Rules of Engagement

Inspired by Chris Ferguson's "0-to-10,000 challenge," the idea is that Sr. BB and I, Herr V, will spend the year attempting to convert $100 into $10,000, playing online at Poker Stars.

As I understand them, the rules are few and are as follows:

(1) The contest will officially begin at midnight on December 31 '08 and terminate at midnight December 31 '09.

(2) We will each have $100 to start.

(3) Rebuys are permissible, but count double against your end-of-year total.

(4) Whoever has the most money -- less doubled rebuys -- wins.

(5) Prize to be determined.

(6) Not exactly a rule, but we will blog our efforts on at least a semi-regular basis.

Um, well, that's it. There are of course key difference between Mr. Ferguson's program and ours, to wit:

(a) He started at $0, and so won his first real monies by patiently playing free rolls. Given that we both suck such that following this example would, if we were lucky, allow us to amass roughly the price of a Zagnut bar by year's end, we thought we'd jump start things a little.

(b) His was a fascinating exercise in discipline and strict cash management that I can only commend to you, and I quote:

• He never bought into a cash game or a Sit & Go for more than 5 percent of his total bankroll; the only exception was at the lowest limits: he was allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less
• He didn’t buy into any multi-table tournaments for more than 2 percent of his total bankroll; the only exception was $1 MTTs
• If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represented more than 10 percent of his total bankroll, he had to leave the game when the blinds reached him

We, however, being engaged in a battle for bragging rights and that oh-so-valuable prize, will most likely dip liberally and frequently into the pools of Egregious Bad Judgment and Grievous Miscalculation while praying for a little rachmones from the Universe (someone once told me you can't practice law in New York without knowing "rachmones," so consider this a small bit of CLE for you attorneys out there).

(c) He donated his monies to the Save the Children Foundation. Chris, you warm-heated galoot! You just go on ahead without us, we'll um be right there. BB intends to buy into the WSOP; I, having a fiancee to answer to and wishing to maintain bodily integrity, will find something more along the lines of T-Bills, but you get the idea.

So anyway, that's the gig. Admittedly, not patently compelling for the uninvolved, but look closer, look deeper, my friends, and what do you see: two men, ostensibly competing against each other while actually battling those demons all too familiar to us all -- impulsiveness, recklessness, pride, machismo, and the inability to stop downloading porn even for the time it takes to finish a $5 sit-n-go. In this seemingly modest format we will be publicly airing our missteps and our blunders, recounting our hubris and our humblings, inventorying our intellectual, moral, and spiritual failings, and all with ruthless honesty. I don't want to overstate the comparison to Jesus, but it's reasonably clear we are taking some awfully big sins on our shoulders.

All for you.

So check in from time to time and see how we are doing.

Happy New Year, all, and let's get those cards in the air.

P.S. This is all subject to veto by BB.