Outdoor Cookout and Poker

Yesterday was cookout day with my SO and her friends. We went to the market and bought a bunch of stuff which we'd cook in one of my SO's friend's houses. I guess they liked the grilled asparagus I made last time, 'coz they wanted it again. Unfortunately, since I can't eat anything that ain't soft, I couldn't eat a lot of what we got. It's really sweet that my SO got me salmon and made mashed potatoes so I can eat something nice with them.

After the meal, they started playing Poker. I never play card games with money, regardless of how low the denominations are. I had a vague idea of how poker is played, and given that I don't play for money, I just watched.

Apparently, they bought a Texas Hold'em poker kit, with chips and all. I've heard that my former officemates play this version sometimes and that some of them play at Triplejack Poker, so I really wanted to see how that was played. However, they played what I assumed to be regular poker (they didn't appear to be following the procedure for Texas Hold'em that was stated in the kit). Regardless, it probably wasn't very far from Texas Hold'em and it's still worth observing.

One of the things I noticed is that the game relies less on statistics and more on "mind reading". In Pusoy Dos, I could typically gather enough statistics to guess who has which cards, but that ain't so effective in Poker. The game is really geared towards reading your opponent for clues on what they have in their hands.

It was a lot of fun. Perhaps someday, I'll break not playing with real money just to be in on the action. Guess I gotta practice a bit to get a feel on the probabilities of the various hands you can get. Maybe I'll practice in Triplejack.com.