Guest Post – Riggstad – FTOPS distractions

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

ftops Guest Post Riggstad FTOPS distractions FTOPS XI exploded out of the gates Wednesday evening when Event #1 blasted past it’s $1,000,000 guarantee for an incredible $1,255,000 prizepool. Since then we’ve crowned 3 brand new FTOPS champs and the turnout continues to be high. There are 7 FTOPS events scheduled over the next three days including FTOPS XI Event #10 which replaces the normal Sunday $750k Guarantee with a $1,500,000 guarantee.

Here are your first three FTOPS XI winners.

Event #1 – No Limit Hold’em – muckducks
Event #2 – Pot Limit Omaha/8 – ramagen
Event #3 – Stud Hi – AsMetzmagnyAs

Now we have a timely guest post from Riggstad that takes a look at dealing with home distractions while playing in the FTOPS events. Luckily for me I will not have these kinds of things to deal with, at most I have a puppy that needs occasional attention.

FTOPS Distractions
by Riggstad

With FTOPS upon us, I thought I would take this time to recount a story that may or may not help you prepare for a good run in any of the events you might have qualified, or flat out are buying your way into.

See the FTOPS events are the major league of online poker. There is a ton of money to be won in these events, and anyone can get in. Full Tilt does a spectacular job with this series, providing everyone an opportunity regardless of the size of their bankroll. You can even satellite in for points to some of the bigger events with payouts in the hundreds of thousands.

With that being said, I think it’s important to understand, and take full advantage of every opportunity to its fullest. This is serious stuff here. The average guy who has about $150 in their online account could get a serious bump to the tens of thousands if they play their cards right. No pun intended.

Given the enormity of such an opportunity, I think it’s important to state the obvious. I played my first FTOPS in May of 2007. I had played about 5 of those events, qualifying for all of them via $26 and $75 satellites. The first one was the $400 NLHE. I hadn’t taken it very seriously, and in fact almost forgot about it. By the time I had logged on, the tournament was 2 levels in, and I was not in a good mindset to play.

There were distractions from the kids, and more pressing was the pressure from the wife to help with those kids. I just wasn’t prepared to play in that event, even if I had remembered. I went out in short order in that tournament deciding to over shove AK and quickly ran into Aces.

So the next event, I decided to prepare and take everything into consideration. Amount of time it would take to play, my surroundings, including the kids, the wife, and other possible distractions. I decided that the $1500 buy in NLHE event would be the one. It started at 8:30pm. The wife had started back to work part time for a little sanity from the 4 kids, and I knew she would be working that night. That would be one less distraction.

The next distraction would be the kids. They were all under 8 years of age at that time, and were all in bed asleep by 8pm on any given night. I never had an issue with any of them. So I believed that would take care of distraction number 2.

The final distraction would be the constant IM’s I would be getting from friends who knew I would be playing. That would be an easy one. Don’t turn on instant messenger. I got the kids off to bed and settled into the couch at around 8:15, turned off the TV, and started to prepare myself for a successful run. I did turn on the IM to tell everyone that I would not be available. No need to piss anyone off who might have felt they had a little equity in my performance.

So here I am. All settled in, ready to play, waiting for the cards to fly. The first hands were dealt, and I let out a comfortable sigh as I folded my 9 5 off thinking this would be a nice relaxing environment to do my best.

Then it happened.

The 2 year old (female) starts screaming at the top of her lungs about how she wants apple juice… So apple juice it is. I timed the hands out perfectly to be able to run into the kitchen, obtain a sippy cup, fill it with 100% apple juice, run up the stairs, throw it into her crib, and rush back down the stairs in time for the next hand (where I would be happy enough to see AA)… Only something got in the way…

The apple juice wasn’t enough. She wanted water, and then an actual apple. Trying to negotiate with a 2 year old, in a dark room, at 9:20 pm, is near impossible. I tried the drill instructor style “GO TO BED” with the mean look on my face which only resulted in more tears… I submitted to the actual apple request, but she didn’t quite get that I couldn’t pull it out of my butt, and had to actually leave the room to fetch it, which made the screams worse than the sounds coming from a possum trapped in a snare.

As I rushed out of the room past the infants (male) room, I hear him screaming. I decide to attend to him later and get the apple and see if I can get a hand in between the travel. That’s when I noticed the clock was on me with AA (again). As I dive into the couch to press raise, the timer counts down to zero and the big blue tab that says “I’m Back” pops up. (FOOK)

I obtain the apple and run back up the stairs to an ever increasing screaming match between two opponents who don’t even know that they are competing. The 8 year old (female) looks out her door, looking exactly like my wife with an expression of scorn and says “what are you doing?, Laney is crying?” (as if I didn’t already know that). I basically tell her to shut up and get back in bed, and step sideways into Laney’s room with the apple as if it were the answer to all her prayers. TO NO AVAIL! Mini wife is now inside the offenders room with arms crossed and tapping her foot… I decide to recruit her for help by saying, “Hey C, take Laney into my room and sleep with her on my bed”… She obliges and off they go. As they pass the boys room, she states the obvious that he is crying…

I grab him, and just reside myself to the fact that he will now be playing the tourney with me, on the couch, hopelessly falling asleep in my arms.

By the time I get back down stairs, it is quite obvious that I have missed about 20 minutes of playing time. I never did turn off the IM and two boxes are up with frantic posts of “WHERE ARE YOU”, and “DID YOU LOSE YOUR CONNECTION?” and other stupid friggin’ questions.

I fold for the next 30 minutes, completely card dead, while the boy falls asleep again. All the while I hear the other two jumping rope above my head.

Break comes and I decide to put the boy back in his crib, and relegate the other two back to their own quarters. While doing so, the boy wakes back up, again with shrieks that would crack the plate glass in any local church. I grab him back up and try to rock him to sleep without success.

I don’t make it back before the break ends, and I’m down to just over 1K. The IM’s keep coming with questions of why am I not there, what is going on?, how do you blow this off like it’s a $50 tourney, and so on… which only enrages me more. I’m on the brink of needing a new laptop because I can only respond with one hand (the other is holding the boy) and I am pounding the keyboard with the fervor of a steel driving man.

I make some successful moves to get back up to a little over 3k. We are down to about 1500 players from 2551, and I pick up AsKs pre flop where I raise the pot a standard 3x to about 1200. It folds around to the BB who flats. I don’t know why I didn’t shove with a short stack. The flop comes Ts 5s 5c. He checks, I shove, and he calls with 57o. I brick, and go home feeling very frustrated and unsatisfied.

Now, I know this story is extreme, and probably not indicative of everyone’s environment. But the point is that I took for granted my normal circumstances. I figured that the kids would be fast asleep. There were never any problems before so why would there be any tonight? The wife would be working, so everything would be conducive to a perfect playing environment, allowing me to concentrate and perform optimally.

These events are very important and shouldn’t be taken lightly. You are taking a shot at a lot of money. Don’t take anything for granted. Everything will affect your performance.

Consider everything, and good luck in your quest for an FTOPS win!

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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Riggstad

Permalink | February 6th, 2009 Play Poker on Full Tilt Poker

One Response to “Guest Post – Riggstad – FTOPS distractions”

hey brother Says:
February 17th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
hey man, you do sound like a kind soul … i suppose those aces were a way God to tell you money is less important than children, and, ..i meant to post this yesterday but forgot, than was playin on a turney and the same thing happened to me with Kings this time.., so, i’m like wow.. this time i DID reach the button