mahdrof45-year-old poker enthusiast from Canada Some people have asked me why I do the Mahdrof Dollars tournaments, and the reasons are simple: I like you guys, I have gained a lot from participating on this forum, and it has been hard for me to participate in the BRM tourneys so by organizing it myself I get to play.
I initially joined five years ago, and like most of you the main reason was for the no deposit bonuses. I also visited the forum and that is when I fell in love with this site. The banter was fun, we shared funny stories and we learned from each other. A lot of the forum members from five years ago don't come by anymore which is too bad, but the new ones are fun too.
When I organized Mahdrof Dollars tourney #1 only six (including myself) showed up. It was fun but I was really surprised that nobody else joined us at a pretty good shot to make a bit of cash at what I consider is a half decent site. So when I was creating the setup for MD#2, I thought maybe we would have 12 players, so better to go with tables of six but instead you guys had a surprise in store for me and 29 players participated. At first I regretted the six per table setup, but as play progressed I really enjoyed the format as it forced a healthy level of aggression in our play, and really made for fun action. I went out earlier than I would have liked, but I stuck around and watched the action and enjoyed that part too. Thanks again to all who participated, as well as to yout85 who donated an extra $5 to the pot.
The past week has been pretty tough, and although I made steady gains I had to wage an uphill battle nearly the entire week. In the past eight days of play I have lost four pots at NL100 where I was all in, and if I had won those my roll would be $800 higher than it is. Last night was typical where my flopped set of 8s lost out to a flopped set of jacks. The other big pots that I lost included flopped set of 7s vs pocket jacks, with a third jack on the river when the villain was already all in, on another hand a straight on the turn for me lost to a set on the river when the board paired up, and a set losing to a flush draw, also on the river. Last night my roll was sitting at $1100 when I got whacked again so my roll sits at $1004 today, and with us visiting friends this evening I probably won't play so it will be a little break.
In my last blog post I stated that my next goal was to bring my roll to $2000 which I consider a comfortable amount for playing NL100, however I have reconsidered my goal and have decided to take a detour. Now that my roll is at $1000 my next $250 is going to be withdrawn and I am taking it to the local supermarket and I will be buying whatever food the local food bank needs.
In the past year I have seen several friends lose their jobs and fall on hard times; it's not always easy to find a job when you are over 40. I have seen people come into a lot of money, and seen their hearts become hard and miserly. I have been reminiscing a lot about when I was a kid and times were hard for our family, and I see my kids growing up with plenty and not understanding how truly lucky they are. I guess even though he has already been dead for four years I also miss my dad at this time of year, as his birthday falls a few days after Christmas.
Sometimes I find we just seem to live in a world where the common sentiment is me first and everybody else can go fcuk themselves. Whatever the reason is, with Christmas fast approaching and knowing how much harder that makes things for families who are down on their luck I decided that rather than wait until I hit $2000, my next $250 will go towards helping out some people who need it more than I do. Among the directions I want to take this blog and my roll at 888, this is not the last time part of it will be going to help others. Have a good week on the felt!