Trip,
We have free live tournaments in my area. There is prize money, but to get around the gambling laws, there is no entry fee. The prize money is usually put up by the bar owner. I'm sure even when the prize money is $250 (as it often is) the bar makes lots of profit, because boy, those guys can drink!
I experienced a couple of problems with this live games. The first was the smoke. I think I was about the only nonsmoker in the place. Some players try to be considerate about it, but when you're in a room with 50 people smoking, you're bombarded with smoke.
The next problem was the behavior of some of the younger players. They get louder and louder as the evening goes on. And cruder and cruder. I'm not a prude, but I did get sick of their yelling foul language constantly. And some did get really really drunk. That was frustrating, since it slowed play down and made for weird poker sometimes.
Another issue was cheating. When I first started playing there, I was a beginner. So I wasn't very savvy to what was going on. But as I got more experienced, I began to notice. And part of this scenario was disregarding the tournament rules. Such as, showing their cards to players not in the hand. Picking up the discards, supposedly to look at what they threw away. (When I dealt, I took all the discards immediatley and kept them.) And there was the ocassional collusion issue, as well as dealing from the bottom of the deck.
It was a great training ground and a great way to get my feet wet with poker. And I think now I could probably blow them all out of the water. But until PA gets the smoke out of bars, I probably won't be back.
p.s. we hate U
__________________
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
|