Move on me. I know the way Two thinks when I'm playing him, he thinks I'm trying to push him around and he always snaps back with a big bluff in the wrong spot. And what I thought happened did, I raised on the button with Q,J.. Two looks at his chips (one of Two's tells..lol) then moved all-in... I called and he flipped over 10,J.. He received no help from the board and I became the two time Beatrice Champion! Sorry guys, better luck next time!..hah Ship it

The second home game I attended was at my cousin Paul's house. Now that I've gotten pretty big into poker my cousins have been bugging me to teach them how to play. So we picked a Saturday night and set up a game. I ended up just dealing most of the night so all the games went smoothly, most of the people at the table didn't even know the rules so Poker 101 was in session. I was actually pretty impressed on how many of them were able to pick up the game and concept pretty quickly and we actually had some intense battles. By the end of the night everyone wanted to keep playing but it was 4am! Playing poker all the time makes it tough to see family so I was glad to be able to hang out with my cousins and be able to play poker at the same time. All and all it was a great night, I'm looking forward to the next time we do it.


Pretty much the purpose of this blog is that I didn't realize not only how much fun it is playing home games, but how much it actually improves my poker game in general. When I'm playing poker sometimes over 50-60 hours a week. I'm playing 100% focused and dedicated to play the best poker I can making no mistakes. It can be very mind draining and stressful. When I jump into a fun home game it allows me to relax and play stress free and have a good time while I'm playing.. it also allows me to play like a donkey if I want and do dumb things and not worrying about losing a lot of money. Its like a professional basketball player who plays in the NBA taking a night off and going to shoot hoops with his buddies. He might not try a 360 dunk in a real game but he'll sure have fun and try it when he's out playing for fun. I'm going to do my best to play in more home games when I have the time, so I can blow off some steam and have fun with friends and family.