After realising that the money I’d been putting aside to play in the Orleans Open this year was going to fall a little short, I’ve decided to look for backers to bump up my bankroll for this event. It’s not actually as daft as it sounds. Who’d want to stake me, you say? Hah… I’ll show you how wrong you are.
I realised many months ago that the second half of this series of tournaments would coincide with our Summer O’ Vegas, and decided that I wanted to try to find a way to play three No Limit Hold’em events and also, for some reason that I really can’t explain, the Limit Hold’em Championship.
The total entry fee for this little lot is a cool $2460. With this falling on the first week of our trip, playing these tournaments could make or break my bankroll, and so could also make or break the holiday. If it’s a total disaster, I don’t fancy the idea of spending the next three weeks chasing two and a half grand. Conversely, if I manage to win enough coinflips to go deep in one event, the payday could be much more than I’d ever consider letting myself take to Vegas. Treating week one’s poker separately to the rest of the trip seems like a very wise thing to do.
So I’ve been putting money away for this the past few months, separate to my bankroll for "normal" poker and other Vegas vices. After next payday, I’ll just about have reached $2000. No small achievement given my track record for saving (it’s been the best motivation to save I ever had) but it still leaves me $500 short.
I could always skip the $540 Limit tournament, but why would I do something as sensible as that?
I’m selling off 20% of myself across all four tournaments to raise the extra $500, and (although I’m bound to say this) I’m doing a great deal! So good in fact that, already, I only have 10% left to sell. Paul Sandells knows value when he sees it. He’s in for $250, so hurry up if you want a piece of the action!
Of the $2500 I want to take to Vegas, $2460 is buyins. I’ll spend the other $40 on essential expenses, like tips for the coffee ladies, or cookies from the vending machine. All poker rooms should have vending machines with cookies, but the Orleans is the only one I’ve ever come across. As the Orleans Open actually takes place in a room upstairs, there may be some critical route planning to be done for the breaks. But still, this is only a very small deduction from the investment – and you deny me coffee at your peril.
So I don’t have a spectacular tournament history, and I don’t play that frequently. But I think I can hold my own and I do have some documented solid performances if you’d care to dig through the blog archives. Or if you can’t be bothered, I put a few links in this forum thread. The fact I’m still putting up 80% of the money myself should show that I’m comfortable playing at that level, and not just taking a shot at a big prize with someone else’s money.
It’s a modest start, but you never know, with a good performance this could open the door to more staking deals in future, and the opportunity for me to play bigger tournaments.
Obviously I’ll gratefully take the money however it comes, but I’m kinda hoping for ten more backers at 1% each. At least then I know I’ll have 11 regular blog readers for a whole week…!
Even a 1% stake, costing $25, could net a four figure return. If I get exceptionally lucky. Don’t be shy now.
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