Friends (Hi Sandie! Hi Jill!) have asked me what playing on-like poker is like, so I took a few screen shots of Thursday's tournament at PokerStars...

This is close to the beginning of the game. We all started with $1,500 in chips. I'm at the far right, "ricoM", and already down $350 chips. My avatar, if you look closely, is a picture of me with my Maine Coon, Bear, in his usual position on my shoulder.

As the popular saying goes, Texas Hold `Em is the "cadillac of poker", taking minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. Each player is dealt two cards and has to put together the best poker hand using those two cards and the community cards in the middle of the table. This is the end of a hand where two players stayed in. Both hold a full house -- Aces with three tens on the board. You can see at the top of the screen that the pot is $930, which the players will split.

We're midway through a break at the end of the first hour of play, which I mention with some relief in the chat box. I've been moved to a different table sometime during the first hour, and have been doing much better, even a little ahead chip-wise of the pro to my right, "AustinKearns." The player in the upper right, "MtDewVirus" would eventually end up winning the tournament.

The final table, and lil' Rico is in very bad shape, the short stack on the table with only $598 left in chips, and about to be blinded out in the next hand, since the blinds are at $600/$1200. Play is fast and furious at this level. The Venetian would be knocked out in this hand, me the next, and AustinKearns in the following hand.

Humbird took 6th, jerge88 5th, the spooky Johni D 4th, TuckerKatt 3rd, ToddCommish 2nd, and MtDewVirus 1st.