I just made my annual fall trip to Vegas - it was a short one this time - only 6 days. I had family arriving, so I was only going to play 3 days of poker. I decided to play in the $200 dailies at the Wynn.
My first tournament was last Sunday at noon. I was excited to be playing since I got sick during my summer WSOP trip. Starting stacks were 25k - I love deep stacks. Then they announced you could pay $100 for a one-time add-on of 25k chips as long as you still have chips. (So you can't bust and then get your add-on). Surprisingly only half the table took advantage of this. I don't understand their logic if they even had any. Even the guy to my left who had won the tournament on Sat waited a while. '
So there I sat with 50k chips - a dream come true tournament for me!
After the first break it didn't take long before I was watching the clock for the next break- they were every 2 hours which is way too long for women - but women don't get to decide these things.
When there was still 25 minutes left I realized how many times they kept having to tell me the action is on me. I did not have my phone or ipad out as usual - I was just more interested in seeing how the people who walked by were dressed, looking at their shoes, etc. I knew nothing about the some of the players on my table and how they had been playing - I didn't care. The idea of playing that tournament until midnight or later was incredibly overwhelming. I didn't know how to get through the next 25 minutes.
And it hit me - I was almost anxious to be out of the tournament so I could go do something more fun. Then I asked myself why was I even playing? Out of habit was the answer. So I went all in, busted and enjoyed the rest of my time not playing poker. I see no reason to ever play again.
Live poker tournaments require an incredible amount of stamina and mental focus. I don't want to dedicate all of that to poker anymore.
It has been an incredible 20+years - so many great memories. But it is just not for me anymore. It costs me $300 to find out but now I know.