Staying In Is The New Going Out
I was all set for going up to Luton to play the £250 tonight, until I decided otherwise at the last minute. It's been a gradual process of moving away from the "big score" mentality over the last few months, but I may have reached the end of the road for now.
I had booked the afternoon off earlier in the week, not wanting to repeat my Gutshot £200 experience of playing with cartoon-style matchsticks propping my eyelids open, but even half a day proved too much for me as I nearly lost it entirely when it transpired that the reason half my icons hadn't worked for the last week was because some juvenile twat had set up a fake backdrop on my PC for his own amusement. After I enquired "haven't you got any fucking work to do" I was OK but it's really unprofessional and not what I need at work at all. I have never understood the hacking mentality, I mean if you're trying to steal some money or fake your exam results that's one thing, but creating these viruses just out of spite and boredom, well grow up.
So after that I sloped off home but it was too hot to sleep in the afternoon (thankfully the weather has broken here just now) and I just didn't feel alert enough to go and play till 3am. So I fire up my favourite on-line tournament (find it yourself then you can cut into my added money :-)) and I have already doubled up thanks to a typically woeful opponent. When you read what happens with TV sometimes (read The Camel's account of how an ill player was treated at a WPT final), is there any point ploughing in money on long-shots if this is how it ends up even when you make it. And £250 comps can wait until I feel 100%, because I'm totally reliant on luck if I'm not.
I had booked the afternoon off earlier in the week, not wanting to repeat my Gutshot £200 experience of playing with cartoon-style matchsticks propping my eyelids open, but even half a day proved too much for me as I nearly lost it entirely when it transpired that the reason half my icons hadn't worked for the last week was because some juvenile twat had set up a fake backdrop on my PC for his own amusement. After I enquired "haven't you got any fucking work to do" I was OK but it's really unprofessional and not what I need at work at all. I have never understood the hacking mentality, I mean if you're trying to steal some money or fake your exam results that's one thing, but creating these viruses just out of spite and boredom, well grow up.
So after that I sloped off home but it was too hot to sleep in the afternoon (thankfully the weather has broken here just now) and I just didn't feel alert enough to go and play till 3am. So I fire up my favourite on-line tournament (find it yourself then you can cut into my added money :-)) and I have already doubled up thanks to a typically woeful opponent. When you read what happens with TV sometimes (read The Camel's account of how an ill player was treated at a WPT final), is there any point ploughing in money on long-shots if this is how it ends up even when you make it. And £250 comps can wait until I feel 100%, because I'm totally reliant on luck if I'm not.
2 Comments:
As you say, working for a living makes playing live tournaments difficult. And when I read about even £100 tourneys at Gutshot having rows (columns?) of regulars swapping percentages of each other, my feeling is that staying in is definitely the new going out.
Is it possible to get a straight tournament anywhere apart from online? I sometimes wonder. Tourneys might be where the fame lies, but I think that Greenstein has the right idea. Make bundles and bundles of moolah somewhere else first (such as, er, cash games) so that the tourney entries are just chump change and you don't need to worry about petty things like sponsorship, or actually winning. That way, you become more likely to do well, and you can happily watch the more famous pros worrying about where their next entry fee is coming from.
5%, anyone?
Pete
The team play is another aspect of it and while it's not a major problem in a standard payout tournament, it's one more reason not to play. It disturbs me that despite increasing accounts of it on the Gutshot forum, there's no official statement about it. I don't think there's anything sinister in that, but I do think that in the long term Barry & Derek would do better to stamp on it.
There was a very interesting post along the lines of "what if you were three handed for two seats, one of your opponents was a total cunt and you would have to spend two weeks with the guy in Vegas if he won". I had considered this scenario before and come to the conclusion that I would be dreadfully tempted to do "the wrong thing". Which is why it's better not to play.
Also I would never ever play in a single table that awarded two seats, that's just pointlessly encouraging problems. Why not a 5-handed single table for the same price ?
Andy.
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