Mission Accomplished

I got down to Canterbury about 5 PM yesterday, just in time to see Harry Cohn bust out in 20th place. Mr. Cohn was the last player left who could overtake me for the points lead, so his bustout sealed the deal. I returned four hours later at the conclusion of the final table to have a couple photos taken with the trophy and pick up the $2500 prize money.

This is the #1 accomplishment of my poker career so far, although the money is relatively insignificant (I know that comment will make a lot of people sick). The truth is that if you want to make serious money playing poker, playing $200 and $300 tournaments is not the way to go about it. The way to do it is to play high-stakes cash games, and maybe some big buy-in (5k or more) championship tournaments. My guess is that the best player in the world would have a hard time banking more than 200k a year travelling around playing small tourneys.

For me, the importance of this award is confidence. For the first time in my life I am a poker champion, although I still have never won a tournament of more than 20 players. I conquered the card club of my nightmares, a place that had repeatedly beaten me down over the years. Before this year, I had been to Canterbury about ten times and had never walked away a winner. Yesterday I walked out as just that.

I may never play again at Canterbury, but I will always remember it for the milestones reached there. The first time I ever played poker at a casino was at Canterbury early in my junior year, and it was a devastating debacle of a night that left me short on funds but hungry for redemption. A year later I would return and play my first live tournaments there, without success. I went back several times last year, usually to play tournaments. One time I got all in with AA against KK with two tables left in a tournament and lost. Another time I had KK lose to AK for a monster pot. It's fitting that my tournament breakthrough took place at the site of so many frustrations.

Next up: Foxwoods in mid-November, followed by the inevitable return to another site of failure and frustration: Vegas.