About

Pokerhag Story……….the beginning

Some of my first childhood memories of my parents social life revolved around cards and other games like checkers and dominos.

That is what we did back in the day when we had no or limited access to TV.

As kids, we played games we had or made up new ones…..video games would only be something in a sci-fi or fantasy movie.

My father’s night out each week was Wednesday at the Elks Club and he never missed that weekly poker game. Of course, us kids would emulate our Dad’s poker night playing with beans, or our Mother’s Canasta game.

In college the most important and enjoyable time was spent in the Student Union Building playing Whist for hours and hours on end. It interfered with classes and academic endeavors but that is a story for another day.

When newly married and starting a family, my husband (the first one) and I had a weekly card game with other young married couples and families and the game of choice at that time was double-deck pinochle. About this time Las Vegas trips became a regular weekend activity as well and being about a 4 hour drive, made it easy to do. I fell in love with Blackjack and my favorite hours in Las Vegas were spent at Binion’s. This is back in the day of Binny and his boys running the place.

About that time I was introduced to a book “Beat the Dealer” by Thorpe. In college the most difficult class I ever took was statistics and I took it because it sounded like something easier than others offered as math requirements. I found the class fascinating but extremely hard and something with no practical use. When I saw that book a few years later, the light bulb went off in my head and I developed my own little system of Blackjack play/betting that I still use today.

Because of my family and work responsibilities this has always been a hobby/recreational activity and as I never had much money or an inclination to develop these skills for anything other than fun, I was always able to be a breakeven or slightly winning player and that was plenty good.

During the next 20 years, my card playing included lots of Gin, playing country club style, family card games, usually a game called Progressive Rummy, a double-deck game, and frequent trips to Las Vegas and after moving to Texas, Shreveport as well to play Blackjack.

In about 2003, my husband Bob (winerunner online), sometimes watched a poker program on The Travel Channel and we both got interested. The rest is history….Bob went online and started playing some free poker and read some books. About the same time, my adult children became interested and were playing online and live for $$$.

The kids started bugging me about giving it a try and about that same time there were many more shows on TV but the only places to play were home games or online if not flying to Vegas or driving to Shreveport. My husband was playing at Paradise and Party Poker online. In early 2004, Bob and I went to Las Vegas. We stayed downtown at the Nugget. We checked into the hotel and I walked across the street to the Horseshoe and found out a tournament would be starting within the hour. I signed up….it was a $60 rebuy tourney. Now, I had not as much as played a single hand live or online and all my knowledge came from Mike Sexton’s commentary on WPT. I sat next to the dealer and told him I was new and asked for his help in not letting me look too stupid. Of course, being “mature” made me stick out like a sore thumb but was of no matter after play began.

The main thing I knew was that AK and big pocket pairs were good and that Mike said to never show your cards. Of course, I had a lifetime of card playing experience so it was not like I didn’t know anything.

I lasted about 2 hours and through 2/3 of the field of about 100 without rebuying, which I did not do. Actually when I did go out, I had my money in with the best hand. During this trip, I played 4 tournaments in 4 days, did not cash, and at the end of the trip, had won enough at Blackjack that I was only down about $50. I did not attempt any cash games on that trip. At least I broke the ice and my daughters were delighted.

Upon returning home, I signed up online, playing for free and started reading books that Bob had. This continued for a few months before funding my account and playing for the smallest stakes both in tournaments and cash games which I continue to do.

I play mostly no limit Hold’em and some limit, and have played most of the other games, Omaha/08/Razz/2-7/Stud/Draw and I am newly learning Badugi (which I love/hate) and Chinese Poker.

Since that first time, I have played more in Las Vegas, Shreveport, several New Mexico and Arizona Casinos, Tunica, Metropolis, Ill, Winstar in Oklahoma and play mostly 1/ 2 or 2/ 5. Online I play at Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Ultimate. In the Summer of 2010 I also played my first WSOP event at the Rio.

I am still an enthusiastic, recreational player and have taken to entering the world of online forums and keep up with as many of the prominent tournaments as possible, have acquainted myself with knowledge of the big players in the poker world, love poker gossip and stories and fancy myself to part of that world.

In searching many sites and forums, it became clear the division between online and live players, and old and young players. There are far more young online players in the forums so that is who dominates them. I know there are lots of “mature” players out there. Since my daughters, Lori aka lorikori, and Leslie aka pokerslave, fall into that category these days….(very big grin here)….we started thinking about a site that we would like to see that addresses our experiences and issues. Since Leslie has website development skills, she has taken on the task.

We will see where this leads but here is our attempt to develop on online community that speaks to the subjects that interest us.

2 Responses to About

  1. Thanks for the information, and your web site really looks wonderful. Just what wordpress design are you employing?

  2. Chuba says:

    I don’t agree with enriythevg in this piece of writing, but you do make some very good points. Im very interested in this matter and I myself do alot of research as well. Either way it was a well thoughtout and nice read so I figured I would leave you a comment. Feel free to check out my website sometime and let me know what you think.

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