  Saturday was poker night at John's house. Ten people were supposed to show up, and only five people actually did, bringing the pot up to a whopping $100. I'm not much of a gambler but I figured a $20 buy in was worth free food/soda/beer and an evening of entertainment. I learned that I'm not really the best Hold 'em player in the world, but it was my first game with real people (ie. not on Yahoo! Games) so I guess I didn't do too bad. We started the game with the rules that the top 3 players won money (hey, we were expecting 10 people). First place got $50, second got $30, and third place got his money back. We all started off with 100 chips (of the same denomination) and the blind bids were 1 and 2, with the small blind incrementing every thirty minutes, and the big blind double what the small blind would be (so you'd have 1/2, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, etc.). The first part of the game I really sucked. I was making mistakes left and right like folding before the flop what I was big blind, playing too many hands, and a variety of other newbie mistakes. About halfway through the game I made a come-back. I started realizing how people were playing and that Paul was betting agressively but bluffing a LOT I was able to get 20 chips up, and soon Paul went out.
He was the second person out, so that put me in a position were I could relax, because I was in a money-winning position. I think I relaxed too much because John and Joel kept taking my money. Finally, I was getting tired and just went all in on something stupid (I think it was like a jack/ace off-suit so I had high card but John had a straight).
I was just happy to get my money back, considering I really don't gamble. Joel ended up winning, which really wasn't a surprise because he's pretty much a professional. No offense to John if he reads this because he played an awesome game too. All in all it was a fun evening but poker isn't really my favorite game to play. I'd much rather play something without worrying about losing money. :) 
