Do What You Want Day

David Sanchez

February 28, 2016

REC 340

Do What You Want Day

        For my do what you want day activity, I decided to play in a poker tournament. I always wanted to join an official poker tournament, but until this assignment, I never took the initiative to do so. As a pastime, my family and I would occasionally play card games at family gatherings. Texas Hold'em is one of the many card games we would play. I always believed myself to be a descent card player, but I had never tested my "skills" against other players besides family and friends.  Who for the most part, aren't really all that great. Additionally, I would play in free online tournaments on Zynga to test my supposed skills against others. At some point in time, I was ranked in the top 100 of ten’s of thousands of users. Still then, I never made it out to a casino to participate in an official tournament with actual stakes at odds. It was mostly because I never put much stock into the results of a free tournament app, and rightfully so.

        The tournament I participated in had a total of 50-60 participants, and the entry fee, referred to as the "buy in", was $60. All participants began the tournament with 5,000 chips, and had the option to re-buy/add-on 5,000 additional chips for an extra $40. The option to re-buy once gives you the opportunity to buy 5,000 additional chips if you lose all your chips within the first two hours of the tournament. I learned that this rule had a significant impact on the participant’s strategy. Many risk all their chips during the first two hours for the opportunity to multiply their chip stack. They do so knowing that in case they do lose, they still have the opportunity to "re-buy" chips, and they therefore still have a chance to win the tournament. Throughout the day there was a lot of unwritten rules that I wasn't aware existed. This would sometimes frustrate other poker players.

        Card games have been a longtime leisure activity played through the ages. According to our textbook, twenty-two percent of Adults played cards within 12-months in 2006. Although this data isn't the most current, it gives us a general idea of the popularity of playing cards. Playing cards is an activity that fits the modern definition of leisure. It is a recreational activity that helped me achieve diversion, refreshment, and was done during discretionary time. If we use Neulinger’s Leisure Paradigm, this activity would be considered leisure job. Poker is an activity in which one freely engages in, and is mostly extrinsically motivated. The reward/incentive in participating in the tournament is to place as high as possible, and to maximize your winnings in each hand.