Having Fun with the Home Games

Spent part of yesterday idly watching PokerStars’ big 7th anniversary Sunday Million tournament play out while also noting the mix of tweets from participating players and angst-ridden Americans unable to play. A total of 49,287 entered the event, thus creating a prize pool of $9,857,400 (well over the special $7 million guarantee).

Later on came the other “Sunday majors,” the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games, that is. Last night we had a H.O.S.E. event (won by Bruckner_7th) and a Razz one (won by SmBoatDrinks). I somehow managed to luckbox my way into winning the Badugi tournament the week before.

I’m noticing this morning that the results of last night’s tourneys might not have been recorded in our Season 3 standings, which I’ll look into today. (EDIT [added 3/7/13]: The problem -- whatever it was -- has been resolved and the standings are now up-to-date.)

So far we’ve played eight events in Season 3, and I think I’ll actually schedule three events on each of the next four Sundays. One will be at 16:00 ET on Sunday afternoons, and the other two at 20:00 ET and 21:00 ET (as usual). I’m hoping perhaps with those earlier events to enable some of my European buddies to play a few tourneys. Adding the extra tourneys will also help us get to a total of 20 events before Season 3 concludes at the end of March.

As was the case with Season 1 and Season 2, the top three finishers in the season’s standings will win prizes. Again one of the prizes will be a copy of Zach Elwood’s Reading Poker Tells, a very helpful book regarding tells in live poker that I reviewed for Betfair Poker here. I also have picked up a Rounders DVD that I’ll throw in as a prize, too, if perhaps someone doesn’t have it already.

I’ve yet to settle on what the third prize will be this time. If anyone has books or DVDs they’d like to donate, let me know. Meanwhile, these remaining events in Season 3 will be covering a variety of games (as usual). For those who have been playing, feel free to suggest games/variants in the comments below.

Sure, it ain’t quite playing for millions of dollars. But I know I’ve enjoyed the Home Games a lot, and I think they’ve provided a lot of fun for others, too.