If it was real: 100-game report

So what have we learned, after walking into 100 poker tournaments? When it comes to the game -- we're not doing that badly at this thing.

We mentioned in the last post that we've made the final table 41 times in 100 nights. We've earned money nine times, for first or second place. But in a real casino with a 30-40 player game, the top five positions would be rewarded with money. Using the rules at Harrah's in our home area of Kansas City, it would break down this way....

BUY-INS: 100 nights x $50 = $5,000

Our last ten outings went fairly well -- with a handshake-settled tie for first place, an outright fifth and a tie for fifth (two players eliminated at once). Presuming a payoff of $500 for first, $400 for second and so on, here's the grand total:

First -- 4 ($2,000)
TIE for first: 1 ($450)

Second - 4 ($1,600)
Third -- 4 ($1,200)
Fourth - 5 ($1,000)
TIES for fourth:
one two-way ($150)
one three-way ($67)

Fifth -- 7 ($700)
TIE for fifth: 2 ($100)

TOTAL -- 29 for $7,267.

(We only realized as we compiled this that we misfigured our "top five" total at 80 and 90 games -- shortchanging ourselves! That should be fixed now.)

So in a real casino format, we'd make money nearly 30 percent of the time -- and get a 45.3 percent return on our buy-in investment. We'd love to know how this compares with professional poker players. But how many of them are willing to post this sort of information -- such as how many times they miss the money?

NOTE: Now that we've hit the 100-game mark, we won't be posting these updates on our performance that often. We do this to show what a Christian newcomer can do, starting poker from scratch.