First NLHE Only Home Game-Lots of fun

I got invited by a friend to play in a home game with he and his regulars. I played before in games but they were a mix of every game you can think of. This one is only NLHE. These guys play twice a month. My friend built a table that was very impressive. It looks just like the ones found in casinos. I was excited about playing and after reading posts here I decided to just have fun... which I did...alot.

If you are interested in setting up your own game the setup was like this:
Tournament
9 players
$10 buyin
Blinds and hands were setup and used for all players whether they showed up late or not. One guy showed up when he had only $2 in chips left but they made him buy in the full amount of $10. "That'll teach him to say he's coming and then show up late."
Blinds started at 0.05/0.10 with blinds going up every 30 minutes (essentially doubling)
Once blinds are $1/$2 all chips less than 0.25 are exchanged for larger chips. Minimum bet is $2 at this point
At this point there were about 6 players remaining but that changed very fast with the big blinds.
Payout is 50%/30%/20%
I got put out while on the bubble with an AA push that got sucked out with 25s (flush).

Cash Game
After 2 or more players are put out of the tournament they start a NL cash game with $5 buyin. You must have less than $1 in chips to rebuy and it must be $5. As players are eliminated from the tournament they play in the cash game. Once the tournament is over, Cash game play resumes at the "casino" table.

I must say that this was the most fun I've had in a long time. I wasn't used to counting chips so that took some getting used to. Like I said I played about once or twice a year before. I'll continue to attend these games as much as possible (when I can get away with it since I'm married). If you play in the tournament and one cash game buyin it only cost you $15 which is cheap for 4-5 hours of entertainment.