What started as a small home poker game, has grown into a six year old poker league. Maybe your home game has gotten out of hand also. The following is a recap of how we grew our little home game into a Poker League, sent players to the WORLD SERIES OF POKER, and made friends with people we may not have ever met otherwise. During the whole process, we have stayed legal, and prospered as a group. We have given thousands of dollars to charity, and helped our members who have been dealt a bad hand in life.
Our game started 6 years ago with a single table, 8 players, and a whopping $160 in the prize fund. That first game was the ideal of a couple of guys talking about playing poker. My brother and I had both started playing poker in the 1970’s with a group of old-timers. Looking back, the two of us were the pigeons. There is an old poker saying, “If you look around the table, and you can’t recognize the pigeon, you are probably the pigeon.” Those players were mostly retired Dallas Policemen, they taught us everything we needed to know about poker. How to lose with grace, and how to win(seldom) with class.
We decide we would have a game one Saturday night, a small game, $20 buy in, no re-buy, no cash game. After a few phone calls, to my father in law, a few friends, my nephew, we had 8 players, and it was game on. We played that first game in the kitchen of my house, all gathering around the table like we were professional card players. The game lasted like most home games, about 5 hours, remarkably the beer ran out about the same time. We had such a good time, laughing, lying, and bluffing, we decided to do it again in two weeks. During the next two weeks, I think we all bragged at work of our legendary poker playing. That was when it started, friends wanted to play, co-workers wanted to play. My wife was excited in a different way than I was, when I explained we would be having, 2 tables, and a dozen players at the second game. She was even more excited, when it finally ended at 3 in the morning. Again we all decided to do it again in 2 weeks. She was really happy with me, for volunteering our home again.
The next two weeks, I guess our stories of our poker playing got out of hand. By the Friday before the game was to take place, we had 20 players wanting to play. I don’t think excited, was how I would describe her feelings about 20 people invading our home to play poker, drink beer, and stay till who knows when. We owned a bakery in our city, and it had a fairly large storage room. What a great place for a poker game, well at least that was how I presented it to her. Reluctantly, she agreed, and our league was born without intention. We seated 21 players that night, $20 buy in, and we allowed one $20 re-buy. The total prize pot that night was almost $600, I won that night, and 5 players left with more than they had sat down with.
After lots of talking, selling the ideal, and promising, “I would clean up the mess.” My wife agreed to let me have the game at our bakery every other Saturday. The Saturday Night Poker League was born. We now call it the SNPL, and we will be celebrating our 7th year in January. Our little home game has grown to a league of over 50 members, and our tournaments regularly seat 32 to 36 players, 4 tables.
As the SNPL got bigger, more and more time was being spent, sitting up, cleaning up, organizing, more equipment was needed. In Texas where we are located, the house cannot take a penny of the prize fund, no rake, no fee of any kind to stay legal. WE HAVE ALWAYS REMAINED LEGAL, NEVER TAKING A PENNY.
The league eventually needed more than my brother and I could provide. We got together with some of the players and did the following to stay legal, be more organized, and above all stay fun. That is how we started and we never wanted to lose that. The opportunity to make new friends, become better poker players, and yes occasionally win some money was what we wanted the SNPL to be about.
The Texas state lotto has scratch off tickets, one night someone brought one to the game, they lost and left it laying on the table when they left. When I was cleaning up that night, I found it. I noticed on the back was a second chance drawing for poker chips, a table, cards, and various poker related items. After taking some ribbing for being cheap, I sent it in under my wife’s name. Two weeks later, a UPS truck delivered two large boxes of poker items to our house, she had won the drawing. The next day we bought another scratch off, another loser. This time I sent it off in my name, using our shop address. Two weeks later, two more boxes of poker related items came by UPS truck, I had also won a second chance drawing. My father in law, my brother, and one other player won drawings in the coming weeks. The league now had 5 sets of chips, 5 tables, and lots of other poker related items, courtesy of the State of Texas Lottery. The SNPL was off and running, for free almost.
We elected a committee to run the league. We started a group site on Yahoo, to stay in touch with our members. We elected a rules committee, a treasurer, a finance officer, and an awards committee. We added an end of year, TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, and crowned our League Champion. We have added an annual Awards Dinner. We give out awards to the Most Improved Player, The Best Man Player, The Best Woman Player, and our Volunteer of the Year, and last but not least, our PLAYER OF THE YEAR.
Once a year we have our Annual Bill McKissick Benefit Tournament. Bill was one of our original eight players, free to enter, benefiting someone in our community in need. This past July, we raised over $11000.00 for a little girl, Angelina Safford, a five year old who lives with Cerebral Palsy. We have an auction, a raffle, and take donations, everything is donated from the players, local companies, and sponsors. 100% goes to our benifactor.
We have added an option for our players of playing for a spot in the World Series of Poker. To date, we have sent 18 players to play with the best players in the world. One of those players cashed, Carl Frey, and he brought money back to be split by the league. All the players that have gone, have experenced something that without our league, they may never have gotten the chance to do.
Our league is made up of players from all walks of life. We have engineers, police officers, business owners, pilots, aircraft professionals, couriers, attorneys, office managers, bankers, and even a few housewifes. People who without poker, may never have met. Yes, it started as a home game, and it still is. Just a bit bigger than most. THE SNPL
Oh, a sidenote, my wife, Sharon, recently bubbled at a WORLD SERIES OF POKER CIRCUIT EVENT in Shreveport. She has learned to like poker over the years.