Increasing the Luck Factor

   You might think, for someone keen to find a live poker game, that the situation at my club would be ideal. I go up to this local RSA (Returned Servicemen's Association) Club most weeks, usually on a Thursday night or Saturday afternoon, to play a bit of pool and have a few beers. As it happens, there is a poker tournament on every week on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. While it's true that I've played in this tournament a couple of times, I have no intention of playing in it again, except possibly as a bit of a diversion from time to time, like going to put a bet on the horses.
   These tournaments are run by an outfit called the National Pub Poker League (NPPL), and they can be found in pubs and clubs all over New Zealand (and, I believe, Australia). They bring along the tables, chips cards etc, and someone to run the tourney and in return they get paid a fee. They are providing entertainment designed to bring in customers in much the same way as that provided by quiz nights or karaoke.
   There are a number of reasons why I don't want to play in NPPL games. Firstly, there is the entry fee. You can actually play in these competitions for free, but then you don't qualify to win the cash prize and you start with a small chip stack. If you choose to pay, you get more chips. You can pay from $5 to $20 at the start and get a correspondingly larger chip stack. What's more, there is an add-on at the first break where you can pay from $5 to $20 and get even more chips. Whenever I play in a tournament I always aim to buy in for the maximum amount, to give myself the best advantage in the game. This means I'd have to pay $40 to enter this tournament, which is way beyond my buy-in range. On top of this, you get extra chips when you buy stuff over the bar, which is not that big a problem for me, but it's another factor that goes towards creating an uneven playing field.
   Another problem is that there is only one cash prize, second and third being bar tabs. While it's nice to have a bar tab, it's nicer to have the cash, especially if you're paying in cash to play the game. There are a couple of other things that bug me about this format. One is the 'bounty' on the head of one player on each table. If you eliminate this player you get more chips; yet another way of increasing the variance in the game.  The other is the fact that the blinds are increased much faster as the end of the tournament approaches and the number of players dwindles. This hardly seems fair to the players who have made it to the end and suddenly find themselves playing in a turbo (quick-fire) tournament.
   While all this is enough to keep me away anyway, the thing that really gets me is the 'lucky draw'. If you pay to play, you get to pick numbers for the lucky draw. The more you pay, the more numbers you get. The draw is done just after the start and the winners get even more chips. Then the same procedure is carried out after the add-on. More lucky chips! In effect, the person with the most chips at this stage is likely to be the person who paid the most and/or got luckiest with the chip draws. It turns the whole affair into a giant craps shoot. If I want to shoot some craps, I'll go up to the casino. If I want to play in a poker game, I'll go somewhere else.
   OK, I understand that this is a pub game and the aim is to get the punters in and buying drinks. Obviously, these guys are interested in a fun night out and a bit of a gamble. The tourney is structured to appeal to them, not a po-faced poker wannabe like me. But it still bugs me that a live poker game is going on right under my nose, but I cant play in it as a matter of principle!
   We all know that poker is a game that incorporates a subtle and at times downright scary mixture of skill and luck. Even the best players (and I'm certainly not in that category) can be beaten by the luck of the cards. The last thing the game needs is to have the luck factor increased. However, it's a sad fact that this is often the case.
   When I used to play in a local Friday night tournament it was usually run in a straightforward way. But occasionally the organisers would throw some extra chips into the pot for a 'bonus round', another way of increasing the luck factor. I also played in a special one-off Saturday tourney that they ran where chip raffles were sold. These raffles were sold to the players through most of the day, and the prizes were extra tournament chips.
   This is also the reason why I don't play in turbo tournaments online. In any poker game or tournament there are bound to be up and down periods for every player. In tournaments, the bigger your starting stack and the slower the blind increases, the greater is your ability to ride out these fluctuations. In turbos, the luck of the draw becomes more important, pushing the balance in favour of the less skilled players. That's why I prefer deep-stack tournaments when I can find them.
   Basically, what it comes down to is increasing your edge. We can all be knocked around by the fall of the cards, so we need every advantage we can find. They say that game selection is one of the most important poker skills. Call me fussy if you like. I prefer the word 'selective'.