Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.

--Fast Eddie Felson, The Color of Money, 1986


I've started playing poker for money in the past six months. Apparently, so have a lot of other people. The World Series of Poker has become a hit on ESPN, and now they have shows like the Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo (this season Bill Maher asked, "What's next? Cameron Manheim scratching lottery tickets?"). Dave Chappelle also had a pretty funny parody about The World Series of Craps.

So I don't delude myself that it's anything like playing chess...the luck component is still very large. But it is fun, and I've won a fair amount of cash in the past six months.

Tomorrow I'm going to play in my first live tournament, a free No Limit Texas Hold 'Em tourny in which the winners from several weeks play in a final...and the winner of that gets their entrance to the WSOP paid (which I believe is $10,000).

So I'll post an update this weekend and let you know how I did.

Wish me luck.