If it was real III

After every ten local poker nights, we stop and see how we're doing -- and if we would do well playing at a casino.

The last time we checked after 50 nights, our potential return on investment would have been almost 97 percent. After 60? Let's see....

Assuming a $50 buy-in to tournaments: 50 x 60 = $3,000.

Just like our last check, we've only had top five finishes twice in the last ten poker nights. (Not to make excuses, but two of those nights were in extra-large tournaments at Club H2O.) We had a first place and a 5th. So based on our presumed payout scale of $500 for the winner, down to $100 for fifth....

First -- 4 ($2,000)
Second - 3 ($1,200)
Third -- 3 ($900)
Fourth - 4 ($800)
TIES for fourth:
one two-way ($150)
one three-way ($67)
Fifth -- 4 ($400)

TOTAL -- 20 for $5,517.

The return on my buy-in investment is still dropping, but remains strong at 83.9 percent. And how about earning theoretical money one-third of the time? Nice, if we can ever do it....