What IS up with poker these days? Sheesh: mostly dumbass drama that no one cares about, with a sprinkling of positive projects making it tolerable. For the players donating time, effort, and money to get vets, females, and underfunded players into big tournaments, Flynn says good on ya.
A short commentary about tournament poker attendees & participants before getting to the personal poker sagas:
While excluded from the upper-echelons of poker conversations surrounding stakes and game choices, what Flynn sees, hears, and reads about the AVERAGE/low-stakes poker player is not being optimized by poker rooms. Attention and advertising are given to tournament series, ones of large buy-ins. The big $ tournaments are great for the bottom line, sound impressive and draw names. However, these series also recycle the same players repeatedly: the players that can afford it, have backers, and are buying pieces of each other. For the average poker player, streams and production are boring to watch or keep track of unless one has a vested interest, like a relative, friend or favorite player in the running. The average tournament player cannot afford $10k entries (or even $2,500 entries), especially when most of the field is re-entering/buying like money doesn’t matter. Ask any player at a 1/3 NL cash game or the $65 noon daily (anywhere) who won the main event at the US Poker Open, and we bet a buck they can’t tell you. Hot tip for poker executives: the rest of us would love to play a tournament series if we could afford it and we knew about it. Second hot tip: there are MORE low-rollers than high-rollers – just check Bravo.
Yes, there are small daily tournaments at each poker room, easily affordable. The attendance is pathetic and predictable, the marketing is cursory at best, and the fun factor is invisible. There are small, more affordable series at independent & rural casinos, however they do not have the draw or marketing power that the hotspots/metropolitan locales like LV have going for them. Players don’t put in the effort to go to Pendleton, OR unless they live nearby. Pump it up, folks. Put together a SERIES for the ‘cheap’ players. Make the most of it over one three-day weekend and have fun with it: all buy-ins at a hundred bucks or less. Have simple mixed games, bounty tourneys, a seniors’ event AND a juniors’ event (under 30) and some $20 turbo satellites for the grand finale. Pre-reg 3 tournaments and get a 5% discount. Severely restrict the number of games that have re-entry or re-buy/add-ons to none, preferably. Have a reasonably priced food cart available for pizza, dogs, and premade salads. Promote the heck out of it. The editor believes it would set records galore if someone cared enough to market it. Sure, it would take manpower and the vig wouldn’t be great, but it would sure bring new players to the table in the future.
The editor could go on and on with ideas about getting new and more blood into the poker beast, if only someone would listen. We can only try. Thoughts? Would you attend a 3-day “Bankroll-Saver Tournament Series” at the Aria (or Horseshoe, or Resorts World, or Sahara)?
On to Flynn’s poker activities. The short of it is, he’s been doing pretty good. The bankroll has grown a bit since he tweaked his mindset about the game. It is now a job, not entertainment. Sheer stubbornness, concentration, and patience has helped. Mostly the former.
Flynn played the HORSE tournament in the Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Game meet-up at Resorts World in April. As most of our faithful readers know, it is a rare event for Flynn to play any tournament at all, however if he does, a HORSE tournament is his preference. There were 81 players, he final-tabled and cashed that bad-boy in 7th (or was it 6th?). It was a long, long night day, but worth it in so many ways, as Flynn was able to meet (or re-meet) several cool people. Thanks to Robbie for putting it together!
Robbie Strazynski, founder & all around nice guy.
Unfortunately, Flynn had to miss the April CSOP tournament. He has a great record at these events of final-tabling, and loves being involved as a volunteer when needed. Great causes folks, check it out! Charity tournaments are so much fun, and worth the time. Give some back, please.
4/4/2023: Cash games have been profitable. A bit of a swing, but so far chipping up the bankroll. Of course, the way Flynn plays it could all be gone in one session. He has taken to 2/5, as 1/3 is just too unpredictable for his style of play. The characters at the 2/5 tables are less interesting than 1/3 for the most part – they don’t drink. There is one regular player who reminds Flynn of the character Janice from “Friends” if she were 40 years older; odd duck indeed, and very, very, very determined to never ever be wrong about anything. She table hops like mad. Character #2 is a serious fellow of mid-30’s, who mouth breathes; it’s weird – just sitting there with his mouth open most of the time until he remembers to close it. Character #3 is any player with a man-bun; they are all grinders and play the same, like they went to man-bun poker school. Only #1 talks. Thanks to Central Casting for sending them our way. Flynn loves people-watching. And Flynn loves turning quads, and having his opponent hit the boat on the river… yes, it happened. Ship all the chips.
In other news, Flynn has been investigating the reason behind the new no-video/vlogging policy at the poker tables. (MGM and we think Caesars Ent ~ Wynn still allows it, and maybe Resorts World). The only consensus we have so far is “it came down from legal”. However, the rumor is that it might have something to do with the SLOT players who are (were) streaming on Twitch. Can’t get the deets, still working on it. Sean M is supposedly trying to get an exception for poker rooms now… but he is ghosting us so we can’t confirm any of this.
4/6/2023: Refer back, if you would, to the statement made on 4/4 about losing ALL the profits (and then some) in one session. Clearly Flynn is not as good as he was hoping he was. Back to the drawing board.
Flynn really should take notes on poker room shenanigans, so we can entertain you with stories of the fights, unusual hands, and relay better character summaries. But, it’s a job now, so we have to focus on the game.
More poker rants, commentary, unsolicited advice, and op-eds will be forthcoming. Unless we quit poker.
Fin
Flynn