Last October three poker buddies and I planned a trip to Las Vegas. We were able to get reasonable fares on a direct 5-hour flight on Southwest Airlines. To help pass the time, we improvised a three-way Texas Hold'em-style lightning game. Here's what we did:

We were able to secure one row of three seats and the adjacent aisle seat for the fourth player to stay close to the action while he read or just rested. Once in the air, the three of us in the row lowered our snack trays, and out came the chips and the cards. Everyone received the equivalent of $1000 in chips. Basic no limit hold'em rules applied such as the posting of forced blinds to the left of the dealer ("small" and "big," respectively), dealer duties (two cards to each player, first bet starting with player to the right of the big blind, or in the case of a three-way game, the dealer is the first to act), and betting options.

Blinds started at $25 and $50 and escalated from there in 10-minute increments. Once each game was decided with one of the players having all the chips, a record was kept of who won and lost and the fourth player rotated in while one of the other three took his spot across the aisle.

This went on uninterrupted for the entire trip. Periodically, the flight attendants would look in on us because we were laughing and having such a good time. The time in the air literally flew by as we honed our skills for the upcoming challenges in Vegas. We did the same on the return trip with the same great experience.

When we got back, we got the idea to assemble these short-term "turbo" or "blast" game ingredients into an affordable, compact package. With over 75 million poker players in the United States alone, we figured there just might be a market for this type of game and Sky High Hold 'Em® was born.

We designed Sky High Hold 'Em® to contain everything you need to play your own three-way sit-n-go style, no limit hold'em match while 35,000 feet in the air.