Department Holiday Fun
We closed up the I.T. department this afternoon and headed out for lunch and some fun. I'd booked a room at Monti's La Casa Vieja (a classic steak place for my out of town readers that was the original Hayden Ferry building for crossing the Salt River a century or so ago) and the plan was to have lunch then play a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament.
We try to think of something fun to do every year. We've done a group viewing of one of The Lord of The Rings movies, indoor go-kart racing, bowling and who can forget last year's debacle...er, I mean great fun. We've debated going to Game Works or miniature golfing but those events don't lend to the whole group getting to interact.
Believe it or not, poker was not entirely my idea. I was actually leaning towards lunch at the zoo with a scavenger hunt thrown in or Gameworks when a couple of the guys and I played a mini-tourney the day before Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun so I threw it out to the team as a proposed holiday event. There were a couple of "not my thing but I'll go along with it" responses but no one strenuously objected so it was a plan.
I know it's a cliche but it is literally liking herding cats to get IT people organized. I counted out the chips and told them all the seating was going to be randomly assigned in two groups (there were 17 of us). First, I somehow ended up one stack of chips short and had no idea how it happened. Instead of waiting to be seated, they all grabbed stacks and handed them out. Turns out, a stack got put in front of an empty seat and wasn't noticed until we started playing.
Then, I had them pick cards from Ace down in a red suit and a black suit. I then announced black Ace sits here while pointing to a chair then explained how it would go in order of King, Queen, etc. for the rest of the seating. I then went to the other side of the room and said "Red Ace sits here and we'll go in order this way." Of course, one of the people with a black card tried to sit in the red section.
We finally got everyone started and found out that some folks really had no idea of what they were doing. One guy, who admitted from the first that he didn't play cards, thought he had a pair because he had two cards in the same suit. Um, no, that's not quite how it works.
My group played it pretty straight but the other group had mass all-ins on nearly every hand. They were having multiple side pots all over the place and spent a lot of time arguing over who won what. We finished our first round way ahead of them (which just meant more bar time).
By the time we were all finished with the first round, we had enough people out to combine into one group. Here's where the competitive side of me came out. Andrea had to leave early so she gave her chips to Wilson since he'd busted (or nearly busted) and no one balked at it!
Hello! It's a tournament! There are prizes awarded to most chips - how is giving some away fair? We had someone leave early from our group and I just took her remaining chips out of play. However, since no one seemed to care but me we let Wilson play.
That Andrea! First, she interferes with one of the hands that I was in then she's giving chips away. All because she had to leave early. She wasn't the only one to bug out before we were done. I'd told everyone it was going to be a 3 hour event but apparently they didn't listen since 4 people had to leave at 3. If they'd told me that was their curfew, I would have moved the lunch to 12...but, I digress.
I made it to the final 6 and was forced to go all in with an unsuited 4-3. I don't think I would have won a single hand even if I'd played all of them. That's how crappy my cards were.
We got it down to 4 players and paid them off based on chip count. First place was pretty good: $150 in our corporate bucks that can be turned into gift certificates.
I think everyone had a good time and it was nice to have a pleasant afternoon with the gang.
We try to think of something fun to do every year. We've done a group viewing of one of The Lord of The Rings movies, indoor go-kart racing, bowling and who can forget last year's debacle...er, I mean great fun. We've debated going to Game Works or miniature golfing but those events don't lend to the whole group getting to interact.
Believe it or not, poker was not entirely my idea. I was actually leaning towards lunch at the zoo with a scavenger hunt thrown in or Gameworks when a couple of the guys and I played a mini-tourney the day before Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun so I threw it out to the team as a proposed holiday event. There were a couple of "not my thing but I'll go along with it" responses but no one strenuously objected so it was a plan.
I know it's a cliche but it is literally liking herding cats to get IT people organized. I counted out the chips and told them all the seating was going to be randomly assigned in two groups (there were 17 of us). First, I somehow ended up one stack of chips short and had no idea how it happened. Instead of waiting to be seated, they all grabbed stacks and handed them out. Turns out, a stack got put in front of an empty seat and wasn't noticed until we started playing.
Then, I had them pick cards from Ace down in a red suit and a black suit. I then announced black Ace sits here while pointing to a chair then explained how it would go in order of King, Queen, etc. for the rest of the seating. I then went to the other side of the room and said "Red Ace sits here and we'll go in order this way." Of course, one of the people with a black card tried to sit in the red section.
We finally got everyone started and found out that some folks really had no idea of what they were doing. One guy, who admitted from the first that he didn't play cards, thought he had a pair because he had two cards in the same suit. Um, no, that's not quite how it works.
My group played it pretty straight but the other group had mass all-ins on nearly every hand. They were having multiple side pots all over the place and spent a lot of time arguing over who won what. We finished our first round way ahead of them (which just meant more bar time).
By the time we were all finished with the first round, we had enough people out to combine into one group. Here's where the competitive side of me came out. Andrea had to leave early so she gave her chips to Wilson since he'd busted (or nearly busted) and no one balked at it!
Hello! It's a tournament! There are prizes awarded to most chips - how is giving some away fair? We had someone leave early from our group and I just took her remaining chips out of play. However, since no one seemed to care but me we let Wilson play.
That Andrea! First, she interferes with one of the hands that I was in then she's giving chips away. All because she had to leave early. She wasn't the only one to bug out before we were done. I'd told everyone it was going to be a 3 hour event but apparently they didn't listen since 4 people had to leave at 3. If they'd told me that was their curfew, I would have moved the lunch to 12...but, I digress.
I made it to the final 6 and was forced to go all in with an unsuited 4-3. I don't think I would have won a single hand even if I'd played all of them. That's how crappy my cards were.
We got it down to 4 players and paid them off based on chip count. First place was pretty good: $150 in our corporate bucks that can be turned into gift certificates.
I think everyone had a good time and it was nice to have a pleasant afternoon with the gang.
