If you didn't catch Sunday's post, this entire week I'll be posting off topic and about me, my interests, and fun-facts about my life. My goal with these posts is to simply provide readers with a better understanding of the kind of person I am outside of the search marketing space, and to have a little fun. Without further ado, here's my fifth and last post:

I love to play poker. I've been a poker player since I was in High School, and enjoy the game very much. My favorite game is No Limit Texas Hold'em, but I also enjoy a variety of other poker games too.

The one problem that I'm facing now is that I don't get to play as much as I'd like to these days. Having moved a few miles away from my clique, and of course some of them being away at college, pick-up games are quite difficult to arrange. I do have plans to get a neighborhood game going one day, but I need a little more time to get to know my neighbors before I can set that up. And you never know... they might already have a weekly home game going, and I may be able to jump in to that.

When my friends and I do get together, we play on a table that my dad made for my 23rd birthday. It's nothing to extravagant like you would see on the World Series of Poker TV show, but it works. It has 8 sides, green felt, and wooden side rails with built in chip and drink holders. It's actually a very nice homemade table.

We play a straight nickel and dime game where the max any one player can loose is $5 - $10. The most anyone ever wins at our games is usually about $20 - $50... this of course is dependent on the number of players we actually have playing. It's a small home game, but we like it. It's friendly, social, and fun.

I do occasionally test my skills outside of my home game. Often at times local organizations will sponsor a multi-table poker tournament for a charitable cause. The buy-in for these games range anywhere from $25 - $250. I tend to stick with the $25 and $50 buy-ins. However, depending on how well I've been playing weeks prior to the tournament, I may dabble with lady luck and participate in some of the more costly tournaments.

My favorite part of playing poker is the strategy. Poker, for those of you who don't play, is a game where you don't necessarily play the cards, but rather the person holding the cards. It's a game of calculated odds, sociology, psychology, and lady luck all rolled into one. There's so much to think about and analyze from hand-to-hand, and developing an individual strategy for playing each player at the table is where I get my kicks.

How about you? Do you play poker? I'd love to hear some of your bad-beat or lady-luck stories.