Shuffle Up and Deal...

Texas Hold 'em Tournament, our style...

We invited a bunch of friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers (all of which ultimately fall into the category of friends) over for a BIG poker tournament.
We like to host one of these shindigs at least once or twice a year.

We had 20 people willing to gamble ten dollars of their hard earned money to support our cause.

Some even willing to pony up 15 smackers...




(Did Marianne get 2 aces, just a number 2, or maybe she's just stoked about world peace.)

Pretty soon, everyone was seated in their respective chairs hoping for the pocket aces to be dealt in their direction.

Our house was brimming with poker players from all skill levels. This makes for the best poker games because you never know what the newbies are gonna do! Keeps things interesting.

Our friend Rob, also kept things interesting by sporting a pair of opaque sunglasses... Just like the pros on World Poker Tour.

But then pretty soon... He was digging into his duffel bag, he had brought a wide array of shades (among other things :)) to keep the crowd guessing.

Rob sharing his accessories with me and Jenne.
(It's apparent in this photo that Rob only likes sharing his shades and not his winnings...my pile of chips was almost non-existent at this point in the evening.)

Nicholas came downstairs to see how things were playing out... I gave him my camera and told him to get some good shots of people at the party. This was his idea of a good shot. Cookies.

(sadly I have nary a picture of half the people in attendance.)

He did manage to get a great picture of Connor. Isn't he handsome?
Plainly, the duffel bag held more than just sunglasses... Next thing we knew Rob was dressed head to toe in this get up. His plan worked perfectly, his constant barrage of changing his appearance caused his opponents to lose their chips in his direction. Landing him a spot at the final table...

Here you find everyone that took my money.

Why did I invite them into my home again? :)

As 8 o'clock slowly turned into 2 o'clock, seventeen of our friends found themselves with lighter wallets and no hope of going home winners. That sentence alone makes me wonder if there's a chance they may ever come back in the future for more "fun" poker parties.

It's safe to say at least three of our friends left with a spring in their step and bulging wallets.

Connor's cousin Erik left the table in third place with $50 dollars to buy his baby boy a new pair of shoes.

The final two were Jenne and Rob (Yes, the disguises REALLY paid off). They came to an agreement to just split the rest of the pot and both go home with $102. (Jenne will undoubtedly buy herself some shoes and Rob just might buy some more sunglasses.)

In my opinion, it was a great way to spend $15 dollars. I may have been a loser by poker standards, but how can you feel like a loser when you're in a house alive with great friends laughing and smiling into the wee hours of the morning. Not possible.