Opportunity chips

Rightly considered, poker chips are a means to an end, not an end in and of themselves. When I win a decent amount of chips at the start of a session, I consider them "opportunity chips" - in other words, chips that should be spent in pursuit of even greater fortune in the future. With opportunity chips, you can afford to pay to see more flops than you otherwise would be willing to. Note that you shouldn't spend opportunity chips foolishly; when you pay a little extra to see a flop, and the flop misses your hand completely, get out of Dodge right away.

If poker chips aren't an end, to what end are they the means? That's simple - poker glory. It's even easier to understand when the chips represent play dollars instead of real dollars. From the very beginning, I knew that the challenge of winning a million play dollars was a true test of poker skill, despite the fact the the money wasn't real. I coveted achieving the goal so that I could prove to myself I'm actually very good at this great game.

Last night, I got a nice early lift which supplied me with $10K of opportunity chips. They slowly dwindled down for the remainder of the session, until my stack fell a bit below its starting amount of $40K. However, I could hear the sound of distant thunder approaching, and knew the thunder was mine! I won a pot worth $52,700 with a set of fours, and called it a night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 73 hands and saw flop:
- 7 out of 8 times while in big blind (87%)
- 6 out of 10 times while in small blind (60%)
- 34 out of 55 times in other positions (61%)
- a total of 47 out of 73 (64%)
Pots won at showdown - 4 of 7 (57%)
Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $24,800
balance: $1,690,869