Poker Night

 

Vegas Themed Poker Party

Last night I hosted my first "in-person" party since the pandemic began! Yay! It wasn't a full-blown "Carpe Diem" party where I invite everyone (and end up having way more no-shows than party-goers). Instead this was limited to people who were interested in playing poker. Being Halloween-season, added with my obsessive compulsive costume collection disorder, I encouraged Vegas-themed costumes.  The women were "all in." The men were a little less enthusiastic about the suggestion, but eventually were game.

While hosting a poker party may not seem like much of a stretch goal, in all honesty, hosting any kind of party is one of my hidden insecurities.  Most people would be surprised by this, since I've hosted so many parties and events (mostly virtual parties since Covid), yet still.. for some reason, I always stress about it.

I even stress when planning family get-togethers, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, these days! Between all the challenges of Covid, politics, world events, and past hurt feelings, it's really hard to get back to the care-free pre-Covid good-ol'-days when all I was stressing about was the menu.

As I learned from examining the anxiety I felt from stage fright, most people care more about your mood than they do about the food you serve, the state of your house, or your decorations and costumes.  The best thing to do is to enjoy yourself and your guests.  And that's exactly what I did!

What worked well

* The food. I made a very easy crock-pot sweet potato chili and even though I said it was optional, everyone brought a lot of other delicious goodies!  All the food was binge-worthy, but Tina's apple pie undoubtedly got the most raves. That pie is ready to win awards! I think Tina needs to open up a new pie bakery!

* The diversity of players. One of my "stresses" about parties is having people who don't know each other mix with one another and worrying they might feel guarded. In this case, we had a variety of skill-levels when it came to poker and so we did a couple of practice hands up front. There was a $10 buy-in, so not a lot of risk, and it turns out Mary, who was one of the relative newbies, came in 2nd place winning $25!  It was also good to see my new housemate, Tom, join in, even though he was new.  We ended up having 8 players - 4 women and 4 men!

* The costumes. As I said, I'm a costume freak, and it just so turned out that I had this Alice-in-Wonderland sexy cocktail girl costume adorned with playing-card symbols in my stash.  Totally in theme!  It seemed a bit age-inappropriate, but, hey, when has that ever stopped me? (My taste is usually more Elementary-School Fairy Princess like costumes, so at least I'm moving up to the High-School-Slutty costume genre.)

As for the guests, I was so impressed and excited to see the creativity and cool dress-up props that others had.  Adam brought a carved cane from Sri Lanka! - not to mention his half tuxedo. Tom's unique jacket (a thrift-store treasure!) could've passed for either pimp or high-roller. Mary and Tina both had super-pretty party dresses. Even though I know men don't like to dress up, we women don't get nearly enough chances to wear our fancies, so..  I want to have more fancy dress-up parties!

* Poker! I love games. Games are especially fun when you find other people who love the same games. Poker is this great mix of strategy and luck. I used to play off-and-on with some friends (including some of those who were there last night) but this was the first time I'd played in years, and I remembered how much I loved it. I came in 4th out of 8, so.. not bad.  I'd been studying up a little bit and had had a couple of coaching sessions with Chris (who lives in Bali now, so couldn't come).  Now that I have a small taste of betting strategies, I want to keep learning and practicing! 

What could have been better

* People who couldn't make it.  There were a few maybes: John (my 2nd housemate), Cathy (who we'd all looked forward to seeing in her slinky costume), and Larry (who I was looking forward to meeting!). We missed them this time, but I hope we'll see them next time!

* The Pace?  Even though I listed the diversity of skills as a "what worked well," it might have been tough for the people who were learning.  The game may have been too fast for them or too slow for the very experienced.  Still, we ended up finishing up right between 9pm and 10pm which was my goal since it was a weeknight, so..  hopefully, the pace was OK for everyone. 

What's next?

* Once I get home from my snowbird adventures, I hope to host a monthly poker night! In the mean time, I plan to continue practicing, maybe finding some online tutorials or ways to practice. I think I'll add it to my Bucket List to play in Vegas!