If you like what John is doing with RecPoker, meet the rest of the RECing Crew!
Hi, I am John Somsky, a RecPoker core team member, a frequent contributor to the podcast and the Online Home Game Director. In addition I am the former Minnesota Ambassador for Ante Up Magazine, which means I covered the Minnesota poker scene for the magazine. I love poker and do everything I can to help promote this great game.
My first introduction to poker was when we played Royal Rummy as a child, there was a poker segment to each hand. It was there I learned that you couldn’t just keep raising to bluff everyone off the hand. I continued to play poker occasionally in high school and in college. When I graduated, I found a home game and played regularly. We mostly played 5-card draw with a few other games thrown in occasionally.
When the poker boom started in 2002, I became an avid watcher of the World Poker Tour and the WSOP. I started to play online and learn just about every variant of poker offered with my online alias of Poker Geek or PokerGeekMN. Around 2005 I started listening to just about every poker podcast available. That is where I became associated with the Ante Up Podcast, which was then produced by the Tampa Bay Times.
When Black Friday hit in 2011, I started to organize pAIPS, a play money alternative to the Ante Up Intercontinental Poker Series. I still organize that series to this day (see http://bit.ly/paips for all the information).
So, when RecPoker was looking for something to help build community, online home games seemed like a natural suggestion. Thus, began the RecPoker Monthly NLHE series. When we were looking to expand the popularity of mixed games, we started the RecPoker Monthly Mixed Game Series. When covid hit, people were clamoring for more poker. That is when we began the Social Distancing Series which was played nightly. That has since become the RecPoker Nightly Series. I’m always looking for suggestions to make these series better, so feel free to reach out with any feedback you may have at john@rec.poker.
I hope to see you at the tables!