We play medium sized tournaments, everybody buys in for $30-$50 with the top 3 guys getting prize money. Typically we will play 2 or 3 tournaments in one night depending on time, and we have 8 to 10 players show up. I hadn’t played poker since my college days, and even then I wasn’t really into it – now I must admit that I am really getting involved in the strategy of poker and even playing online at a couple sites to hone my skills. I had seen a few places recommending Pokerstars but I just went to www.Pokersites.com because they list all of the top online poker sites in order of ranking. I have a couple play money accounts and one real money account where I hone my tournament poker skills.

I think the whole social atmosphere for the poker games is awesome, because even though we do have our boys nights out a couple times a month, it’s the same old bar and the same old beer.. watching the game. It does get old, and the poker games really have sparked a lot of the competitive edges we lost after leaving college.

My friends are all really cool about the home poker games except for one of my best friends, who is on his high horse about gambling. Let me tell you that I am convinced poker is more of a skill game than gambling, and it’s been proven many times if you do the research. And let’s be clear, I have no qualms about gambling like roulette or blackjack.. I’m a huge roulette fan and often play online, and I’ve been doing so for several years. There are a ton of online casinos out there, but the site I trust is www.Casino.org because they list all of the sites accepting casino players from my country, Canada.

Hopefully in the next couple sessions of my bi-weekly poker game we can work out a few kinks. Most of the people are really happy about the setup, but a couple have complained that it gets too smoky. I may have to force everyone outside who wants to smoke to keep everything classy and people coming back. Hopefully nobody will mind with the summer weather!