Poker Season

Sometimes I like to play poker tournaments. A friend from church has one periodically with prizes and all the entry fees go to charity. Hopefully I'll get around to playing in it this year.

If you've read BigManWalking long you might remember that 2 years ago my wife and I went to the Bahamas because I won a free (yes, free) preliminary tournament that earned me a seat in a BIG tournament as well as the trip and most of our accomodations and airfare. There were 10,000 people in Phase One and you had to finish in the Top 18 to get a ticket to Phase Two.

In Phase Two there were 1349 people and you had to earn 1st Place in order to win the trip. Second Place got zero. Goose Egg. Nada. Not even a Starbucks coupon. I came in first place and we had a wonderful time in the Bahamas. I lasted 13 hours the first day and 15 minutes on the second. Tough competition in that tournament taught me something. I was playing too conservatively (except for my final hand)!

Now I'm working on winning a trip to Copenhagen or somewhere else in Europe.

I have a lot of experience as I worked in casinos in the early to mid '90s.

To paraphrase an advertisement from the '70s - If you gamble, play poker. If you don't, then don't start.

And, kids...stay in school!

Keep walking!