No Ifs, It's Real: One-Year Report

This week marks one year since we moved to a new city.  We moved from a place where we were unemployed to a place where we have full-time work.  We're thankful to God for that.

In fact, it's more than full-time work -- as we're busy so many hours a week that our poker playing has dropped considerably.  So has our blogging about poker, as regular readers may have noticed.  But our poker environment also has changed in Kansas.  Instead of playing a lot of free tournaments in bars hoping to win a little prize money, now we play almost all our games in poker rooms and casinos with entry fees and bigger stakes.

So how have we done?  We added up the score, and found we've only played 17 live tournaments in the past year.  They break down this way:

WPT AMATEUR LEAGUE: One final table in two games.  That "one" was a second-place finish, with first only earning points toward a bigger tournament later.

POKER ROOMS: Eight final tables in 15 games (53.3%), 4 cashes, 1 outright win.

Those stats are rather stunning, considering we aren't playing a lot.  And our poker room performance admittedly dropped in the last six months, to two final tables out of seven.

But have we made any money doing it?  By our figuring, no.  We paid $395 in buy-ins (only a couple were more expensive than $20).  We won $220, so we had a net loss of $175.

As we mentioned in a recent post, this past year also allowed us to play in more casinos than ever before -- and also play more variations of Texas Hold 'em.  We only played one full tournament in a casino, and missed the final table there.  Otherwise, how did those do?

CASH GAME POKER: One session, down $60

ULTIMATE TEXAS HOLD 'EM: Eight sessions, down $217.50 (we were up $77.50 after two)

HEADS-UP MACHINE HOLD 'EM: Three sessions, down $19

BLACKJACK: Two sessions, up $35

Ouch!  What does it say when our most profitable game is the one which arguably has the most luck involved - blackjack?

Our online poker playing hasn't stopped completely, but it's also been reduced by our new situation:

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - two "cashes" (top ten percent) in 10 games.  No-River Hold 'em - Six point wins (about top ten percent) in eight games; four final tables, one win paying cash.

The No-River success rate is an astonishing 75%!  Perhaps we've found our "niche" specialty game there.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $88,531, up $4,031.

So overall, we're winning online a great deal.  We're winning on occasion in person, but losing overall (the total loss is about $436).  But anymore, our poker playing is less about money and more about ministry - sharing the things of God and Jesus Christ wherever we go.  After all....

Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. - Proverbs 11:4

"Lifetime winnings" make for nice statistics and healthy discussion at the table.  But once your lifetime is ended, what will you ultimately gain?  May your goal be the same as the apostle Paul:

I press on toward the goal for of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:14 (NASB)