Team Poker
This past superbowl, I played in a team poker tournament. Even though acquired the 2nd most points for the day, I made no money whatsoever:
There were 4 teams of 5. Similarly to shoot-out tournaments, the game would begin as separate sit and go’s and condense to a final poker table. There were two 10-person sit and go’s running at a time, each were filled by random draws, so you could easily be playing against teammates.
The top 5 poker players from each sit and go would get points based on what rank they come in. Then after those two sit and go’s were completed, another round of randomly drawn sit and go’s would be played, with the exact same point distribution. The 10 players with the most points would get to the final table, where 1-5 would get cash prizes as well as points just like the previous round. A small side pool was set aside for the team that acquired the most points throughout all 3 rounds of play.
On my first table draw, I was the only of my team at my table. That meant many of my 9 opponents were teammates. Somehow I managed to get evade all team cohorts and came in first for 36 points. In the 2nd sit and go I played against 2 of my teammates and got 4th for 8 points, having 44 total. And in the last round I took a bad beat early and made no money and got no more points. My team ended up losing the points race by 8 points or so. We had 3/10 at the final table from our team. Another had 4/10 and had us beat in points, so they were our obvious competition.
Though the payouts and the team side pool was lopsided, it was an interesting formula that I would try again. Poker is such an individual sport, that the idea of team strategy is pretty novel. Especially when playing against your own teammates.
