If It Was Real: 340-Game Report

Some professional poker players are billed on TV as "cash game specialists."  We tend to think that label does not apply to us.  That's because we play in tournaments a lot more often -- and in recent weeks, we've played fairly well.

Our last check of the scoreboard occurred in mid-June, when we marked five years of live tourney action.  In the 18 games since then, we've reached the final table seven times -- and they've resulted in one win (actually a settlement, but we had more chips), one tie for second place (also a settlement) and one fourth-place finish.

So when we plug those results into our hypothetical casino prize matrix, here's how we stand at live games:

BUY-INS: 340 nights x $50 = $16,500

First -- 6 ($3,000)
TIE for first: 1 ($450)

Second - 9 ($3,600)
TIE for second: 1 ($350)

Third -- 9 ($2,700)
TIE for third: 1 ($250)

Fourth - 13 ($2,600)
TIES for fourth:
4 two-way ($600)
1 three-way ($67)

Fifth -- 16 ($1,600)
TIES for fifth:
5 two-way ($250)
1 three-way ($17)

TOTAL -- 67 for $15,484

A $900 investment in the last 18 games would have paid us $1,050 -- or a 16.7% gain.  But overall, our payouts are still down 6.2%.  We used to do better than that, and we plan to keep working in that direction.