Why do I continue to believe I may some day win a million or more in a Poker tournament like the World Series or a World Poker Tour event?
After making the final table at more than one $35 121+ person tournament and a $100 – 64 person tourney at the Muckleshoot in Auburn, I thought I’ve repeated my success enough to possibly to take it to a higher level. I also made a few final tables at smaller casino events in the Puget Sound.
So, I went to the mother of all gambling places: Las Vegas…
After I got to the 1st ever Mirage Showdown in 2004 (the first Mirage Showdown) and failed to get past 2 rounds in the $1000, $1500, and main event where I dumped $10,000 of the $13,000 I earned the day before, I thought I really wasn’t good enough for the national stage. However, I entered a $200 + rebuys consolation tournament where David Williams, the 2nd place finisher to Greg Raymer to the World Series of Poker that just concluded a couple months prior played in the tournament I entered along with reknown
poker player and author TJ Cloutier and a number of other famous players like Jennifer Harmon. Not only did I go up against Williams and Cloutier and even played a cash game with Jennifer Harmon, but I took 4th in that 100+ person tournament.
I’ve had a little online success, but didn’t really hone my skills or my temperament until 2008. I won many 1 table sit and go’s, but couldn’t really get beyond just cashing in larger tournaments. However, in 2008, I won my first 700+ person tournament (734 people, to be exact) online or anywhere. Yes, it was a $1 buy in, but when you get into the final 30 or 40 players, the caliber of play and seriousness tightens up and is similar to the quality of play in larger buy ins because the money starts to increase. The final table definitely had decent play, but yet I found a way to beat out 733 others on Sept 8th of this year.
Also, recently, I’ve been getting deep in thousand person plus and two thousand person plus tournaments and cashing. I’ve been making mistakes though toward the end and them costing me more money. I’ll write about those later. Some of the results posted below.
How do I know how it feels in terms of quality of play and intensity toward the end of a tournament?
Well, the 4th place finish in the Mirage consolation tournament gave me the experience, but none was more memorable than a 5th place finish in a Grand American Poker Classic in 2005 in Tunica. I remember thinking there was no way I would make it to the end on my first table. We were joking and acting as if we were all just screwing around. As the tournament progressed, I went up and down on the way to what I thought was a middle of the tournament departure. Then in the last few stages, my average or below average stack started climbing significantly per round and ended in the final 20 players. Getting from the 20 players down to the last table and eventually my two bad beats which booted me out in 5th felt like survial constantly despite not being the smallest stack. The blinds were just so large that each decision was so critical.
I also thought my success in Washington which by proportion seems to have produced some of the best grown players throughout the world like Lee Watkinson (close to $4 million in winnings), Scott Clements (over $3 million in winnings), Lee Markholt, Quinn Do, Vivek Rajkumar and Brandon Cantu (originally from Vancouver, WA) may prove I can play with the best of the best on the national level. While I can’t say I remember playing with any of these Washingtonian guys, I did play against Cindy Violette, Gavin Smith, Men the Master Nguyen, Jennifer Harmon (like I said earlier) and many other professional poker players without too many problems.
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Online successes (There’s actually 70+ results I could post, but just posting a few here):
PokerStars Tournament #117601380, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $8.00/$0.80
1260 players
$872.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com
Total Prize Pool: $35000.00
Tournament started – 2008/11/05 – 10:00:00 (ET)
You finished the tournament in 46th place.
A $66.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 100.30 tournament leader points in this tournament.
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PokerStars Tournament #117601351, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
2016 players
Total Prize Pool: $10080.00
Tournament started – 2008/11/04 – 09:00:00 (ET)
You finished the tournament in 92nd place.
A $14.12 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 80.52 tournament leader points in this tournament.
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PokerStars Tournament #118364193, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $4.00/$0.40
180 players
Total Prize Pool: $720.00
Tournament started – 2008/11/04 – 09:18:06 (ET)
You finished the tournament in 15th place.
A $8.64 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 56.41 tournament leader points in this tournament.
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PokerStars Tournament #117978763, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $6.00/$0.50
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $54.00
Tournament started – 2008/11/02 – 11:47:38 (ET)
You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $27.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 45 Sit & Go Leader Board Points for the Venus Division in this tournament.
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PokerStars Tournament #117951906, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
27 players
Total Prize Pool: $135.00
Tournament started – 2008/11/02 – 09:16:29 (ET)
You finished the tournament in 3rd place.
A $24.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 38 Sit & Go Leader Board Points for the Venus Division in this tournament.
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PokerStars Tournament #117940388, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $15.00/$1.00
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $135.00
Tournament started – 2008/11/02 – 07:46:20 (ET)
You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $67.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 45 Sit & Go Leader Board Points for the Earth Division in this tournament.
