Texas Hold 'em

[Jocar]

Do any of you folks here play poker? I love the game and wondered if anyone else shared the same interest. Do you play home games? Tournaments? I was just wondering what the interest level was out there.

I have been lurking on UP for a while and really enjoy reading all of your posts here.

[AlexPKeaton]

Yeah, I play all the time. There are a couple groups that run charity events around Grand Rapids almost every weekend, but I rarely play in those anymore as the binds are raised ridiculously fast and the game becomes a bit of a crap shoot. Also, being for charity, the payouts are a bit smaller and it makes it harder to justify the buy-in which is usually $50. I can understand why though, they need to get the game done with at a reasonable hour and all.

I know of a regular Thursday evening game as well. We usually play for $5.

Lastly, I've played quite a bit online. I know a number of poker sites have closed to US players in reaction to the recently passed law. The one I've been playing at is still open and I'm up about $900 in the last couple months! Though I've lost money before so it sort of evens out.

It's a lot of fun, but I'm not ready to quit my day job yet.

-nb

[Jocar]

I know of a regular Thursday evening game as well. We usually play for $5.

[AlexPKeaton]

We do a tournament usually. The most people that I've seen show up is about 21, but usually it's more like 14. It's at a friend of a friend's house, and I haven't played there in a couple months though. My poker buddy has been shipped to Iraq so I haven't played as much lately.

We used to have a regular Wednesday game as well. That was a $5 cash game with 4-6 people.

-nb

[Nitro]

I played quite a bit when TH'EM was gaining public popularity. All of my friends wanted to have tournaments every weekend because it was in the "In" thing.

Frankly, I got a little tired of it due to its own popularity. As with anything even remotely popular the TV lords latch on with both fangs and wont shake loose until they've ridden that train to the final stop.

The World Poker Tour was ok for awhile then we all of a sudden had to jump to celebrity poker and every other version they could think of. The only thing I think they missed was dogs playing poker. Maybe that's yet to come.

I like playing in a dealer's choice game. Blind Baseball, Low in the Hole, Kings and what follows, Fours & Whores, In Between, Omaha, Hold 'Em, Pineapple, Crazy Omaha, and every other variation of poker known to man.

Variety is the spice of life..........

[michaelskis]

I have been known to get into a few games.

6 to 8 people. We have $20 buy in for the first game, then $10 for the second game. Winner takes most of it, 2nd place gets double the entry fee and 3rd gets their money back.

1st man out needs to get up to get everyone a beer, and does so until that game is done.

[jayblogger]

I play about once a year to remind myself just how awful at playing poker I am. However, I really enjoy playing and would love to find a regular (monthly or every other week) low stakes game to learn more about the game and meet a few people.

[tamias6]

Never played the game. I'm too afraid that I would become an addicted gambler.

[Rizzo]

It's ok if you do get addicted, you don't have to be afraid anymore. They have service programs for that kind of thing.

[GRobserver]

Isn't gambling a sin? lol

(apparently not if it is for charity or for the local church group)

[6th Gen local]

I'd be interested in learning how to play this game if we ever have a UP Texas hold-em tournament.

/the bluffing has already begun

//love the game

///love taking friends money from them

[tamias6]

I'll tell you a little story, Rizzo.

My great grandfather on my mother side of the family was a fairly well off person who owned and operated quite a number of grain mills through out southern Indiana. He and his family lived in a large Queen Ann Victorian house in Decker a tiny farming community about 15 miles south of Vincennes, IN. Problem was my great Grandfather was an addicted gambler so much so that one day he wagered most of his fortune in a poker game and lost. Well the type of people my Great Grand Father gambled with were not the kind to fool around with. So if you lost a bet you had two options: pay up or you and your family got bullets in their heads. Needless to say life was the prefered option. But it cost my Great Grand Father most of his wealth. As a result his mills went under and left he and his family in the poor house. They lost their Queen Ann home and had to live in a small one room shanty for a while. If it were not for the fact my Great Grand Father started a business in training horses a few years after that poker game he would had died penniless.

That's why I don't gamble. Playing card games other than Solitaire is not worth what my Great Grand Father went through.

It's ok if you do get addicted, you don't have to be afraid anymore. They have service programs for that kind of thing.

[Jocar]

Thought I would revisit this old post. Have any of you Hold 'em players visited the Delta Plex, Westgate, or Miracle Lanes on Plainfield to play in any of their tourney's or cash games? Do you know of any other locations around Grand Rapids that have regular hold 'em tournaments?

[Veloise]

Thought I would revisit this old post. Have any of you Hold 'em players visited the Delta Plex, Westgate, or Miracle Lanes on Plainfield to play in any of their tourney's or cash games? Do you know of any other locations around Grand Rapids that have regular hold 'em tournaments?

[Nitro]

Musicians were told to brush up on their car sharking techniques.)

[AlexPKeaton]

Yeah, I've played at the Westgate and Deltaplex events. I go maybe once per month. The people that run the Deltaplex events also do them in Muskegon and Lansing. I wasn't aware of any games at Miracle Lanes, but I'll be sure to check it out. I still prefer home games but it's usually too hard to get enough people together.

[Jocar]

I still prefer home games but it's usually too hard to get enough people together.

[AlexPKeaton]

The Delta Plex events are probably the best-run of the legal-because-its-for-charity games. The dealers actually seem to know what they're doing. The dealers at Westgate tend to be volunteers from the charity (I think) so they're often slow and do things dealers shouldn't do like speculating on live hands. The tournament payouts at the Delta Plex are much better than Westgate as well, but I avoid either place's tournaments altogether as the blind schedules pretty much make them a crap shoot. I go for the cash games. (Where I won $183 last week, woo!)

[Jocar]

The Delta Plex events are probably the best-run of the legal-because-its-for-charity games. The dealers actually seem to know what they're doing. The dealers at Westgate tend to be volunteers from the charity (I think) so they're often slow and do things dealers shouldn't do like speculating on live hands. The tournament payouts at the Delta Plex are much better than Westgate as well, but I avoid either place's tournaments altogether as the blind schedules pretty much make them a crap shoot. I go for the cash games. (Where I won $183 last week, woo!)

[joeDowntown]

So here's a question:

If you can do it for charity and still make money, why doesn't somebody establish a legitimate (and permanent) Poker Room in Grand Rapids? Could it be done? How much do the people running the event make (not the charity)?

Isn't Poker considered a game of skill? Does it fall under a different law than other forms of gambling (such as Slots)?

Joe

[AlexPKeaton]

That's essentially what the guys at the Delta Plex and at Westgate have done. They don't own the space, but they seem to have a standing reservation on the rooms. They have to get a license and charity to support for each event. I wouldn't think it would be difficult to find charities that want money though. I don't know the specifics of the regulations, but it's somewhat similar to bingo or raffles. I know there used to be a cap on winnings of $500, but that seems to have been lifted, probably in response to the popularity of poker.

I doubt the people running the events make a lot of money. A certain portion has to go to the charity, and after the overhead of paying dealers and for the space I can't imagine there's a huge profit margin. I think the people that run the games around here do it as a side job. Perhaps with high enough stakes it could bring in more money, but a huge portion of the market doesn't want to play for a lot of money either, so I'm not sure where that balance is. Also, since they're are two (or more) games in town now it seems to have saturated the market.

For a long time casinos didn't offer much in the way of poker because it's simply not that profitable. With the recent growth in popularity it's a lot more common to find poker at casinos, but it's definitely not a profit center.

[Jocar]

For those UP'ers that care about poker there was some good GR representation at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) this year.

Josh Slagter GR Press Dead Money blog

Pretty cool some of our own did well in Vegas.