FTOPS Profit

The last couple of nights, I have turned a nice profit from Events #1 and #3 of the FTOPS on full tilt. And I didn't play either event.

See, on Wednesday night I did play a little poker, which consisted mainly of me getting suckout-eliminated from four separate tournaments in the early part of the night. But one thing I noticed -- other than my inability to hold in any big pot when I was ahead when the money got in -- was that I was tired. Although he is growing like a champion, I still have a young baby at home, and that means I don't always get nearly as much sleep as I would like to get, and I guess the night before was a late one because my eyes were definitely drooping, even by as early as 8 or 9pm New York time.

At some point, I saw a system broadcast on full tilt that indicated that FTOPS Event #1 was about to start. My first thought -- after thinking "What? FTOPS is back already again?" -- was that I should play. The first event of the FTOPS is always a $216 buyin straight nlh tournament, and I've cashed in it several times over the 774 FTOPS series full tilt has run over the past several years. As I opened the tournament and gazed upon the more than 5000 entrants piling in for their shot at the elusive gold jersey, I found myself thinking about the time it was going to take to outlast that field, if the poker gods would even see fit to permit me another deep mtt run in this. I remembered how much I needed sleep just then as well. And then I did something I never used to do.

I closed the tournament without registering. Back in the old days, I would never take this kind of cue from my body, and I never listened when in my heart of hearts I knew I was not in the mental state required to navigate a large mtt effectively on a given night. And I've thrown away a lot of money that way -- thousands, I am sure -- when I never really had a chance to make a big score right from even before the first hand was dealt. But not this time. I saved myself a sure loss of $216 on Wednesday by not playing FTOPS #1, money I would surely have thrown away needlessly a couple of years ago. I did the same thing on Thursday night, when I toyed with the idea of playing the $500 nlh shootout in FTOPS Event #3, especially since I hadn't played in Event #1 the night before. But once again, cooler heads prevailed. I wasn't too tired this time around, but you know what? I really hate shootouts. This thing maxed out at 729 players, and I would need to win outright against 8 other $500 buyin players at my table in order to win anything, and even then it would be only a min cash of less than the buyin to the event. Bottom line is, it is about 100x easier to finish in the top 81 out of 729 runners in a regular mtt than it ever is to be one of the final 81 players in a 729-person shootout, because there it's only one person per table who can cash at all, and the big winners have to win their entire table twice just to be in line for the big money. And yet, despite my dislike for the shootout format in mtt's, I still held the registration window open for the better part of an hour, kicking around the idea of giving it a go. But once again, I opted to avoid what I knew would be a waste of time and money for me, and I let the FTOPS go for yet another day.

Today I have $751 extra in my full tilt account thanks to the FTOPS. And I haven't even played in the series yet.