You’ll never guess what I did today on the Hive chain…
I PLAYED POKER!
Yeah… two no-limit holdem tournaments, each with around 9 players-- including @TheHive, the namesake of the chain itself from what I’m told.
Funny story, actually… I registered for a tournament starting at 2pm at a place called LUCKSACKS, and it never started. This being my first experience on the site, I thought I was missing something, so I hopped on the Discord channel and shouted out!
I was greeted by a kind soul named 
And that turned into a curious discussion which revealed to me who this “TheHive” individual really is (sort of)...
I clearly wasn’t sure what to do with this development… and I’m still not. Why would the #Hive chain be named after this user who is among the 9 players in a poker tournament I entered?
So who is @TheHive? I have no idea. And it’s not necessarily on my list of priorities, but I will get to the bottom of it… and I will report my findings as soon as I find them. (This is somewhat playful, of course, as you can see that Beth admits they're messing with me. I will get to know them better though.)
Back to Lucksacks Poker!
Because… umm… poker is awesome. And Hive projects are awesome. So if my math is correct, poker plus Hive equals a shit-load of awesome sauce! Double check that though, and make sure I carried the one.
The only certain way to verify the math properly is to come on over to #Lucksacks and play poker. Then do the final tally.
If you’ve been on other poker sites, It’s a pretty simple setup. There are tabs for the different types of games (ring, tourney, sit & go) and then a header menu with other options. I recommend donating at least 5 HIVE to get the chat window-- which is good to have when you’re playing with people-- and another 10 HIVE to upload a static avatar image (or 20 for an animated one).
Other than those two costs-- which are optional-- it doesn’t cost anything to play. You actually can’t deposit any crypto or fiat on the site… it’s all free. So just come register to play, and the best players win a share of the HIVE prize pools. Here's the current leaderboard:
There isn’t much traffic, but let’s change that. I know how many people out there enjoy playing #poker, or at least like to watch it on TV occasionally. It has become such a popular game in the last twenty years, I’m a bit surprised Lucksacks doesn’t have more players.
But it’s there and it works beautifully. The only real option I see is the daily tournaments, which usually get enough players to start… which is totally fine. There are a handful of these every day, so that means there’s real poker happening on the Hive chain!
My Two Tournaments…
How did they go? Did I win anything?
Not a damn thing! I didn’t get my ass handed to me or anything, but the level of play was much higher than I expected. I don’t know why I had the bar set low… but I know I’m a fairly strong poker player (albeit a bit rusty) and I thought I would have an easier time.
Rule number one of competition:
NEVER GET COCKY.
Rule number two:
YOU GOTTA PLAY TO WIN.
So now that you know it’s there and free, and that it has some quality poker players, doesn’t it make you want to start stacking chips over at LUCKSACKS? I highly recommend you do… and tell all your card shark friends to get in on the action. Tell them they've been invited by Dave, Beth and TheHive.
I’ll see you at the tables.
Heads up: there are tourneys starting at 1pm and 2pm EST tomorrow.