THE BOYS BETTER THAN BUNKO STORY
When the poker craze hit in the early 2000s, many of us had wives who had been playing Bunko for years, leaving us once a month all alone with the kids (and, usually, Ronald McDonald). So we started thinking about starting our own monthly guys' game night, but (of course) playing Texas Hold Em. To keep it friendly (and, more importantly, to convince our wives to let us do it), we decided to model it after their Bunko nights -- each person could bring $5 and some snacks, the winners would get prizes (not cash), and we would always finish at a decent hour. With that idea in mind (and a few wives convinced), we sent out an email inviting about 40 guys. On the third Monday of October 2004, twenty guys showed up, and Boys’ Better Than Bunko Night was born.
As we approached the end of the first year, we were averaging 27 players a month, and had as many as 34 one month, and we knew we were onto something that might last awhile. So to add to the competition, we went back and awarded points to each month's top five finishers (5 pts for 1st, 4 pts for 2nd, 3 pts for 3rd, 2 pts for 4th, and 1 pt for 5th), and announced that the player with the most points after 12 months would be declared the Season One (2005) Champion, and would receive a BTB Silver Card Guard.
Over the first nine seasons, we have averaged 25 players per month (the largest group was 37, and the smallest was 14), and we crowned seven different Season Champions. In Season Four, one player scored so much so quickly that he mathematically eliminated everyone else by the time we finished the 10th month, so we named him the Season Four Champion, gave him the Coveted Silver Card Guard, and moved on to start Season Five in August 2008.
THE BBTB PLAYERS
On the 2nd Monday of each month, an invite email goes out to all the guys who have signed up for the distribution list. Reminder emails go out on that Thursday and Friday, and players have until 5 pm on Friday to reply to rsvp. After several months into Season One, the host got tired of trying to pick out creative prizes, so he added the rule that the prior month's winner has to pick them out and bring them. Once the rsvp deadline passes, the host sends the final number to the last month's winner, so he'll know how much to spend over the weekend. He is then reimbursed with the $5 that each player brings on Monday.
Players are encouraged to invite friends, and we always have a great variety -- young and old (even really old), married and single, red and yellow, black and white. Though most of us attend church together (and if you don’t go elsewhere, someone will probably invite you to come to church with us), doing so is not required. The only requirements are that you must be a GUY (it almost got ugly one night when a group of wives showed up), you must have graduated from high school, and you must maintain a good attitude. Cursing, drinking, and (unfortunately) cigars are verboten. We generally just ignore the dippers.
THE BBTB RULES
All players are expected to show up by 7 pm. Round One starts at 7:15, Round Two starts at 9, and we almost always finish between 10:45 and 11:15. The only game is Texas Hold Em, played with standard rules except that the Big Blind has no option to raise if no one raises before him. If you are a beginner and need a cheat sheet to know whether a flush beats a full house, we'll give you one. Each player starts with 525 chips; blinds start at 5/10, and go up each time the button returns to the original dealer (or to the player to his left if he is out): 5/10, 10/20, 25/50, then doubling from there until they freeze at 100/200 during Round One.
We start Round One at three tables, with the 1/3 of the present players who most recently were monthly winners filling the Head Table. At 9 pm, the 1/3 of the players who then have the biggest stacks move to the Head Table, the others distribute evenly at the two Losers' Tables, and Round Two begins. Every player begins Round Two with at least 200 chips; so any player who lost it all in Round One, or who ended Round One with less than 200 chips, is given new chips so that he starts Round Two with 200. Players who finished Round One with more than 200 chips start Round Two with whatever stack they have, whether they're starting Round Two at the Head Table or a Losers' Table. Blinds for Round Two start at 25/50, and double every time the button comes around, never freezing.
Once there are ten or fewer players remaining at the two Losers' Tables (with blinds starting at 25/50 and most players starting with only 200 chips, that usually doesn't take long), those tables combine. When the total number of remaining players (at that table plus the Head Table) gets down to 8 or 9, those at the Losers' Table join the Head Table, and blinds are set wherever the Head Table is at that point. In the 34 months of Seasons Four, Five, and Six, eleven of the monthly winners started Round Two at a Losers Table, worked their way up to the Head Table, and ended up winning it all. So it’s never over until it’s over, and guys who get knocked out in Round One have learned to hang around for their 200 second chance chips in Round Two.
In August 2010, after finishing Season Six, one of our players created this website, www.boysbetterthanbunko.com (unfortunately, www.betterthanbunko.com was already taken, by a woman who puts on Girls Night Out Photoshoots, where women get together and take flirty photos of each other or something -- so be careful about accidentally going there!). Now, through this website, you can sign up on the distribution (invite) list, submit your rsvp, and check the current and past season's results.
Come join us next month, just for the heaven of it.