Early Success!

When I first planned this little freeroll adventure, I figured I'd struggle for a few days, then finish on the bubble a time or two before finally cashing on day five or six.

I certainly didn't expect to finish second in a 2,000-person tournament on the first day.

That's right, I managed to eke out a second-place finish in an Omaha Hi/Lo freeroll yesterday on Absolute Poker. Total winnings? Eight dollars.

The tournament was my 10th multi-table freeroll of the day. And it was the first time I came even close to finishing in the money.

The most difficult part of the day was the chaos that resulted from signing up for so many tournaments. Seriously – if you blink, the Full Tilt tournaments are full. It got so bad I had to start setting an alarm to alert me that another freeroll was about to begin accepting registrations.

At one point, I was playing a Limit Hold'em tournament at Absolute Poker and Pot Limit Omaha tournaments at both Full Tilt and Poker.com. I've heard that some people are able to play as many as eight tables at once. Apparently I can't handle three – especially when two of them are Pot Limit Omaha.

The only problem with finishing second in the tournament was that it took almost six hours to play to the end. And it started at 5:15. And my wife expected me home for dinner. And yes, I'm an idiot.

Obviously, I never should have signed up for the tournament. Sure, more than 50 percent of the field is eliminated in the first hour of these freerolls – especially the No Limit tournaments. But in order to finish in the money, you have to outlast at least 98.5 percent of the field. Which means you have to be in it for the long haul.

I assured Wendy that I'd most likely bust out in a half an hour just about every hour. I was wrong every time but the last one.

When we were on our fifth break and there were just three players remaining, I was the chip leader and told her I had a very good chance to win the whole thing, which led to this exchange.

"So what do you get if you win? Fifty bucks?"

"Actually, it's 10."

"Ten dollars? You've been playing in poker tournament for the last five hours to win 10 dollars?"

To repeat, I am an idiot. But I'm also only two dollars away from beating the office over/under.