Poker

Okay, confession. I love to play the game of Poker. Specifically, No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker. I have been playing this game for years now, at home with friends, at friends’ homes and in Las Vegas when I have gone there. Mainly, the home games have been Tournaments and the games in Vegas have been cash games.

So, the point of this blog post is to really get into the reason why I would want to play in the WSOP in 2014. I find writing helps me think “Out Loud” so to speak. This is my way of writing this to do just that.

The questions that I need to ask myself are: If I was to win the WSOP in 2014, what would I do then? What is my goal in life after that fact? What if I don’t win, but come in the Top 10(which btw is still some life changing money) would I pursue a career in Poker? Would I quit my job? Would I like to win it for the Fame? For the accolades? For the money?

To answer that, I want to dig into my history a little bit. Most recently at a home game of 33 people, I won the whole Tournament. It was a $20 buy-in with unlimited re-buys for the first hour and then a last add-on a of $20 at the break. I ended up investing $60 into this Tournament and won $600. That’s a 10 fold return on my money. It was fun, and I enjoyed playing the game as well as winning it(of course!). This is not the only home game I have won either, and I have won many other home games as well. I find that if I put my mind into it and play smart that I usually do real well in Tournaments, but I have to be focused in order to do so. The competition and beating the other player has always been something that I find as a sport very fulfilling-probably because it’s a testosterone manly emotion of beating said player.

This lent me to think, that I could somehow be a real threat in a much bigger game, like, you guessed it, the WSOP. There are many Tournaments to play during the month-long WSOP in Las Vegas every year. More importantly, there are different dollar amounts to play in. Culminating in the Big Daddy of them all, the $10,000 buy-in Tournament, which is my favorite No Limit Hold’em.

I think that if I was to try my hand at it, that I would go with a much smaller denomination Tournament at the WSOP and see how I fared and go from there.

I have played Tournaments in several casinos around the country and have cashed(Top 10) a few times. So, I know that I have the skills and abilities to do well, it’s just a matter of preparing myself physically and financially to commit to a Tournament like the WSOP in Las Vegas.

The game of Poker for me is very intriguing. I believe that it takes skill and ability to win at this game. There is an element of luck/chance in the game itself, but long-term, the players that are best at it are the ones that have the skills and talent to win. I enjoy playing the game and would love to make it as a career, but that’s more of a dream than a reality in my life now.

So, I’m not sure still what I would do if I was to win the whole thing. I think I would take a stab at it as a career and see where that takes me. I’m not so worried about the money as much as I would be at making it a fun career/life pursuit. Money is a bonus rather than a focus for me and always has been in my life and career pursuits. As long as I was happy at whatever I was doing, I always felt that things would take care of themselves. Ultimately, I think winning the whole thing would be my goal and complete thrill of my life.

To conclude, I want to play in the WSOP this next year and see how I do and really put an end or a beginning to what I feel is a bucket-list item, to play in the WSOP.