Splitting the Pot

Hi Nick, don't worry, this isn't about a party this time, hehehe...

Yesterday, at the regular Wednesday JG game, we finally had a comfortable venue which helped us escape the heat plus waiters to come to our beck and call. We had a great turnout of 40 players, old and new, so we were really excited since it made the pot fairly bigger (considering the buy-in is miniscule compared to other games), and of course, to make the sport of poker alot more competitive and fun.

As I patiently waited and made sure that the game ran smoothly, in time one table collapsed, then another and another till we were down to the final table. There were 9 players at the table... Let me gather my thoughts because I'm ready to burst with rage... phew... anyway, as soon as one player busted out, the WHOLE damn table made an agreement to split the pot! Here I am thinking, "Pot? What pot?? It's too small to matter!" They decided that the chip leader get the 2nd place pot, then the 7 of them split the rest evenly amongst themselves. For some reason, I felt insulted! We organized a nice tournament for everyone with a really great blind structure to boot to make the sport fair.. I felt that they just bastardized it.

Well, of course, knowing me and my uncontrollable mouth, I told them how I felt and one of them said, "Eh, well, we're all tired." But they continued to play for the 1st and 2nd place spots for seats to the championship game. Huh? Doesn't sound logical to me! Tired my ass. So... did they get greedy that they wanted to split the money?

Number 1> The chip leader was an idiot to agree to getting the 2nd place pot, if that was me I would've taken the 1st prize and let the rest of them split the rest. He ended up winning 1st place anyway so he was an idiot to agree, so, karma, he got what he deserved. He screwed himself over... wuss. You had the chip stack, use the power!!

Number 2> The buy-in for this game is only P300, we organize these games for the love of Texas hold'em poker, nothing more, we provide a service. So when it all got down to splitting the cash among the 7 of them, I gave them P800 each. WHAT.. A.. JOKE.. ! It wasn't even worth splitting for! Hell, if the pot was 1 million pesos, hey, I got no problems with that, that would be cool to split something significant, but for 500 pesos extra after all those gruelling hours, that felt like a personal slap to my face.

Number 3> In fairness, I did question my harshness of the matter, I leaned over to a friend and whispered, "Am I over-reacting by thinking that the whole final table raped everyone of their buy-in share?" He said, "Well, don't think of it that way, they didn't raped the buy-in, they raped everyone out of some final table action. Real poker players play for the glory." I stood corrected. Just because they did that, in my opinion, they killed the exictement for the rest of us.

And finally...

Number 4> Come on, the pot didn't really matter to these rich kids, they just felt that they were "being cute" for coming up with the idea.

Okay okay okay... I am being over dramatic and ultra sensitive about the issue, we poker players know that splitting the pot is a normal occurrence among pros and poker players in general. It is OKAY to do it, I have no qualms about it at all, I'm just upset at the situation and I did explain why. I'm a purist, at least I have the balls to play all the way til the last man stands... and as our group likes to yell out once in awhile, "For the glory!"

For me, whether it's a P100 buy-in or a P5,000 one, I'll play it like it matters. Play your best at all times. Because someone at that table, that P100 might mean it's his last money in his pocket and that he'll play his very best just to win it back. I'm not going to be that person at the table to treat the game like a joke because it may not mean as much. Give the players some respect and play like you mean it. And if you give the game the integrity it deserves, when that guy wins, that P100 will feel like a million bucks.