Recently I found myself caught up in the age-old debate; Is poker a game of luck or a game of skill? Most people would agree it is both. However, my debate started when an acquaintance who has never played poker once in his life declared that buying into a $10,000 poker tournament was no different than buying $10,000 worth of lottery tickets. In other words, it is 100% luck.

This is obviously not true.

You have watched poker on television, perhaps played online, or even in a casino or a friend’s home game. Now you are ready to host your own poker tournament. Playing in a well-run live tournament is much more satisfying than online. The conversation, the poker faces, the feel of the cards in your hand, and the sound of the chips shuffling are all part of the live poker tournament experience. Best of all may be the feeling of accomplishment when you take down a win or make a great play and get the immediate recognition of other players.

I have been running well lately. I managed to take first place in our league championship game and followed it up with another first place finish the following week. Couple that with running pretty well online and I was really getting my poker confidence back. So, I was looking forward to the start of our new season determined to make this my year. My goal was simple - cash every game this season.

The first game of the season started out crazy.

I played some poker this past weekend. On Friday night we had 23 players and things went fairly well. We were down to 8 players left with the average chip stack being 5750 chips. I was sitting on about an average stack and believing I was in the zone and it was my night to win. Then it happened. Blinds were 1500/3000 and I was in the small blind. Everyone folded around to me. I looked down at 2 5 off suit. Perhaps the best player at the table (other than me of course) was in the big blind.