Fun games - Polish poker or Get out your 20s

So I used to play Monday nights in a home game with a bunch of older guys, and recently started up again.

For sure, I am a net loser in these games.


Polish poker (aka Get out your 20s)

This is a high-low game with 2 rows of 5 cards and each player also getting 5 cards.

The 1st card in  the top row is turned over and you all bet.

Then the 1st card in the second row is turned over and if you have this in your hand you have to discard it. You bet every time a card is turned over.

Then you start turning over the second card in top row, followed by second card in bottom row etc.

The top row cards re used to make your poker hand, but the bottom row cards have to be discarded.

If the same card appears on the bottom row as the top, it is removed from the top row.

It is a high low game - after all 10 cards are turned you declare if you are going for hi, low or both (aka pigging it)

The  low hand is based on the number of cards each player has left in his hand and points per card (ace low). The lowest count wins. So a 2-2-5 would be 9 points

The high hand is the best poker hand you can make with cards left in your hand. You can fold at any time.

This game builds a huge pot. Note at any time you can be screwed - you might have KKJ left in your hand with a K and J on the top row so you have a full house, but then the case K appears on the bottom row and now you just have 1 card and a pair of jacks.

San Diego Casino - Oceans 11

So Oceans 11 is a card room that is the closest poker room to where I live (about 35 mins away) and full of retiress, marines and poker lovers of all ages. They do good promotions and good food, but I love going down there for their poker tournaments and active cash games.

Here are some photos from Oceans 11 sessions:

San Diego Casino - Barona

I rarely ever get this far south but had guests in town and they wanted to go to Barona Indian Casino so off we went. I was delighted to see they had an active poker room but it also took me ages to get a seat. Anyways, when I finally got started I quickly started getting some chips.


Here is a photo from the Barona session

Inland Empite Casinos - Pala

Pala is about a 75 min drive from my home but is mostly freeway with a tiny bit of windy road at the end so quite easy to get to. I like their room but they recently downsized it and there are never too many games. However if I have guests that like slot machines this is a great little casino to go to because it is an Indian casino with slots, blackjack, Indian-style craps etc. Also the food is fantastic here, and the music is mostly quite good too.

Here are some photos of a couple of recent visits:

Los Angeles Casinos - Hawaiin Gardens

One of my favorite southern Califonia casinos is The Gardens (aka Hawaiin Gardens) Casino, technically in Orange County. They remodelled a while back and moved from a big tent-like structure to a nice large spacious air-conditioned room.

I stopped in there recently because I was stuck in traffic and played some $1-$2 for fun.

Here are the photos of my stack as it grew.

Los Angeles poker - Hollywood Park

I like to move around the casinos in Los Angeles so I am not too well known - this gives me the best chance to put myself in a game and play the fish whilst amassing chips. Sometimes I probably am the fish but I have a good set of winning sessions so hope my experience kicks in when it needs to:

Here is a  photos from a recent trip to the Hollywood Park casino in LA 

Vegas Trip

I sometimes go to Las Vegas on business. I sometimes go for a football (soccer) tournament with my adult team. And I sometimes go just to play poker. Once per year I try to meet my English friends from the LPPL and Portsmouth area players when they go out for the WSOP. More recently this also included the APAT crowd, one of whom I bought a small piece of in the main event.

Some photos from my recent trip and playing adventures, where we stayed downtown in the Golden Nugget so mostly played there or the WSOP:

Im back to the blog

So I have not updated the blog in a long while.

Its time to start writing about poker again.

I still play, still have many winning sessions and a few losing ones.

 I play a lot in southern California and occasionally in Las Vegas or Laughlin. Its true that LA or southern California is the heart of poker playing America, The casinos always have multiple games going. I always have options in where to go.

I like to take posts of my stack slowly increasing or decreasing. It gives me a timeline and inspires me the next time I go to make good decisions and hopefully the stack will follow.