Pettigrew Poker-not-dot-com, via cellphone-cam.

Before leaving Dallas, I traveled to West Fort Worth for the unveiling of a fancy new poker room — at the home of Good Chuck, one of the many good poker friends I’ve corrupted and left behind made in recent years. His family members had bought him a sparkling new handcrafted custom table, personalized casino chips, Kem cards … the whole luxury poker shebang … and to break it all in, the Pettigrew clan got together on the night before Christmas Eve for some tasty Texas barbecue and an inaugural $10+0 no-limit hold’em tourney. (Pokerati got exclusive coverage rights.)

It was a 14-player field comprised of serious amateurs and recreational kinfolk alike — with 4,000 starting chips, 15-minute levels, and a skill-friendly blind structure — enjoying good fun, intense competition, and some sibling rivalry to boot. For me, it was a chance to play with a cool new Kem color scheme and a salient reminder about the importance of the “little people” who make for good fleecing this game special.

The new table, from TiltBros, with a customized family felt.

Quite a step up from their old table, no?

Good Chuck (right) and two of his three sons — “Flaming Jake” (left) and Jeremiah (center).

Pokery pics of the kids and grandkids playing the game “PoPo” loves.

This family takes their poker seriously — and even posted a poker-room mission statement to keep dad off tilt remind all who play here what’s really at stake. You know, I gotta say, it’s pretty good — perhaps more poker rooms should think about something like this so players know more than just that “Check-and-raise is allowed”:

Our desire is to associate the game of poker to the game of life. To do this we will strive to make our play good examples of paitence, decision making, passion, and fellowship. We will promote a enviroment of class and fairness. Every player will be built up rather than brought down. Our goal is that every player feels peaceful and comfortable, and treats others with respect. We will never judge a player for religion, race, sexual orientation, or appearance. However, we will protect how we see fit all players from any verbal or physical attacks as well as any unfairness. As leaders we will try to lead lives of contentment, honor, integrity, and love for everyone. As players depart we hope their time with us improved their game of poker. But more importantly we desire players to depart with a better understanding of how to play the game of life.

This is not the house we were playing in … but it is the house across the street, which should give you some idea about where this rough-and-tumble tourney was taking place.

Chuck’s other son, Joshua (seen here with his wife to his left, and daughter on his lap), is a police officer in Shreveport, where thankfully he doesn’t have to put his life at risk busting up games like this one.

They even had a fancy tournament clock on a hi-def flat screen. Something must’ve been wrong with it, however, as it seems to be saying that I went out in 5th place even though I did. (Top 3 got paid; Jake would go on to beat his dad heads-up.)

It didn’t take long after players started getting eliminated for cash games to break out. Could we be looking at the next Kathy Liebert and Annette Obrestead? The future has to get its start somewhere … and right now these girls have a special fondness for the pink chips.