What a way to make a buck

and by "a buck", I mean that literally *L*

Of late, in my free time, I’ve been playing a fair amount of Texas Hold’em poker, via the various free servers online. I find the mental warfare of the game to be on par with a good game of chess, especially online where the term "poker face" takes on a whole new meaning (since players have no visible tells in the online environment). I find the game to be both fun and somewhat of a stress reliever, as strange as it may seem to relieve stress through mental warfare.

Anyway, the server I’ve been playing on mostly is PokerChamps, which was created by three-time World Poker Tournament champion Gus Hansen. Playing here, Gus has allowed for unlimited "freeroll" tournaments, one every hour, with the top 28 players in each tournament receiving money for their performance … $1 each for ranks 4-28, $2 for 3rd, $3 for 2nd, and $5 for first (small, but still something, considering it costs nothing to download the software and play in the freeroll tournaments).

Amazingly enough, even though I don’t consider myself to be that good of a Hold’em player, I competed in a tournament of 1732 people last night … 2 hours and many hands later, I found myself eliminated, but not before holding the #5 rank for a large portion of the tournament, and finishing in 14th overall …

14th, out of 1732 poker players from around the world …

… what a way to make a buck