Poker Articles

So You Wanna' Be a Tournament Pro? Fuhgetaboutit!
By Nolan Dalla
(All Rights Reserved)

Coming Home
I returned home recently after spending a full month in Tunica, Mississippi at the World Poker Open. This marks the second consecutive year I have attended (and covered) this prestigious poker tournament. Before proceeding, I wish to say there is no tournament held anywhere in the world which is better run than the Jack Binion World Poker Open. The Gold Strike and Horseshoe casinos both team up to host an exceptional annual event, which is now entering its fifth consecutive year. In no way are the points of view expressed here intended to reflect poorly on this tournament or the organizers.

I came back home from Mississippi with many of my earlier perceptions fortified, and others changed forever -- changed in ways that make it impossible for me to look upon the tournament circuit with the same vivacity and wonderment that I once had for this great game. In many ways, January 2003 marked the loss of my innocence and woke me up to some cold stark realities.

If my illusions about tournament poker were shattered recently, the first crack surfaced at least a year earlier. After the 2002 World Poker Open, I started to question the assumption of players I once admired. I became uncomfortable with the common practice of backing arrangements. Worst and most troublesome, I found myself doubting the character of many poker players revered as icons.

My dose of reality was not born of naïveté. After all, I have now covered the tournament circuit for a decade. What shocked me wasn't the ceaseless chicanery or the sullen faces of many on the tournament circuit so much as the degrees of depravity which currently exist in tournament poker. Following last year's cycle of tournaments, I ascribed my concerns to being burned out. Perhaps they were merely aberrations.

More than a year passed -- with several poker tournaments in between -- including the World Series of Poker, the Queens Poker Classic, and other major events. I became exposed to even more circumstances that were troubling to me, more than enough examples to realize that my initial fears about the poker tournament circuit were not an aberration. They were common practices and a way of life for many players.

The next question became, what, if anything, should I do about these concerns?

Should I Keep Silent?
I began to question both the efficacy and wisdom of writing about the problems I saw in tournament poker. Naturally, keeping my mouth shut and going along with the grand illusion was the easiest course of action. After I made the difficult decision to address these concerns, next I found myself asking, "Would PokerPages be the appropriate forum to express these negative points of view about poker?"

One thing I have to come to know is that Mark and Tina Napolitano believe in is issues of integrity. They are dedicated to honesty in reporting. Since its inception, PokerPages has been an open forum dedicated to free debate and open discussion of all things relating to poker. Our mission is to foster the development of poker players and to provide them with accurate information, not to pull the wool over their eyes and create visions of fantasyland. At the very least, alternative points-of-view (and this is certainly not mainstream poker journalism) are welcomed here at this site. In short, PokerPages seemed to be the most appropriate venue for an article you are not likely to see in the mainstream poker media.

Hence, in this column I will share some of these very personal observations -- about what the poker tournament circuit is really like, conveying my thoughts as to what one might expect if aspiring to be a tournament professional. Let's get started.

Life In a Fishbowl
You cannot spend a month or longer at a major event like the World Poker Open or the World Series of Poker and not make some startling observations about the people around you. You cannot help but see people at their best and, more often, at their worst. Living, working, breathing, eating, drinking, and socializing with the same clique of people day after day, night after night. month after month, and year after year gradually takes a toll on one's sense of reality. It becomes much like a military boot camp or a college dormitory. After awhile, there are no secrets.

Indeed, the poker tournament circuit is like living inside a fishbowl. You run into the same scowling faces constantly, at all hours of the day and night. Tournament players try to make their living together, they play together, they socialize together, they eat together, they drink together, and they form close relationships and bonds.

You begin to see the strengths and weaknesses of the people around you. Facades are stripped away, slowly peeled back by the pressures of survival, and true character is ultimately revealed, whether it be at poker tables at 5 o'clock in the morning or the strip clubs down the block. You see who is perpetually stuck. You see who is constantly borrowing money. You see who can and can't handle liquor. You see players displaying all the vices of self-destruction. You see it all.

One of the most troubling aspects of the tournament circuit is seeing how many players are constantly broke. I'm not talking about bad poker players or novices. I'm talking about names and faces everyone would recognize. The point is not to embarrass the misfortunate who have buried themselves into a permanent grave of perpetual destitution. It's rather to point out the immeasurable difficulties at earning a living at this game. Wait, there's more.

Shattered Illusions
One underlying quality of poker I have cherished over the years is the game's inherent sense of integrity. Up until my most recent tournament experiences, I believed that poker players, in general, could be trusted far and above other subcultures of society. If conducting a financial arrangement, give me a poker player as a business partner over a banker or lawyer any day. In poker, colossal financial transactions are conducted based on handshakes and promises. I've always greatly admired that rare quality that sets poker apart from other endeavors. Doyle Brunson expressed this point best when he wrote:

A professional gambler is the most honorable of men. I've known a man to walk through four miles of blizzard after his car stalled just to pay a debt on time. I've seen gamblers go hungry to honor a bet, even though no pressure was placed upon them. I shy away from legal contracts. If I can't trust a man's word, then I don't want to do business with him.
-- "Honor in Gambling" According to Doyle (1984)

On today's tournament trail, I find Brunson's virtues going the way of the dinosaur. Sadly, tournament poker is filled with dishonest, dishonorable people. This is not to say that all tournament players are dishonest. Many tournament pros are decent people with loads of integrity. Perhaps in defense of players who do not live up to Brunson's high standards, the perpetual state of indebtedness has blurred the lines between right and wrong and created selfish incentives to default on commitments.

At tournaments, I've witnessed numerous situations where players borrowed money and then did not honor the commitment to pay back the debt when the opportunity arose. This bothers me. Were it only a few players, it would be a troubling issue. But it's an epidemic. Dozens of players have made promises they did not keep. Others have taken advantage of backers because the rules of the arrangement were ambiguous.

Then, there are obvious cases of fraud. Some tournament players have been known to oversell of pieces of themselves. They sell off 2, 3, 5, or perhaps ten percent of themselves in an upcoming event. That seems innocent enough. But add up all the little pieces together owed to backers, and the player owes out 150 percent of himself if he cashes. Under these most dubious circumstances it's clearly in the player's interest to bust out before he has any chance of making the money, since he can't possibly afford to pay off all the backers if he cashes in the tournament. Mel Brooks once wrote a Broadway musical about this formula of deceit called "The Producers." The suckers invested over 100 percent into the project. The organizers skimmed the cream off the top. On Broadway, the notion was humorous. But I doubt if any backers in a poker tournament would be laughing. This is not honorable. In fact, it is fraud.

Then, there are railbirds, who deserve a separate category all unto themselves. In the past I've viewed these motley malicious malcontents with amusement -- sort of like a daily dose of the Frank and Ernest comic strip. The civil libertarian in me defends the right of railbirds to attend poker tournaments. Why should someone who is "economically disadvantaged" be forbidden from attending a poker tournament? It's a free country, and if a railbird can get staked more power to them. But what is troubling is seeing these pests jump on anyone in the poker room who makes any kind of score. They clutter around tournament winners like barnacles stuck to the side of a ship. Eventually, the event winner is so surrounded by the railbirds he can't move. After one player won six figures at a major tournament last year, I watched in awe as nearly a dozen railbirds lined up like a band of merry dwarves whistling as if their ship had come in. It would have been downright comical if were not so typical of what goes on at most tournaments.

Broke Tournament Pros -- What Does it Mean to You?
The obvious question that needs to be asked is -- can you make a living as a tournament pro? I have my doubts. Except for a rare few players who possess exceptional talent and have the bankrolls sufficient enough to play in the biggest events (where the margins of error result in swings of thousands of dollars), most people don't stand a chance of earning a living on the circuit.

It's difficult to prove this point. Much of the financial carnage is strictly anecdotal, which means there are no surveys or official records showing the financial conditions of tournament regulars. But I will testify to the reality that many top names in tournament poker are not only flat broke, but they owe thousands (in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars) to their backers. The destitution of these supposedly "great" players -- winners of numerous tournaments in the past -- should serve as a giant waving red flag to anyone with illusions of making a living in poker tournaments.

Here's a thought: If many of these "great" players have difficulty supporting themselves, what makes you think you can do so? Sure, there are a few players who have won millions. These are analogous to lottery winners. Sure, you meet a millionaire every now and then. But the vast majority of lottery players are lifetime losers.

At best, tournament poker is a break-even proposition. After paying expenses (travel, hotels, food, and so forth), it is clearly a negative proposition. Even if you think you're good, you will not outplay the best tournament pros. If former World Series of Poker winners are broke, what chance do you have of making it on the circuit? Add the annoying reality of "variance," (also called the "luck factor"), which is significantly higher in tournaments than in live action, and the odds are overwhelming stacked against you. Think about it.

For the Love of Money
Then, there are the predatory qualities of tournament poker. Another of poker's most appealing attributes is that anyone can play, so long as he/she has a bankroll sufficient enough to buy into in the game. Many newcomers to the tournament scene were successful in their private businesses ventures. New to the poker scene, they quickly become magnets for broke players and railbirds. It seems like an honor to stake one of the big names seen in the poker magazines. For newcomers, the best way to gain quick acceptance into the elite clique of tournament players is to avail yourself to loans. It makes these newcomers popular with players. Rarely is a bad word ever uttered about a player who stakes his peers. If so-and-so is "a great guy," that's probably a euphemism which means he gives out money.

I have seen some of these newcomers bled bone dry -- their trust shot and their good intentions violated. One well-known player borrowed a modest sum of $2,000 several months ago from a newcomer. Then, he watched with delight as the debtor recently cashed for nearly $20,000 in prize money. When the newcomer approached the leech to get his money back, the player whisked out a cell phone and pretended to be in the midst of a heated conversation. Next thing, the leech left town without so much as acknowledging the debt.

Another player won a tournament recently. He was due to collect a tidy sum. As the payout was taking place, a line began to form. The line was made up of players who were owed money by the winner. A fight broke out between two of the creditors when it was revealed that the player owed more to one single creditor than the entirety of the payout! Needless to say, only a few people got paid that day.

This is the reality of tournament poker. Cast aside your illusions that this so-called "sport" can become mainstream so long as the troubling issues continue and prevail. At the very least, be forewarned.

Conclusion
So, you wanna' be a tournament pro? It all sounds glamorous. Flying around the world, playing in the big poker events, winning trophies and cashing big, even getting on television.

Okay, now wake up from your dream. If you still have any lingering aspirations of becoming a tournament professional -- think again. If you're still not convinced, spend some time at a major poker tournament. Look at the faces of those around you. How many are smiling? How many are happy with their lives and what they are doing? Those smiling self-confident faces are few and far between. In tournament poker, there is no Santa Claus. There is no Easter Bunny. There is no "pot of gold" at the end of the imaginary rainbow. There is instead a lot of deceit, deception, and depravity.

Writer's Note: My role in covering tournaments gave me access to propriety information. It would not be ethical for me to disclose the specific names or circumstances of tournament pros who meet the criteria I have described.

(In a future column, I will address conditions where earning a supplemental income as a tournament player might be possible.)

Nolan Dalla can be reached at: nolandalla@pokerpages.com