The first poker game I played was a cashgame. I think a lot of people started with small SNG’s at home with friends but back when I started I didn’t even know you could play the game in a tournament format until at least 2 years later. My main game has always been cashgames and I doubt that will ever change but why do these tournaments still attract me?
I think it’s a struggle many poker players face and now that the SCOOP is starting on the 12th the itch to play tourneys is back again. Seeing the list of 44 different tourneys with 3 different buy-ins creates an instant reaction to grab the calendar and start planning which of these tourneys you want to play. I really love playing tournaments, nothing feels so sweet as going deep in a tournament. On the other hand nothing feels as bad as busting late in a tournament ending up with what feels like almost nothing and see another dream scattered. I’m ready for this year’s SCOOP! During the WCOOP last year I made a deep run in the $215 Limit Hold’em tourney, finishing 11th so I’m really excited again for the Limit H0ld’em format on the 20th of May, I’ll probably play all 3 buy-ins although I remember from last year that it was hard for me to focus on the low variant when still playing the high and when I busted the high buy-in it was even harder to keep playing my A-game in the low variant.
Another great thing about the SCOOP is that not only Limit Hold’em but all poker formats gets it own tournament. Super fun formats like Razz, 2-7 Triple Draw and even Badugi normally don’t get a lot of runners when played as a tournament but during SCOOP, especially the low but basically all buy-ins attract a lot more players and nothing is more fun than playing your 2nd favorite poker format in tournament with a big turnout. I just spotted that there is even a Courchevel tournament this year, I’ll have to find out how this game works myself so that’s going to be interesting 🙂
Big guarantees create dreams and nothing is more fun than dreaming about winning big prizes. I remember going to the WSOP in 2009, playing the Main Event. Months before going I lived up to this tournament and many people asked how much I could win. $8,547,042 for 1st, crazy money and enough to live the dream! After 6 hours my dream was scattered and I already started thinking about my next opportunity to go after the big money. Last year during the WSOP I played my last big tourney so it’s already a long time ago. This year I have no plans yet to go to Vegas and it’s itching already for some weeks now. I haven’t planned anything because I’m really busy with living healthy and cycling almost every week at least until mid July. Going to the WSOP this year would not really help my cycling goals for this year but I’m thinking about playing something else maybe in September/October or still go to Vegas, just not the World Series.
Busting a live tourney is even worse than an online tourney because you’re probably not multitabling a live tourney. During SCOOP you’ll probably be playing more than 1 tournament or else the next tournament will start only a couple of hours later or for sure the next day. I can’t wait to get the party started! See you around, hopefully SCOOP’ing money 🙂