Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament

[DwightMcCann]

On my feet 15 hours and only shot a bit over 400 frames, although I do think I have enough to make a collage that tells the story! I should have shot three times as many. One frame of the winner, a really nice guy who was so nervous as the last few hands were played that his hands shook so hard that he could hardly look at his hole cards. He is holding $50,000 in cash in used, unmarked bills. The guy in the background is the tournament director (my boss at the casino) who is watching himself on TV. The other image is of the 70 tables that accommodated 722 entrants ... wait list people get seats when initial people are knocked out during the first round of play.

I have only made my first pass through the images, tossing the very soft ones. I spent the day signing papers to put my house in escrow and make an offer on another house ... whatever my wife told me to sign ... and fixing a smoke detector and grouting some patio tiles as part of the list of things I need to do for my buyer. This whole process is brutal! :-)

[Pyromaniac]

First one's pretty cool. Way more cash than I have ever held in my hands, I think I would be a little nervous to.

Good luck with the house and I hope they accept your offer.

[DwightMcCann]

Thanks, Pyro, I think they accepted! We will need a 100 year mortgage, sigh.

[bennywager]

Cool pics,
I think the first one is ace. I love the expression on his face.
100 year mortgage!!! That sucks a bit.
Anyway, Good luck with it all

[DwightMcCann]

Thanks, Benny ... he was one happy dude, but couldn't have been any more humble or soft spoken. It was interesting ... I saw five or six of the 'final table' players from the last tournament playing but don't think any of them made it into the last 100 (the most important cutoff point as that's where they begin paying out so if you get there you get your money back), which supports the contention that many players have that Texas Hold 'Em is "Everyman's Game" where luck is more important than skill but if you don't have lots of both you won't make the final table. I'm not a gambler or card player but I still found it exciting. One odd thing is that there were probably 50 women starting but none made the final table ... a few of them that I talked to said that after five or six hours with all the men it just wasn't worth it anymore! :) Unlike the men, when the boredom or pain level gets high, they have better things to do ... the men just keep suffering, er, ah, ahem, I mean playing!

I will have more images by the weekend ... several head shots from the final ten and for those who know how to play, some interesting hands, etc. The next tournament is November 19th.

I will be shooting Smokey Robinson on this Friday night and a boxing match the following Friday night.

Oh, my mortgage isn't really 100 years, thankfully, but I am having a great deal of trouble with the $870,000 price tag that my wife, the MBA, feels was a good deal ... we are really, truly just lower middle class folks ... the median home price in our area is well over $1 million and climbing regardless of all the talk about a 'bubble'. She is managing this buy because she did such a spectacular job on the house we are selling (after seven years and a 350%+ price increase) and some help from her parents. Sorry to talk about it so much but it makes me nervous as a cat! :lol:

[BottomBracket]

Interesting pics, Dwight! Perhaps we should see some pics of your house.

[DwightMcCann]

BB, thanks, a long day and hard on the feet but interesting.

You can see pictures of our current house at our website at http://www.palsgaard-mccann.net/OurHouse/OurHouse.html but I won't have anything of the new house until we are further down the road. It does look like I'll have a room for a small studio and the "loft" (it's actually the landing at the head of the stairs that leads to all the bedrooms but is as big as a bedroom) where my computers, printers, matting table (to be acquired), etc., will all go.