Well it was 9 pm and after a nice dinner with my in-laws, I asked my lovely
wife the following question, “Can I open my laptop?”. Of course you can,
she said. Then we began talking about how maybe the best thing to do is
schedule some time to play poker – or anything else for that matter. I had
spoken to my friend earlier in the day about scheduling time for online poker
to reduce the stress it might be having on her or the rest of the family.
At any rate, she got to read her book, and I got to play a little bit.
Well the bad luck seemed to continue and my patience is being tested. I
guess all good poker players must have an endless supply of patience. It
seems I constantly was getting 2-7 off-suit a the like. You really start
to say to yourself “I suck” when your stack is constantly being eroded with
little or no chance of taking down a pot. I tried to keep reminding myself
that this was a pretty unusual run of cards, and that eventually, things
would turn around and I would be able to at least compete. Reading as much
as I do about poker, I do know that when it comes to “no limit holdem”
(which is my preferred game at this point), you almost don’t even need
cards to win. You’re frequently “playing the man”, not the cards as they
say. Well that sounds great but when you are playing the equivalent of a
free-roll, it’s difficult to push anyone off a reasonable hand, and therefore
you do need “something” – my perception at least. Well I rode it out
and I began to get some cards I felt I could play.
Since ESPN is giving away a highly sought after prize package (valued
at approximately $15,000 – including the WSOP entrance fee), the players
get pretty serious when it gets down to the final two or three players
on these single table tournaments. While I am have pretty much railed
against the whole “roulette” style of playing poker, for the ESPN
challenge, I have actually considered employing that approach myself
in order to “get enough wins” to reach the Sunday Qualifier. According
to the contest rules, you need 30 “tournament points” to gain entrance
into the Sunday Qualifier. From what I understand, the TOP 50 in
each of the Sunday Qualifiers will then meet on May 12th to determine
who will be going to the 2005 World Series of Poker. For free, I don’t
think you can beat this opportunity. Since everyone is simply looking
to get the 30 points, it almost makes sense to go “All-In” on the first
hand or so (with relatively decent cards) and seek to get a nice stack to
play with. Right now, I don’t think there is much of a restriction on
getting the 300 chips to play in any one of these tournaments. The supply
may be endless. But that is something I will check on. If it is, then
maybe for the first time, I will actually advocate the “roulette” style
of poker (if only for one hand).
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