8-2 Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is it called the 8-2 Club?
- What is Angry Poker?
- I'm a new player. What should I know?
- How does position in games like Hold'em affect my strategy?
- It seems like games are always full. How do I get a seat? When are new games posted to the web site?
- Why should I join the waiting list? How does it work?
- When is food served?
- Where did you get your poker table?
- Where did you get your chairs?
- Where did you get your poker chips/cards/other accessories?
- Do you recommend any particular poker books?
- How did you create this web site? What programming language did you use? What type of web server is this site on?
- What is ATLARGE? What is FARGO?
- Why is it called the 8-2 Club?
- What is Angry Poker?
- I'm a new player. What should I know?
- How does position in games like Hold'em affect my strategy?
- It seems like games are always full. How do I get a seat? When are new games posted to the web site?
- I will have a pool of players whom I consider "reliable" -- that is, players who consistently show up every week (or nearly so), and who don't have a history of canceling out at the last minute. This pool of players currently includes: only Cary. If you are not on this list and are willing to make the commitment to play every single week and would like to be added to this list, ask me nicely. If you've been playing a while and are reliable, I'll add you to this list. Conversely, if you are on this list and don't want to be, let me know and I'll remove you.
- When a new game is posted, I'll add myself ("Mike") to the list, and then randomly select two additional names from the pool (using a random number generator) to be automatically signed up for that game. As usual, if you cannot make a game for which you're automatically signed up, please cancel out (via the web site) right away.
- This pool of players is subject to change at any time, and in fact, this whole scheme of randomly selecting two players each time should be considered experimental. It might stay this way permanently, or it might go away, all at my discretion. Also, if times change and we're once again fighting to sign up enough players for games, then I'll likely go back to automatically signing up all the reliable players.
- When new games are posted, you will be notified right away via email, assuming you have this alert activated in your Account Preferences. However, in order to make it easier on everyone knowing when new games are likely to be posted, your host will make a concerted effort to post new games according to the following guidelines:
- At 11:00pm (or shortly thereafter) following a normal Thursday-night game, if the schedule extends less than one month into the future, a new game will be posted.
- Any time between Friday 5pm to Sunday midnight, if all scheduled games are full, I'll post a new game.
- As a general rule, games will be posted at least two weeks in advance, and at most eight weeks in advance.
- In the event that you know you will be away for an extended period of time (i.e. vacation, business trip, etc) when a new game will be posted (see below), let me know ahead of time and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt by automatically signing you up for that game. (Please, do not abuse this feature). [TOP]
- Why should I join the waiting list? How does it work?
- When is food served?
- Where did you get your poker table?
- Where did you get your chairs?
- Where did you get your poker supplies (chips, chip trays, cards, etc?
- Do you recommend any particular poker books?
- How did you create this web site? What programming language did you use? What type of web server is this site on?
- What is ATLARGE? What is FARGO?
The answer to this question is somewhat of a long story.
Read all about it here.
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Read this for an explanation and
some extra silliness.
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There are a number of things that you should know, besides the rules of
poker, in order to play well at our game. Read our
Tips for New Players.
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The button (which designates the dealer's position) determines the order in which the players act. The player with the button is considered the dealer and acts last on all rounds.
Before the flop, on a full table (of ten players), the positions are usually divided as follows:
Under the gun: The player that is first to act, it's the seat to the left of the Big Blind.
Early position: The two seats to the left of the first player to act.
Middle position: The two seats to the left of the early positions.
Late position: The two seats to the left of the middle positions. (Or the two seats to the right of the button).
Button: The seat that is last to act on all rounds. The best position possible.
The later you act, the more information you will have about the other players. You will, for example, know how many players there will be in the hand and how they how acted so far (folding, calling, or raising). This is often referred to as having "positional advantage" over the other players.
You can use this information to make better strategical decisions, for example whether to call or fold. If you have a relatively weak hand that you aren't sure about if you should call with or not, you can often make a correct decision by watching how the other players have acted. Naturally, you need a strong hand to call if there has been a raise and several calls before you. If the other players have shown weakness by folding before you, you can play some mediocre hands that you normally wouldn't play.
If you instead had been in an early position (far away from the button) you would have had access to less information, and therefore been forced to be more careful when deciding which hands to play. The rule of thumb is that you can play more hands from a good (late) position than from a bad one. In other words, you must be very careful if you are first to act because you don't know if the other players will raise (or even re-raise) after you have acted.
Position becomes even more important in short handed games. If you are
playing in a short handed game you can think of your position as if it
was a full game and everybody before you have folded. In fact, in a short
handed game you should usually always raise the blinds if nobody has
entered the pot before you. Calling in this situation is not good, if your
hand is worth calling with you should consider raising instead. This is
the same strategy as you use when you are sitting in a late position in a
full game and everybody folds before you. By raising you attack the blinds
and could win the pot uncontested.
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When a new game is posted, seats are "first come, first serve", with the following exceptions/guidelines:
If a game you would like to join is already full, you can add yourself
to the waiting list. Simply press the JOIN WAITING LIST button.
Quite often, especially now that games are scheduled up to 2 months in
advance, people have to cancel out of a game for which they've previously
signed up. When this happens, and you're on the waiting list, the system
will automatically move you from the waiting list to the list of players,
and email you to let you know. This way, you won't have to constantly
watch the web site for openings. Convenient, huh?
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We have a tradition at the 8-2 Club that basically states that if you
win $150 (profit) or more in one cash-game session, you buy food
(pizza, burgers,
authentic New Orleans Gumbo, whatever) for everyone at the next game.
This is not required; it's merely a tradition that's most players
honor (and one that everyone else appreciates). When we do have food, it
is usually mentioned on the web site well in advance, and is served 30
minutes before gametime, so be sure to arrive early enough to get your
share. :)
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I bought my table from a great little company called Trinity Tables.
When I bought mine in August of 1999, the price was a mere $699. Since
then, the price has risen considerably. However, I have nothing but praise
for this company. It's run by a man named Doug Hulsizer, his wife, and
his son. They do excellent work, and have extraordinary customer service.
They are very personable, and seem to be willing to go the extra mile to
make sure you're 110% satisfied. They called me after my shipment to
make sure everything went smoothly, and his wife even went to Wal-Mart
to buy some sticky-tabs and mailed them to me (much to my surprise!)
to help alleviate my concerns that the table-top moved around a bit.
(I ended up solving the problem by using little dabs of modeling clay).
The table now comes in two sizes: my size and a larger size.
Trinity Tables is now defunct but the tables are now available at: FamilyLeisure.com.
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I purchased the large, oak chairs at Hometown Furniture/Wood Market Ltd. (on Rt. 1) for $165 each. The address is 9375 Washington Blvd., Laurel, MD 20723. Their phone number is 301-317-1900.
The plastic resin chairs I found at Costco for $20 each. They're
supposed to hold up to 500 lbs.
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CHIPS - I bought my custom 9-gram clay-composite chips at PokerChips.com. The prices are high, but the quality is excellent, perhaps the best you can buy now that Paulson chips aren't sold to the public any more. Mine, with the custom logo, cost 85 cents each. But at the time of this writing, the price has risen to 95 cents each. Non-customized chips of the same quality are closer to 50 or 60 cents each. You can buy the heavier (11-gram) but inferior type (plastic with embeded metal slugs) for much cheaper if you're not as worried about quality. Try Ebay for those.
CARDS - I used to maintain that Kem cards are hands down the best cards available. Durable and washable, they'll last you a long time -- a year or two with continued use. But since Kem was bought out by U.S. Playing Card Company, Kem cards are hard to find, and the quality control has decreased. So now I've switched to COPAG Playing Cards. COPAG's quality is as good as (if not better than) Kem, and the price is right. I usually purchase them for about $15 per 2-deck set (shipping included).
MISC - For cut cards, chip trays, dealer buttons, and other minor
accessories I suggest trying either
The Gamblers General Store
or Kardwell International.
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Yes, in fact, I've made a list of my favorites.
Enjoy.
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I create the web site from scratch, by myself, using a simple text editor.
(If you're wondering, I use
vim). I have
never used any HTML Editing/Creation software, so I cannot recommend any.
The backend CGI scripts are all written in
Perl on a
Linux system running
the Apache web server.
My web hosting provider is
DreamHost.
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ATLARGE stands for (ATL)antic city (A)nnual (r)ec.(g)ambling (e)xcursion
Throughout the year, poster and lurkers of the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup get together at various locations (Vegas, Connecticut, Tunica, etc). The east coast gathering is in Atlantic City, usually the first weekend in March. You don't _really_ have to be a participant of the newsgroup to play in this tournaments, though. But you do have to preregister (and prepay) online.
There are multiple events. Last year there were three tournaments (TOC, NLH, and BigO/Super-Stud), and you may register for one, two, or all three. See http://atlargepoker.com/ for details. There's also a banquet (sponsored by PokerStars) and other things you can get involved in if you want.
The tournaments are $100+20 each, which covers entry fees and dealer tips.
For the past few years, the 8-2 Club has had a pretty strong showing. One year we had eleven players attending. (Approximately 100 people attend the event in total). The tournaments are prepaid, and we usually share rooms to keep down the room costs.
The Borgata usually sets aside blocks of rooms for us at "cheaper" rates.
See ATLARGE Poker for details.
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