Playing for Points

I played poker last night, on a Saturday. It was an odd kind of home game, first in that it was not for money, but for points.

It seems the Manassas Mostly Poker meetup group plays poker about once per month with no gambling, no money, only points. In a way it is a lot like bar poker. They had two tables of players, paper cards, no felt, and little knowledge of regular poker rules.

The group played dealer's choice. Guts was a popular game, though I'm not sure what relationship guts has to actual poker. Hold'em, with a $1 (point) ante and no blinds was a popular choice as well. Five card draw came up a couple of times, but you can't play five card draw with eight people. Just not enough cards in the deck.

We also played Ohmaha, stud, and some other variants on poker.

I finished the night for a loss. But it was points, not cash, so I may have lost at poker, but my wallet was no lighter for the experience.