Recently in Poker Stuff Category

I know, I know! there hasn't been a new post here since December 17. That was 24 days ago. I've been slacking in the blog department.

But that doesn't mean I've been slacking in the shop department. In the last month, seven new designs have been added to the puppytoes.net store, and at least two more are currently in the works.

But yes, I've neglected you, my dear internet. And as a token of my apology, I will be personally announcing our seven new designs over the course of the next seven days. Yes, I realize I've just committed myself to seven straight days of writing. But I'm fully prepared to accept the consequences of my slackerishness.

So without further delay, I present the first of our newest designs:

Day 1, Design 1
"I'm Drunk"
Mens and Women's Apparel from $14.99 - $39.99

This design was inspired from personal experience.

See, in the beginning of December, I broke my cardinal poker rule - don't get hammered when playing poker. I must have been in "one of those moods" or something, because the alcohol kept finding ways to slosh down my throat. After awhile, I noticed my chips were getting dangerously low. I didn't think I was playing bad - I didn't start playing junk hands and I wasn't really making any donkey calls - maybe I was just chasing a little too much, but it shouldn't have been enough to decimate my chip stack! So I shook my alcohol-rattled head a bit and took a good look around - as good a look as my slightly blurry eyes could see, anyway. It seemed like others at the table were playing better than usual! Not that I ususally play with a bunch of donkeys or anything, but even the loosest player at the table seemed to be exercising some restraint.

I was mystified. Do some other players really play better when I'm drunk? Perhaps the alcohol was inhibiting my aggression? Who knows? Maybe I really was just playing poorly! Either way, towards the end of the evening (no surprise I didn't cash in that particular game), I started giggling. No, it wasn't the alcohol making me giggle, it was the idea for this shirt. I imagined wearing it while sitting across from some poor donkey to advertise the fact the only way he'll end up beating me is if I'm drunk. Probably in poor form to wear in while playing with strangers, but it can give friends a good laugh!

Now that the weather is becoming colder here in our neck of the woods, we feel much less guilty about spending time indoors. So instead of doing yardwork or home renovations on the weekend, it's a perfect time to throw a poker party!

Originally this article was going to be about how to throw a tournament-style poker party, but as I wrote it I realized there were much better resources for the actual mechanics of setting up a poker tournament. A favorite of mine is Home Poker Tourney - it's a great resource that includes poker chip reviews, a card buyer's guide, blinds schedules, and tons more. I know I personally used that site a couple of years ago when buying our first large chip set.

What we'd like to do here is offer ideas on making your poker party one of a kind, offering poker night recipes and products to spruce up your shindig from the puppytoes.net store. Afterwards, maybe everyone will be asking when you'll be throwing the next party!

Since there's a lot of information to cover, we'll be doing this in parts - Part I covers inviting your guests.

We've been stewing in DSL outages for the last week here at the puppytoes.net store, so we've had plenty of time to come up with some new designs! We have some new geek and poker shirt designs in the works - we actually should have started with designs about how utilities like the phone company are so cheap they're outsourcing their (useless) tech support to Mexico, India and the Philippines or how their voice-activated menu system is ridiculous and could result in damaged phones as callers smash them into walls in frustration....

but we digress....

We decided to roll out our brand-spanking-new dealer buttons for your next poker game!

Greetings!

Before announcing our latest design, we'd like to address this entry title.  We're not really distressed, but lately our designs have been!  We've been feeling particularly grungy and monochromatic lately, so we've been reflecting that feeling in our new designs.  We've done a couple, like Wings, Dead Money II, and even Fluorine Chemist. We've been loving the spattered, scratched out feel of it all. 

Our latest distressed design offering is titled, "Poker Queen".  Sure the whole "Poker Queen" thing may be a cliche, but we kind of liked how the crest kind of frames the old girl.  Not to mention, queenie's got a pretty mean poker face going on!  OK, seriously, though, we like the scratched up feel of this design.  We even decided to create it in different colors, so it kind of follows our whole monochromatic kick - brown/tan design for a brown t-shirt, maroon/pink design for a maroon tshirt, etc. 
"Poker Queen" apparel starts as low as $15.99 and is available on short and long sleeve tshirts, tanks, and sweatshirts in a variety of colors.

Like our grungy, distressed stuff?  Want to see more?  Let us know what you think!

Cheers,
Joanne and Cragar