One of the big current fads going around is poker. With the emergence of the annual World Series of Poker as a spectator sport on ESPN, poker (and
especially Texas Hold-?em Poker) has become the ?in? thing over the past couple of years. And I?ve got to tell you, I?m with the sheep on this one.
As with any fad there are a lot of bandwagon people, and a lot of people that are intent on proving that they aren?t bandwagon; that they were in on the
fad before it was the cool thing to do, as if that somehow makes them cooler. You hear people say things like ?Nirvana was my favorite band before
Nevermind came out. I was into them in the days when they were just playing clubs in Seattle and Portland? or ?I was a Red Sox fan before they had the
second highest payroll in all of baseball yet somehow got referred to as an underdog that everyone outside of New York should root for.? Anyway, you
hear those things all the time, but I liked poker before ESPN started televising the World Series of Poker. Ok, it may have only been a few months before
the ESPN poker age, but I started watching The World Poker Tour on the Travel channel and was addicted almost instantly.
So, unless you?ve been hiding under a rock you already know about poker, but for those rock dwellers, I?ll catch you up on some things. The World
Series of Poker is an annual event held in Las Vegas. The first one took place in the 50?s, but it became an annual tradition in 1971. Until the 2003
tournament there had been a pretty small field in the tournament, a couple hundred at best. But, because of the Travel channel coverage of poker, the
proliferation of online poker sites, and the fact that ESPN started to cover it in 2003, that tournament had over 800 entries. That year a guy named Chris
Moneymaker won the $2.5 million purse, which was the best thing that could have happened to poker. Moneymaker (with his perfect poker name) was
an amateur player that had won his seat in the tournament from an online poker site after he won a tournament that cost him $40 to enter. Normally seats
in the WSOP cost $10,000, but Moneymaker got his for $40. His story of $40 to $2.5 millions instantly made people all over the country (and the world,
actually) say ?Hey, I could do that.? And that?s all it took.
The 2004 tournament had over 2,500 entries and it has already been speculated that 2005 could see double that (one speculator even suggested that there
could be 10,000 entrants next year). The 2004 winner was Greg Raymer, another amateur, although a guy that seems to garner a little more respect from
poker pros than Moneymaker did. The prize for 2004 was $5 million (it is based on the number of entries).
After watching a lot of the poker coverage on television, I wanted to know if I could be competitive in Texas Hold-?Em Poker. So I joined an online
poker site, deposited a small amount of cash and played in a Sit and Go Tournament (that is where once the set number of people have joined the
tournament, the tournament starts). This particular ?tournament? was only a table of nine players, with the top three players getting shares of the winnings.
Well, probably the worst possible thing happened to me in my first attempt: I came in second.
Gambling is an addictive hobby and I have always tried to keep my perspective on it, knowing that the house always comes out ahead in blackjack,
roulette, craps, and the slots. When I went to Vegas for my bachelor party, several friends and I won big at the blackjack table one night, which just
happened to be the first time one of my friends had ever really gambled. He was given some great advice that night by another friend: forget this ever
happened. If you allow this to be your lasting memory of gambling, you will think that you can win every time, and you?ll keep coming back with that
attitude.
That?s a dangerous attitude to have. I believe you have to be humble when you actually win money gambling, because the gambling gods can so easily
reverse your fortune next time. So, I remembered the advice given to my friend, and my own philosophy of humility after my first poker adventure turned
out well for me. I didn?t run out and reserve my $10,000 seat at next year?s WSOP tournament, or even throw down $200 for my local casino
tournament. I also didn?t get addicted to playing online. I?ve heard horror stories of guys that grow roots in front of their computer trying to win a
tournament to get back to even. That?s bad news. No, I?ve taken it easy, played a few more nine player Sit and Go tournaments and tried to learn how
to play better. I?ve never finished as high as I did in my first tournament (in fact, I haven?t gotten back to the money since then), but I?ve stayed
respectable. My average finish is 4.5 out of 9. That would seem to make me exactly average.
One of these days I am going to venture out to the local casino and enter a tournament because I have the feeling that seeing your opponents face to face
makes it an almost entirely different game. And I might try and find one of those $40 satellite tournaments to the WSOP that Chris Moneymaker won to
get him into the big game. I mean, what the hell? I?m not in those guys? league, but it would sure be fun to try it out.
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