This is The World According to Buchs - Keepin’ it moving since 2003!

In what may be the worst development ever, I’ve discovered the world of online gambling.

Now, those that know me are aware that I have a gambling “issue” - it’s not a problem, it’s just an issue. I enjoy laying a wager down. It’s most likely genetic - both my parents also enjoy gaming.

Last Saturday afternoon, it was relatively miserable outside, and Judy & I had no plans for the day. I had already cleaned the place, so I really had nothing to do. Judy was doing some reading, so I jumped on the computer.

Now, the night prior to this I was at a little poker-playing shindig. I didn’t do so well - first man out. No big deal, I had fun anyways. But, before leaving for the tournament, I did some last minute research online. What I found was a universe full of virtual poker rooms.

Most, if not all, of these online establishments allow you to freely register for an account and play for imaginary chips. Once you get the hang of that, they hope that you’ll decide to give it a go for real stakes.

So, on this saturday afternoon with nothing to do, I signed up for an account, and “funded” it with a few bucks. There was a series of online tournaments going on. For $3 American, I entered myself into a satellite tournament. The specifics of the game were No-Limit Texas Hold’Em, with unlimited re-buys for the first hour. Pretty quickly, I saw that there were a large number of people taking advantage of the re-buys. I saw one guy in particular go “All-In” and lose on 4 consecutive hands, dropping another $3 for more chips each time. I decided that my $3 was enough for the day.

Well, after about 2 hours, it got down to the last 20 or so players, with the top 10 getting a free “seat” at the next level of the tournament. I was lucky enough to catch a few good hands, and was sitting in about 4th place overall. As players kept getting knocked off, we were getting closer to stopping play - all you had to do was make it into the top 10. On the final hand of play, I went head-2-head against the 3 players ahead of me, and won. That earned me a seat at the next level of the tournament, which was to be played at 10:30 PM that night. The top 10 at that game would advance to the $1,000,000 finals in March.

We were a little late getting back from the Marquette game that night, so I missed out on the first half-hour of play. Luckily for me, the rules stated that they would automatically post my blinds and fold every hand until I showed up. When I logged in, I had only run through less than $100 of my $1500 stake - not bad! There were no re-buys at this level, so play wasn’t as aggressive.

I hung on for quite a while, playing into the wee hours of the AM. At about 1:00, I was in about 25th place, but the short stack in the game. With blinds and antes moving up quickly, I was put in a position where I pretty much had to go all-in on a semi-desireable hand. And lost. Still, it was pretty exciting to be playing for a chance at *one million dollars*. Well, technically a chance-at-a-chance-at-one-million-dollars.

Since then, I’ve managed to stay away. Perhaps I’ll drop in again this weekend and see what’s shaking.