Shuffle up and deal

My level of participation in the poker world has been limited over the last few years by the restrictions imposed by federal legislation shutting down online gaming and my level of sleep deprivation caused by child rearing. I pledged that 2008 would be the year my absence would end. This past weekend I took my first step and played in a NL tournament. The solitude of my drive home provided time for me to formulate how I should gauge the successfulness of this year’s expedition?

2008 Success Variables:
Net Winnings or Losses $$$
Money Percentage = Number of Cashes / Number of Tourneys
Victory Percentage = Number of Wins / Number of Tourneys
Depth survived in the tourney (ex. 60 enter, 28th busted, top 47%)
Positive points for busting out when making the right move
Negative points for busting out when chasing or bluffing

My hope for this system of measurement is that I can qualitatively capture the overall experience. I’ve tried to utilize the Buddhist Philosophy of “Enjoy the journey”, but there isn’t a tournament to date where I have been sent to the rail and I haven’t felt as if I were just kicked in the balls. If I win, I’m walking 3 steps above the ground. On the painful flip side, if I lose, I feel as though summer has ended and the cute girl that I’ve invested the last 3 months in is returning home-- 3000 miles away.

So, you are probably wondering how I did this weekend. I was able to add one more item to my first time list (currently comprised of: made final table, won tournament, assumed roll of bubble boy). This time the new entry is PLAYED ONE HAND. The abridged version goes like this. I folded the first round and a half with marginal hole cards. My stack was mid-size at the table and I was waiting to enter a pot when I could raise. At the 30 minute mark, I look down to find two rolled up Aces, so I figure I should play. A raise of 4x the big blind by me took the players down to 3. Mr. Big stack bet out $400 on a flop of Qh, 8s, & 10s. At this point I have top pair and ~1200 in chips with 1400 in the pot. I put Mr. Big Stack on A-Q (he was playing pretty loose and had won a pot with K-9 a few hands ago) so I move all in. The other lady folds and he calls with Qc-9d. The turn is a 4d and the river……9h.

Yep that’s poker. To date, I’m down $115, 0% for Money and Victories and I’ve survived longer than 10% of the field. I get a point for making the right move when busting out (up for argument). I’m still working on how to weight the success variables to determine is this was a good day or not.