signalnoise

On the first Friday of each and every month, I have a poker night I attend. It's a few guy I know from college, along with some work colleagues of those guys. I'm not particularly good, but I dont embarrass myself anymore. The whole thing is *odd.* On the one hand, people get very serious about the rules, about mistakes, and so on. In fact, there's a new rule that if you make a mistake or aren't paying attention to the action, you have to take a shot of tequlia. Fine. The bit that gets weird is that the guy who insists on this rule - the host of the party - always protests that when he makes a mistake it was, of course, *not* a mistake. This same guy, who wants rules to keep the game on focus, also engages in loud table talk once he's out and last night was having a tickle fight with another player (the homoeroticism runs deep). So, on the one hand you have people clamoring for a tight, serious game ... and on the other, people messing around like 12 year olds all night.

Now, I don't really care HOW we play - goofy or serious. Personally, I have hard time getting that worked up about rules etc in a friendly game with a $10 buy in. At the same time, I don't care if we just sit back and take it easy either. It's just annoying that we seem to have the extremes of BOTH kinds of game at the same game.

C'est le vie.