BROOKTOWN WSOP APRIL EVENT TOMORROW

No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tomorrow at JMAC’s.

To me, it’s still a very exciting, and a very stressful day. Yes, I know that I’m insane because the thought of playing poker for 6 hours with my friends for $60 is considered stressful for me, but if you haven’t noticed by now, I like to compete. I like to keep score, and I don’t like to lose.

I’ve been thinking about my results the last few weeks, and I’ve been trying to decide what is considered successful in a Brooktown WSOP No Limit Hold ‘Em event. Obviously we all want to win, and no one wants to finish last, but what is considered losing?

Is finishing 2nd really losing? If you finish 3rd, ahead of 11 other players, did you fail?

I mean yea, the 2nd place guy "lost" heads up when it came down to the final two, but as we’ve seen over the years there is so much that you can’t control when the blinds are 4,000 8,000 and you each have 36,000 in chips. It’s pretty much going to be a coin toss.

We’ve had 14 No Limit Hold ‘Em events over the past 3+ seasons. Half of those events have been won by Rich Southard (4) and Neil Martucci (3). And although we have had 28 different players play in at least one of the 14 events, only 9 of the 28 guys have ever made it to heads up, Jay Fern and Rich being the most, each with 6 times in the final 2.

That’s an interesting statistic, although I will say that, while I think it is true that some players had an early advantage over others because of a better understanding of the game, the strategy and the odds, simply by having played and studied the game much more, that disparity has significantly decreased.

Kent Bent has been heads up in 2 out of the last 4 NL Hold Em events (having won 1, and finished 2nd in the championship) and neither Tom Brucato (9 NL cashes) nor Jay Fern (8 NL cashes) have cashed in the last 3 events, so it would appear that the field is getting stronger, and the competition tougher.

So again, what makes a successful finish? I guess that’s all relative to the players expectations, their past finishes, and how the night (bad cards, bad beats etc) actually went.

A player who has won 3 times in 3 years, and finished in the top 4 the last 5 events, would be disappointed with a 5th place finish, whereas a guy who has never won, and in the last 5 months has not finished higher than 9th may consider 5th place a successful night.

Now, as for tomorrow, I am picking Mike Triola to defeat Jay Fern, with a top 4 from Eddie P (provided he shows up on time, doesn’t go out drinking with the ladies, isn’t distracted by texts from females, and gets a good night sleep on Thursday).