Howard enjoys hosting game tournaments. 

 

Poker tournaments are low stakes and fun.  Usually it's a 3pm $5 and 8pm $10 tournament.  After hosting 10 of these and several unofficial ones at the annual Halloween parties, the software, rules and processes have been tweaked and the tournaments run fairly efficiently.  The current rules have not been modified since 2007.  See the House Rules in the attachment below on this page.  See a summary of past tournaments at http://howard.lu-gats.com/poker.htm

 

Recently, we've also experimented with Settlers of Catan tournaments.  Each table consists of 4 players playing for Tournament points which are determined by Victory Points at the end of 1 hour of play.  Players accumulate tournament points over 3 games and the Top 6 players square off at the Final 6 player Championship table.  Tournament rules are also in an attachment below.

 

This is a great game but not enough people know how to play it yet to make a tournament worthwhile and fun.  If you're familar with Pai-Gow Poker in the casinos, Acorns or Chinese Poker as it is better known, utilizes 3-5-5 hands instead of 2-5.  Growing up, my Dad, Brother and I invented Super Acorns which is a 3 player variant played with 3-5-5-5 hands utilizing 2 jokers.  We used to be the only 3 people on the planet who knew how to play this but we've introduced Angela and a few others to this great game and hopefully you'll also like to learn too!  We've tweaked the rules throughout the years but below is the latest scoring reference sheet.  Someday I would love to host a tournament for this too!  Learn more about 3 hand Chinese poker at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_poker