Television Poker

I've always dabbled but never really put myself full force into the arena of Television Poker. It looked exciting. The suspense, the all-ins, the never knowing if your opponent was bluffing or if you were dominated. Seeing the pros push each other around and then eventually taking in the lovely girl on the floor as she perform their exit interviews. It looked glamorous but was tournament play really that cool?

The thought of forking over hard earned money for the chance of coming away empty handed didn't appeal to me in the slightest. When I first started playing poker I was of the firm belief that real poker was of the limit variety. Grinding out an acceptable win rate to sustain and improve ones bankroll. Having a 300 big bet cushion to survive the inevitable swings but always knowing that in the end I'd come out on top. Sure the occasional freeroll or $5 tournament was a fun distraction but there were just too many variables to contend with. Making these a steady staple of my poker diet just didn't make much sense.

Then I went and won what was at the time my biggest poker victory. I won the PokerSourceOnline.com freeroll tournament for a CardPlayer Cruise. It was very exciting and things went my way but I still didn't take tournament play all that seriously. I thought I had, but really I wasn't putting much time into it. I played Sit-n-Go's every now and then, took in a few more tournaments but still, nothing hard core.

Then we fast forward to March of 2005. I posted a very nice win in an Absolute Poker $6,000 guarantee tourney. Then I tried another tournament and things began to click. The puzzle pieces were sliding into place and my play had improved. I'm even considering getting Harrington's book on Hold'em. This would be a big leap for me since I don't like reading poker books that much.

My improved play still hasn't helped me that much when it comes to the tournaments where I feel I must perform well. When I'm in a WPBT event or a PSO league tournament I always seem to end up middle of the pack. I don't know if this is due to trying to get fancy or just trying too hard. At any rate I hope I'm over that when the WSOP event tournament rolls around this Sunday.

I'm going to start making the effort to play one tournament a night while I multi-table 2 or 3 $1/$2 limit tables to clear my various bonuses. This should allow me to play ABC on the limit tables and concentrate on the multi-table tourney. Since March 5th I've played in 19 multi-table tournaments, with 7 money finishes, 4 final tables, and 2 wins. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.