I play in a pretty epic homegame. Or at least I do whenever I return to my hometown of Durham New Hampshire which I did for the past week. A giant ice storm hit the day I got there covering all the power lines as well as really everything else in a thick layer of ice. Apparently this is heavier than snow by a lot cause trees and tree-limbs started falling everywhere. My friend's step dad was kind enough to give me a valium and we spent the early morning poker-player insomniac hours blissfully wandering through nature which was falling down all around us. Transformers were exploding every few minutes as well, sending yellow and orange glowing lights which looked like UFOs as there was low cloud cover which kept all the light shimmering just above the treetops. My friend's house got hit by a tree as well as his car, snapping off a side mirror. Luckily I remembered the movie Twister and slept that night in the basement safely enclosed in concrete. So really what I'm trying to get across is that no one had power for the entire week.

But we had poker and alcohol, the savior of shower and media deprived kids since the dawn of time. We usually play 4 handed or so, starting with a dealer's choice medley containing PLO, NLH, with the slow addition of extra streets, triple turns, wilds, and bonus cards. The area where we really excel though I think, is in the creation of new games and elaborate methods of flipping with the illusion of skill and incredibly intense sweats. Cause who wants to win money from their friends, I just wanna luckbox breakfast. Here's two examples:

1) Potbeaned- this is just an example of an elaborate flip with multiple sweats: 5 cards are dealt facedown to every player. Each player alternates flipping up one card rotating clockwise. The player clockwise to you is your board, you are the player behind you's board, etc. At the end there are 3 facedown community cards. If any of them is a 7 or 2, the order switches.... It's pretty mindbending to figure out if ur drawing dead or not. Also, when my friends are losing they forget that probabilities exist sometimes, so every ****ty board for their neighbor becomes a personal attack which is of course key.

2) The Royal Yacht- First, The Royal Yacht is just the sweetest poker hand ever. Quads over trips. Full boat with a twist. Royal Yacht. Of course we had to create a game based solely around the creation of said Yachts. So we created: Yacht Race.:::: Shuffle two decks together. Deal one card faceup clockwise as fast as possible. First person to get a Yacht wins! and a new hand is dealt.

But::

Yacht payouts are as follows: 2222=2 units, 3-9 is proportional, T-K is ten units, Ace is 15. At any time you can choose to decline a Yacht though, and from here you get a few perks: 2 cards faceup per round, 3 if it's 4 handed+. You can make a different Yacht at any time, provided your quads are different from the Yacht you declined. Also, and this is very important, you can go for the Super Mega Yacht, or Titanic which is 5 over 4. Payout for a Titanic is to roll a 6 sided die, and multiply payouts by that. 6 over 5 you roll two 6 sided dies and multiply them. Remember, when going for ultra super mega super yachts, that if anyone hits a regular royal yacht, they can take it, and the round is over. This is the heart of correct flipping a 2 to 90 payout swing is pretty likely, and a 540 payout is possible. Yessssssss.


Last thing: people commented saying second installment of poker story wasn't coming up. this is because i did a draft, and i think i am the first person in the entire history of leggo to do a draft. i think the original reason for the draft was i wrote one paragraph and then decided to go to bed, but then next morning left for new hampshire which was out of power for a week. so yea, this is a glitch in the software, but im back at the parent's house for the holidays so ill try to get some installments up and coming soon, thanks for the feedback, glad ppl have enjoyed my meandering, that definitely makes it more fun to write. Gl all.

-Ben