Commitment

Here's something that pisses me off.  Let's say a bunch of people make some noise and want something.  Someone then picks up the ball, runs with it, and delivers more than anyone could have ever expected - a completely awesome solution.  In addition to the work the guy puts forth - voluntarily - to set this up, he routinely maintains what he's created, sends out reminders to make sure people are up to date with the latest, and keeps more than enough variety in it so that it will never get stale. 

And then people decide they really don't want what he's offering.  So they just stop coming. 

People clamored for the return of the Ante Up poker night.  It used to be nothing more than a bunch of people meeting in flash chat and finding some tables/SNGs to sit at.  It never had any organization and kind of died off.  Then the masses spoke up and wondered what happened to it.  Snuffy comes along and sets up a 2-3 month long series of events - all affordable - crossing the breadth of available games.  People show up.  It's fun.  It's challenging. 

And now the crowds have thinned.  Yeah, maybe it's summer or maybe there are other valid reasons, but the change in the turnout the last few weeks is quite disappointing.  What a shame, because it's the best routine, affordable option to play tournament poker against quality opponents. 

For me, last night's PLO was just more of the same.  I chipped up a bit early, then played tight - perhaps too tight as I NEVER got action with a preflop raise, and just held on for dear life as I got a horrendous string of cards once we filled out the full table.  I cashed - finishing third - and went out in the worst of ways, shoving into the nuts.  I had some middling connected cards, made a small raise and got called by Snuffy.  The flop was three middling diamonds giving me a flopped straight.  I shoved my short stack into the nut flush.  Happens. 

But, as always, it was fun.  The play was, by and large, very very good.  There was a fair share of rivered suckouts, but that's PLO. 

After bouncing out, I sat at a micro PLHE table and pulled down about 1.5x my buy-in in profit in under an hour and said good night.  Me thinks it's time to bump up a level in the table stakes.