About Us

Our Mission Statement:

We celebrate the weekly poker night!

Paul and Shana PokerNightinAmericaWe’re looking for the regular poker players that week-in and week-out gather to play this amazing American pastime – the way it used to be played. With a poker face at their friends dining room table, garage, or the more contemporary “man cave.” We understand your passion for poker and the friendships that are forged playing this game, that in many ways mirrors life. We encourage you to share your customs, traditions and stories. We are searching for the simple, the complex, the unusual and the funny anecdotes to highlight and offer to the world. Our aim is to present your poker playing advice, views and favorite poker night cuisine to all. Poker, although played all over the world, is an American game, and we are proud to charge ourselves with finding true poker ambassadors and telling their stories.

Please feel free to contact us with your poker stories and traditions.

Founders, Paul and Shana Smith

 

Our game, when we’re all together, is an eight-handed party game consisting of four men and four women. My wife and I both work 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. She is an Assistant Manager in a dental office and I sell life insurance for a local TPA. By Friday night, we’re ready to cook comfort food, have our best friends over, pour some cocktails, hear some classic rock music and play some poker! We usually host the game at our dining room table.

My name is Paul Smith, and Shana (my wife) in the past 4 years, has become a formidable adversary in our little game.

Our usual guests include:

James O’Neil and his wife Carolyn Burns. They started and run the local Rubicon Theatre Company and have taken it upon themselves to make sure we are all cultured.

Frank Dambach, a local businessman, and his wife Jane who manages the Carpinteria Wine Company, taught us how to at least appear wine savvy.

Paul Wadsworth is a local Contractor who lives in an incredible one bedroom “Man Cave” that he built from the ground up with a view of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands.

And finally our very good friend and nextdoor neighbor, Marjory Hatt. She is a smart player who works for a large transportation company as the head of HR.

We play tournament style final table no limit Texas Hold’Em. We have never varied our game in the 4 years that we’ve been playing and we enjoy it more now than I think we ever have. It is a simple bet, five dollars per person and the winner takes all, except for second gets their 5 dollars back, and we play again. If it gets down to two and both players can come to an arrangement to split the kitty, we all start another game. Jim, Paul W. and I have played more and will usually have a side pot to make the game a little more interesting. It does not affect the others – our bet is on who places the highest and it is winner takes all.

Shana has decided to play in the WSOP for her 50th birthday and I can’t wait! She’s got nine more years to prepare and she’s progressing fast! We’re thinking maybe on her 45th birthday instead. We call her the Black Widow. Jimmy tagged her with that name after she won back-to-back games about three years ago, and now we all have poker names.