Jim Reid is a longtime lover of poker, a member of the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board, and host of the popular RecPoker podcast.
Hey, gang!
As I write this, it’s 12:41am on a Thursday (ok, technically a Friday morning), and it's Day 5 of the WSOP Main Event. I'm sitting in the Indigo Lounge at the Horseshoe/Paris, and my new friend Mason has just served me a bottle of Stella Artois for 13 American dollars, and as even he admits: that’s ridiculous.
Current front-runner for Player of the Year Shaun Deeb just walked by; it’s an exciting time! A video poker player at the bar is making bank, and the incessant ‘ding’ing noise is bringing me close to the brink of insanity.
This time last year, I was just about to bust the Main Event in 210th place for $60,000 and buy myself a car with 'RECPOKER' license plates. A new high score!
What a difference a year makes.
The law of averages says that you should cash in roughly one in seven tournaments you play: after all, most structures pay either 12.5% or 15%, and the best players in the world cash at a slightly better rate than that. I am not one of the best players in the world.
And yet, I made a plan to leave my mother country (Canada) and descend unto Las Vegas, the den of iniquity, that despite its reputation has been kind to me over the years.
This was not one of those years.
Sometimes not even a 'lucky hat' can help.Consistent, if not successful
I was smart: I'm a recreational poker player, but because I host a poker podcast I was able to put a staking package together covering exactly seven poker tournaments altogether, including the prestigious WSOP Main Event! Theoretically, according to the law of averages, I was due a cash.
Unfortunately for me, the poker gods had other ideas.
In baseball, it’s hard to pitch a perfect game: you have to be flawless, any variation from perfection will be counted against you. In a way, what I have achieved on this trip is equally impressive! I played seven tournaments and played in three cash game sessions while on my WSOP vacation, and managed to lose money in every single one.
Not a single tournament win or profitable cash game session: a record completely un-besmirched by success. How exciting!
Truly, by every objective metric, a failure of epic proportions.
Results are just one part of the game
So why am I smiling?
I guess it’s for a mix of reasons: I exercise excellent bankroll management and never play beyond my limits; I had a great time hanging out in the PokerOrg Legend Lounge with poker’s glitterati like Dara O’Kearney, Matt Affleck, Joey Ingram and Matt Matros for drinks or meals here or there; I was approached at several times by fans of the RecPoker Podcast who had nice things to say about me or the work our team was doing to make the recreational poker world a more fun place.
The Legend Lounge was a perfect place to hang out.I was able to promote support for your local food bank in a Jeff Platt interview; I went ‘duck hunting’ at the Able Baker Brewery with my Canukian brother Mike Patrick and a few new friends that for some reason all seemed to be named Eric.
All in all, it’s hard not to think of the trip as a success on many fronts.
The fact is, results are just a part of the game, and sample size matters. Poker is such an elegant game, almost perfectly balanced between luck and skill. In the short term, luck matters a lot! But in the long term, skill always wins the day.
I have grand plans for the rest of 2025 and the start of 2026 with an ambitious schedule of Canadian poker travel — and I plan on playing a lot more than seven tournaments over that span! So wish me luck, gang.
Poker can seem cruel, mean — even unfair. But at the end of the day, despite all its flaws, it’s hard not to think of it as a perfect game.
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