As poker rises in popularity, so does the slang for the game. And if you don’t speak slang, you are inadvertently losing out on a lot of fun. That’s right, you read the latest hizzle about how a certain sports team is supposedly the most likely to win the big game this weekend, and you . . . hey, so did I. . It’s a lot of work to be a master of the language, especially when you have to make sense of a multitude of queries and phrases used in poker, such as, how much did he raise pre-flop, what does this mean, what are the odds against this team, what are the odds against this team winning their match-up, what are the rich or poor players, what are their standing in the tournament, etc. etc.
Given that it takes several hours to truly master the craft of poker, you could be quite absorbed while playing and not noticing what’s going on around you. Interestingly enough, there are some who play better than others who also realized they could make more money playing poker than they do sitting around waiting for fives to hit. Indeed, there are some players who had to wait nearly two decades to start playing seriously and make enough money to pay their mortgage and buy a new car, while at the same time being a professional poker player.
As it turns out, poker and particularly, no limit Texas hold’em, is a game so powerful that even the most unlucky or unlucky player out there, will at least win 40 to 1 every time, at the very least. Add that kind of power to the fact that skill combines with no limit mentality, and you have a potent combination. Or, get to the other extreme and say that luck is really just a series of huge mistakes, and you have the makings of a powerful player.
As poker rises in popularity, these types of players are going to become more and more famous. And as famous as they are now, waitresses and casinos are going to find ways to trap them into playing for much more than the amount of money they entered as players. As poker players see more and more of these, the caliber of the players will rise with each one.
To some, entering MPO500 tournaments is a chance to unwind and have fun. To others, it’s a chance to make a little (or a lot, depending on the scope of the tournament) money. For many, however, it’s a chance to escape reality for a little while and spend some money, in hopes of making it back through another tournament. For a lot of people, poker is a chance to forget about the problems in life altogether, or to have fun as they win money.
As poker tournaments become more and more well known, more and more people are trying to win them. . . most of the time, they don’t just want to win money; they want to beat the best. That’s what a lot of these tournaments in the masters tournaments are about. Players pit their poker wits against each other, play each other at their skill level, and aim to come out on top.
Whether it’s a $1,000,000 tournament, or a local tournament with a few hundred players, the goal is to win.
And the higher the price of the tournament, the higher the stakes are. Most of the time, the ends of these multi-table tournaments will create buyouts well into the six-figure range. Most people don’t go into a tournament with the intent of winning; it’s more likely to be a last-minute attempt to double-up your stack. So the payouts are higher, and the attention to detail in design and execution is higher.
You can’t get a multi-table tournament in Las Vegas without seeing a couple hundred people, and that’s just on the initial table. Then all of a sudden, there are thousands. Then, the Sunday before the big tournament, there are ten grand in prizes. You can’t argue with that!
