Texas hold'em -- 2004 results

I started up the monthly home game in March. In late February, I had picked up 2 x 500-chip sets on eBay for about $280 ($120 + $20 shipping each). They are the Deluxe Pyramid 11.5g composite (resin exterior + metal insert) chips. I got a custom assortment of colors: 250 white, 250 red, 150 blue, 100 green, 100 black, 50 yellow, 50 purple, 50 gray.

Only Eric Stark and Tom Z showed up for that first game in March, so we didn't play for money and I ended up calling Dave and Sharon White to fill in. Fun, but not what I had in mind. April was the first cash game.

I designated the 3rd Saturday of each month as poker night. That's worked out well, and we've only had to deviate from it a couple of times.

The format has evolved a bit over time, but the basic premises are still the same.

• Last-man-standing.
  
• $20 buy-in.
  
• Winner take all if we have 6 or fewer; 2nd place breaks even with 7 or 8 or gets $40 with 9 players; and 3rd place breaks even if we have 10 players.
  
• Start at 8:30pm (after I put Katie to bed; Beth usually works 8pm to 8am on Saturday nights).
  
• Blinds start at $5/$10 and increase every 15-20 minutes to the next higher denomination chip or double up after $1000.
  
• Pot-limit to start, then no-limit kicks in at 10pm.

I set chip denominations at

• $5 white
  
• $10 red
• $20 blue
• $50 green
• $100 black
• $200 yellow
• $500 purple
• $1000 gray

Green was originally $40 but I switched it to $50 in Feb 2005 to make everyone's starting chips a nice round $10000. Each player starts off with 20 white, 20 red, 10 blue, 10 green, 10 black, 5 yellow, 4 purple, 5 gray for a total of $10000.

I can't remember exactly who won each month, but I'm fairly sure that my brother Victor, Steve Rankin, Nathan, Tom, Craig and Frenchy each won once in 2004. I also won once, in December. Ken won twice.