Feeling like Conan

The movie "Conan the Barbarian" came out in 1982, thirty-seven years ago. I went to see it when it came out, and one particular montage has stuck with me all these years. Conan begins the movie as a small boy, who has become enslaved after the murder of his parents. He is set to work in a flour mill, which is manned by many slaves who push the spokes of a huge wheel which powers the grindstone. To show the passage of time, and also to show how big and strong Conan becomes, you see less and less slaves pushing the spokes over the years, until finally it's just Conan pushing, powering the mill all by himself.

I find this an apt metaphor for making a deep run in a poker tournament. When it begins, you're just one of many players, with a tiny stack. As time goes by, your stack grows and the number of remaining players shrinks. If you make it all the way, there's only you left, and you have all the chips :-)

Last night, for a change of pace, I played an MTT 8-game tournament. I didn't quite get to the point of powering the mill all by myself, but I sure was feeling like Conan :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   143      56   12     2   459000

delta: $409,000
MTT 8-game balance: $837,170
2019 balance: $12,734,250
balance: $59,318,510