Poker derelict

So, I managed to grab a seat at the National Pub Poker League Bottom of the South Regional Poker Final this past Saturday, alongside 149 other players from cities like Invercargill, Dunedin, Queenstown, and some smaller towns in between. The top 25 finishers got an automatic entry into the New Zealand National Poker Championship in Christchurch in October. I finished 32nd--the last of the seven alternates. I may have been able to hold on through some big blinds to finish in the top 25, but figured I probably won't be here in October anyway, so what's the point? I played okay, but definitely would have made the cut had I won my last hand, when someone put me all-in pre-flop. I put him on Ace-King to my pocket fours, which, as it turns out, is exactly what he had. It was a good call by me and a good push by him. He caught a King on the turn to win and take me out. By that time, the Jack Daniels girls who were selling drinks in the room had left, so there was nothing to look at except a bunch of dudes with serious attitudes and dreams of poker riches. I would have happily exchanged the 4.5 hours of play for a drink with one of the girls.

There are two roving poker companies in town who host the Sunday-Thursday poker tournaments at the pubs. About three weeks ago, one of them had his final at 11am on a Sunday morning for the 50 or so who qualified. I started well but blew a big hand and went downhill pretty quickly from there, finishing maybe 15th or so. The other company has their final this Sunday, so I'm looking forward to being sucked out on again like I was last night, by a first-time player who had no business at the table. So says the bitter vanquished. I've managed to win two tournaments and make a bunch of other final tables, but the one enduring lesson from this is an appreciation for professionals who sidestep landmine after landmine in daily tournaments to make a living at the game. It really is quite an accomplishment just to make the final table at a 50 person tournament, much less a 1,500 player tournament or 4,000 player tourney. The one built-in advantage of the pub tournaments is that a bunch of the players buy raffle tickets for $5 or $10 and if their card is drawn receive 5,000 or 10,000 in extra chips. For doing nothing, essentially, except contributing to the revenue of the poker company staging the tournament. So, I don't put too much stock in winning these tournaments because I'm opposed to buying the raffle, while others could be short-stacked, win the raffle, and be in good position to make the final table. Anyway, the moral of the story: poker is about luck, yes, to some degree, but it's just as much about betting, and that's the reason you see the professionals finish consistently higher than you do amateurs, keen on winning a $500,000 tournament and then vanishing into the ether.

I'm soliciting for a sponsor. And a Jack Daniels girl.

Not necessarily in that order.