No World Series For Me

Earlier, I won a Pokerstars satellite tournament and qualified for today’s immense online tournament. The payoff – entries to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Final value – $11,000 per package and 150 packages were guaranteed.

When things got going at 4:30 PM, 7377 players were registered. That gave the tournament an actual cash value of $2,581,950! Since Pokerstars was collecting $20 per entrant, it also meant they were earning around $150,000 for running the tournament.

This might have been the largest single event ever played on line. If not, it was close. The numbers are mind numbing.

Early on, as single hands greatly affected the order of the participants, my PC ground close to a halt, trying to keep up with the list.

I did OK, floating up and down, mostly staying in the middle of the pack. As long as you’re not ‘short stacked’ and forced to make drastic decisions, it’s OK to float and hope to stay in the middle as the field is winnowed.

I outlasted 5503 of the 7377 and finished in 1874th place. You get no prize for that.

My Waterloo came when I sniffed out someone’s bluff. He bet strongly, but I held good cards, giving me two pair and a decent kicker. I called him to go all in.

Unfortunately, there were two more cards to draw, and he ‘caught’ on the second. In poker parlance, it was a bad beat – though not the worst by any means.

This one hand was large enough to have vaulted me closer to the lead than the middle. It was just not meant to be.

Amazingly, seven hours after the tournament started, it still hasn’t been decided. I just looked in to see 274 still standing, with 234 taking home the big prize. I feel bad for the next 40 who fall.

Maybe next year.

2 thoughts on “No World Series For Me”

  1. hey dawg,

    sorry to hear. what a field. i went so far as to register on pokerstars to sweat your cards. and you know that meant i had to fire up the dreaded pc. i showered when i was through to rinse the icky bytes off. think i acted too late though didn’t see you.

    how would you rate the competition?

    red

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *