When I lived in San Jose, I instituted a pot-limit poker game that ran, in one form or another, for well over a decade. In fact, I'm proud to say that the "Kelp Kard Klub" still meets occasionally in a different venue (here's a shout-out to Chatham Way) in Mountain View. The stakes were always small - we were all clear that we didn't want anybody getting hurt. But they were big enough to sting a little - albeit mostly in the extremely sensitive area of the male poker ego.

I'm delighted to be living in the Blue Ridge Mountains now, but I miss those poker gatherings, and I think it's time to have one. Since I've got a built-in poker community here I figured this was the obvious way to find players.

I'm thinking Friday, December 19th at my house in Asheville. Here's the plan...

• We'll order in pizzas and eat and get to know each other, then we break out the cards. I've got a nice poker table in the basement.
• We'll play either $.25-$.50 or $.50-$1 pot-limit Dealer's Choice. The button chooses the game and we deal it around the table. When it gets back to that person, the button skips him and the player to his left selects a new game.
• There will be a rake - something like 5% up to $1. All the rake goes to the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program.
• Bring your iPod - you can plug it into our stereo. Control over the tunes on the stereo will be rented out at $5 per hour. That goes to JAM too. If you wanna play death metal or rap, it'll be $10/hour.
• Smoking is outside.