Are you Ready for a Preliminary Event?
It seems like an odd time for my inbox to be fl ooded with this question (seriously, the 2009 WSOP schedule won’t even be released for another few months) but there’s no off-season in poker. No matter what time of year, there’s always a big buy-in tournament or two going on and where there’s a big tournament, there are smaller ones. Also, let’s admit it, even if the WSOP feels like light years away, many of us never stop thinking about taking home a bracelet.
Maybe you’ve had success online or you feel that your game is ready for that next step: the $1,000 or $1,500 NL. So how do you know when it’s time to take your shot in Vegas, shoulder to shoulder with “the best?” Time for you to answer a few questions.
You’re probably thinking I’m going to ask, how good are you really? I know this because almost everyone who emails me tells me something like “I’ve been consistently beating my home game for six months,” or “I have won (insert number) tournaments at the local casino.”
Honestly, when it comes to taking your shot at a preliminary event, I don’t think this question matters nearly as much as the ones I’m going to ask you. Don’t get me wrong. Of course skill prevails over time. The better you are at poker, the better your chances of cashing. But preliminaries are nicknamed “donkaments” for a reason. Whether it’s attributable to their fast structures or the fact that the majority of the fi elds are comprised of amateurs, in these early tournaments, truly anyone can win.
What’s your fi nancial situation?
This is absolutely the most important question that you need to answer. As any investment banker will tell you, these are tough fi nancial times and it’s very possible that things will get worse before they get better. You may be a strong player but as I said before, these tournaments are anyone’s game. Skill alone will probably not be enough to make the money. You might play a perfect tournament and still be eliminated short of the money. In fact, it happens all the time.
I literally enter every tournament expecting to win (and you should too) but I also only enter ones that I can afford to lose. No one likes to think about losing, but since only ten percent of any given fi eld gets paid, let’s get it out there: Bottom line, can you afford to play and lose? What does that money mean to you? If losing a buy-in means you can’t pay for bills, groceries, or diapers, obviously playing probably isn’t in your best interest. On the other hand, if dropping a grand is a sting you can stomach, it’s defi nitely time to book that fl ight.
What are you going to do with poker if you don’t cash?
Is this your last shot or your fi rst? When I fi rst started playing live tournaments, I busted from the fi rst two and then parlayed a satellite berth into a top fi fteen WPT Championship fi nish. I’ve had dry runs of six and nine months, but have also had multiple cashes within eight days. The point is that live tournaments are high variance. The fi nancial effect of cashing or not cashing in your fi rst preliminary event may be signifi cant but you shouldn’t put much stock in a single tournament as an indicator of your ability.
There might also be outside factors to consider. Will friends and family pressure you to quit if at fi rst you don’t succeed? When I started playing poker, some of my friends pressured me to quit. They didn’t quite understand the nature of the game and worried that poker would ruin me fi nancially.
Finally, is this what you most want to do with your $1,000?
In other words, what would you do with the money if you didn’t play? I ask myself this question before every tournament, and if the answer is do something other than poker, I just go do whatever that may be.
Even if you can afford the buy-in, you’ll always be at your best when you are really fi red up to play. Consider what else you could do with $1,000. Maybe it’s time to head to Tahoe for the sickest ten powder days of the year. Maybe it’s time to cross ‘Remodel the Guest Bathroom’ off of the Honey-Do list. Then again, if the only thing on your mind is POKER POKER POKER POKER then obviously you need to get yourself within earshot of “Shuffl e up and Deal!”
