For the following year, I have had a conversation every few weeks with -BlackFours- (John May) that went something like this:
John May: You playing today?
Wein: Nah man, not today.
John May: LOL @ the recent scores in your profile btw.
Wein: I only play like 20 tournaments a week, what do you want from me?
John May: LOL Bax and sheets are going to cut you. I've played 5x as many tournaments as you have this year.
Wein: FML.
Obviously this conversation is in jest, but I definitely agreed with John May. I have hardly put in volume for the last year and felt irrelevant at this point. I used to look over John's hand histories and critique him, and now he was ranked with tons of 10k+ scores, including a chop of the warm-up. Me? My biggest PLB scores at the time did include a 3rd in the ftops, but also included a 27th place finish and a 10th place finish. FML is right. Something needed to change.
I hadn't been able to put in volume due to some issues at home, but they had all cleared up. I really had no excuse to not play poker at this point, but motivation was a factor. I've been blessed by running good the past few years, so money wasn't going to be a factor. There was only one thing that was going to get me going: avoiding humiliation. Enter the 'stache bet.
The stache bet is simple: Whoever has the largest PLB score for the month of August is the winner. They receive no monetary reward, oh no. They get to watch their friends grow a full stache. The bet was thought of by witcher1984, who has also joined us in the bet. Witcher is literally the most aggressive person I've ever played against. He has no problem 3-betting 96o, but he plays well enough post flop that it works for him. Not only is he a sicko, but he's a good friend that has helped me with my confidence over the past few months and makes for some fun, friendly competition.
With the bet in place, the three of us have had a monster month. Witcher has a 3rd in one of the big 100rebuys for 22k and a 2nd in a 55r for 11k. Blackfours already has a win in a 50 dollar. I won the 100cubed turbo on stars for 22k the same day I chopped the 6-max 215 Saturday on Stars for 11k. Every time one of us has a huge score, someone else comes back the next day with something just as big.
How close are we right now? We are separated by about 40 points total since I have an FTP score from Sunday that hasn't showed up in my profile. You can follow along on the bet at:
http://www.pocketfives.com/leaderboards/witcher1984/Stache+time
The contest is going to go down to the wire, with winning being a huge priority for me. I plan to play some WPT events in September and October, and hell if I'm going to go on a deep run and have to show an 80s porno stache on national TV.