Tao of Poker

Postponed

Thanks to everyone who showed up to root me on in the Aussie Million Satellite last night on Party Poker. Twenty-seven players entered with one first place Aussie prize package going to the winner. Second place would have gotten $1800, third place $1080, and fourth place $720. Due to a problem with their server, the tournament never started at 11:15 pm, and I sat at my table for twenty minutes before I called up support. Everyone was seated but the tourney never began. I was on hold for ten minutes before support told me that the tournament would be canceled. That was thirty minutes after the scheduled start time.

I was irked. A lot of people contacted me during the day asking me for my screen name so they could watch. I felt bad for them. My brother stayed up late to watch and had to get up early to go to work, as did plenty of the other players. Party Poker failed to properly communicate the problem status with any of the tournament players. I never would have found out what was up unless I called them.

Here's the email they sent me:

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

We have refunded back the freeroll to your account and you can go ahead and register for the next week tournament. Our technical department tried hard to start the tournament, but due to technical constraints they were not able to start it and that is the reason why it was canceled and it was later posted on the lobby.

We thank you for your support and cooperation in this matter.

I don't know how some of you prepare for a big poker game or a tournament. For me, I try to have a mellow day leading up to game time. Since the tournament was scheduled for 11:15pm and I got up very early, I had a full day in which I did everything possible not to slip into an anxious groove. The half hour before the event started was when I began to psyche myself up. I was mentally prepared by the time I sat down. When the delayed happened, I had to wait without knowing the status of the tourney. That was taxing. I tried not to get too outta whack and lose my focus on the game, but I was agitated due to Party Poker's fuck up. I was treating last night like a fist fight. I was ready to viciously throw down and get my ass kicked. If I was going to lose, I was going to go down swinging. You didn't expect me to just fold away my chance at a shot at $1 Million Aussie bucks, did you? You can imagine the state of mind I was in when I was told, "You won't be brawling tonight."

The tournament has been rescheduled for Saturday Sept. 18th at 11:15 pm EST. I have a free roll to play in that one and I'll be signing up. My only problem is that I think there will be more players in this event. I really liked my chances when I had a 1 in 27 chance at winning. A Saturday night satellite will probably draw more entrants than a Wednesday night one. I'll drop to a 1 in 50 shot now. All because Party Poker dropped the ball.

Thanks again for everyone who stopped by. Your support is humbling. If you have nothing to do on Saturday, feel free to stop by and say hello.