About two years ago I put a personal ad in the local paper announcing that I was looking to put together a regular home poker game. I hadn't had a regular home poker game for about 6 years and was hoping to find a group of guys that connected quickly and enjoyed the social aspects of tossing chips every other week.

Among a few others, Nick responded and left me a message indicating that I could call him at the shop. This was good. There's just something about a home poker game that meets in the back of some shop - underneath the canopy of an industrial sized garage, surrounded by the smells of grease and labor. Yeah, this was going to be a good score. We don't need to be sitting in some Law School Professor's stuffy office as the Judges miss the three of spades that was folded with all the gateway cards.

As it turns out, Nick is an ex-State Trooper who retired to realize his dream of opening a neighborhood wood working shop. Over the past few years, he has created an amazing community of people who had been searching for a space to express their creative drive through shaping wood. His business, ShopTalk, instantly filled what apparently was a much needed social niche. Wood working classes, decoy carving lessons, bowl turning - it has become the place to go for unconditional mentorship in the craft. It has also provided a quintessential gathering spot for our regular poker game. Every other Friday night, we sit in a classroom surrounded by raw lumber, any power tool you could possibly imagine, half-finished hand crafted projects, and the smell of sawdust and varnish. Try to imagine a better location for a bunch of guys to become fast friends.

Unfortunately, we recently learned that the electrician hired to wire the space overlooked some pretty significant code requirements and ShopTalk will need to find a new location. Given the fact that it took Nick nine months to secure and renovate this space, our home poker game is going to sit in my boring dining room for an indefinite period of time. Tonight is our last game at ShopTalk. Please assist me through my mourning as I share with you the anatomy of what has evolved into a perfect regular game.

Aside from the location, it's the people that make or break a home poker game. In this case, I originally placed the ad with the intention of creating a regular gathering of men but without the sexist attitudes that stereotypically attach to such a group. I didn't want to be talking to a bunch of guys who left the ole ball and chain at home to look after the kids and clean up dinner while we played our games. I think it's important that men learn how to gather while remaining the caring good guys that we truly are capable of being. The wood shop as a location was a manly bonus. In addition, we've got a great line-up of players.

As I have already mentioned, Nick is an ex-trooper. Despite the fact that I placed the ad, Nick is the common denominator who has brought most of the players to the game. He's a trash-talker who will play just about any two cards you give him and remarkably land them into an unbelievable full house once you've made your flush on the flop. His cards are charmed and he knows it. It's hard to put Nick on a hand. This is mostly due to the fact that he'll play any two cards but he also really mixes up his tells. He'll shake his head in disgust as he puts three big bets into the pot and then show that he really didn't have anything after you've folded your top pair. On the very next hand he'll sucker you into yet three more bets while holding the nuts. I'm convinced that Caro, himself, would have a tough time reading this guy.

Glick is a short, pudgy, balding New York City transplant who moved here to Vermont shortly after the events of September 11th. He left a well paying job to find a simpler life and has just started his own web-based business that sells hand crafted wood products. As a member of Nick's shop, he quickly joined the game as soon as he learned of its occurrence and rarely misses a night. Glick's single mission each night is to "tuck it" to Nick. "Tucking it" to someone is essentially rivering them out of an amazing hand that just should not have been beat. Occasionally he'll tuck it to one of us by merely getting us to commit to our second best hand, but his specialty is getting Nick to take a cool down walk at least once each night we play. Glick plays a pretty good game, but we usually know when he's got a hand, because he doesn't like to mix things up too much. I don't think he has ever arrived to the game in anything other than a tie-dyed t-shirt.

Frankie The Mute doesn't speak when he's got a hand. His voice cracked once when he was betting the nuts and we just don't let him forget it. Frankie's wife is convinced that we're cheating him out of sixty bucks each week, but if she would just sit with us for 20 minutes, she'd probably keep their bankroll even by playing any of the hands that Frankie plays while conversing. Along with tonight being the final game at ShopTalk, it's also the final game that Frankie will play with us. He's moving to Colorado next week to be closer to family and to create his own version of a shop that has been so successful for Nick. For those of you in the Denver area, contact me if you want a more complete list of Frankie's tells. While I plan on enlightening him at the end of tonight's game, I don't think he'll believe me.

Timmy Two Pair, as you might guess, lands two pair at an unbelievable rate. They don't hold up as much as he'd like them too, but he thinks they should and bets them accordingly. Tim is also a State Trooper and he teaches the decoy carving classes for Nick. He's actually a nationally recognized decoy artist who somehow manages to be duck hunting at some place in the world during any time of the year. "Is Tim playing tonight?" "Nope. He's in Venezuela." Tim's confidence when he's got a made hand is unmistakable. Thankfully, he'll usually let you draw cheaply and will always answer a check-raise on the river.

Chuck joined the game only recently and is another former Trooper that worked with Nick. Chuck interrupts the Hold ‘Em flow with each of his deals and plays every one of those trash games we all played in High School. Baseball no-peek, Acey-Deucie (in-between), Jacks or Better-Trips to Win, Black Mariah - they're all part of his repertoire. I either win big or lose big when I play his silly reindeer games. Although he finds Hold ‘Em to be incredibly boring, he endures it just so he can giggle as one of us pays the pot while betting on a deuce-king split only to land the deuce during a killer pot of Acey-Deucie. During Hold ‘Em, however, he always bets the minimum. You'll never lose a big pot to Chuck when he's not dealing. Jim, on the other hand (yet another former Trooper), loses big to Chuck in those trash games. This usually happens just before Jim needs to leave only three hours into the game in order to get up in time for his 4:00am shift.

Finally there is Alvin. Alvin and I used to work together and he joined the game with my invite. I'm an aggressive player and become even more aggressive with my bets in order to weed out this table full of chasers when I've got a solid starting hand. But I can always count on Alvin to stick around for the flop. I can also count on Alvin chasing when I continue my big bets. I lose big when he catches, but you know the flip side to that equation.

As much pleasure as I find while playing in the ambience of the wood shop, it's the players that make the home poker game. This is a great group of guys and we have a blast together twice a month. Thankfully, despite the loss of the workshop as a great playing space, we'll continue with our game. With any luck, we'll have a new shop in the near future. Until then, I'll continue working on my reads in the comfort of my own dining room.

Play well,
Troy Headrick

You can learn more about Troy in his Member Spotlight