The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I was talking to one of my buddies about a game he was going to play on a Friday night:

"So how many guys are coming out?"
"Oh, we got nine."
"That's a good turnout. How much is the buy-in?"
"$10. We don't want to go broke."
"Fair enough. So how does it pay out?"
"Winner take all."
"What?"
"Winner take all."
"Are you serious, with nine people?"
"Yeah, that's the way we do it."

No matter how good a poker player you are, you can't always win. Losing is inevtiable. World Champion Phil Hellmuth says poker is (from memory) 65% luck and 35% skill. I actually think it might be higher than that, but hey, take Hellmuth's word over mine, he's making a living out of it! Anyway, my point is no matter how skillful you may be, if you're getting dealt 7-2 offsuit each hand there's only so many skillful bets and raises you can make to stay in the game; you will eventually need cards to win pots. That is why I will never play a game that doesn't payout to more than 1 person. If it's a shorthanded game, say 4 people, it's probably ok to just pay 1st place. But with nine, I wouldn't play unless the top 3 paid out. Sure, you get paid well IF you win in a "winner take all" payout structure, but how often does that happen? And sometimes you might play well when there's a full table, but be lousy when playing heads-up (1 on 1). In my view, you should still get some sort of reward for getting to be one of the last remaining people playing; it takes some skill to get there.

In addition, you should only play games you feel comfortable playing. A $20 buy-in tournament was turned down by a friend of mine because she's used to playing $10 games. I think that's a good idea. If it's too much for you, don't play. If you go against this thinking and decide to play anyway, you'll probably worry too much about the amount of your wager so you won't be able to concentrate and play a good game. Put up money you're ok with losing, and play in games where you can get a decent return on your investment, even if you finish 2nd or 3rd.