Rookie of the Year: John Gale

[Shortstacked.co.uk]

John Gale is a great guy, I was the "lucky guy" that beat John heads up to win the bracelet! How bad were his beats? You need to learn a little about poker! Anyways John has got to be the rookie of the year, great player, great guy!

[bud05]

He took at least 2 4:1 favorite beats that I can think of, so I fail to see how anyone needs to learn.

He seemed like a very nice older Brit at PCA, and nothing I've seen from him in other tourneys disproved that opinion. He obviously loves to play poker, and I'm glad he's enjoying life.

[Shortstacked.co.uk]

not john gale, the guy that made the post, john had 1 "bad beat", we were all in preflop w/ my 44 against tt, I was the chipleader all day, knocked out most of the final table. John is a very good player w/ many results this year. I look forward to playing him in the Bahamas in a few weeks! I consider John a good friend!

[shaniac]

[ QUOTE ]
what part of his success do you think is due solely to the fact that he won a WPT, thus had a ton of extra poker money to go buy into a crazy # of tournaments and play LAG in?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, if that's what it takes to be a success on the circuit in this day and age, I'd say ALL of it "is due solely to the fact the he won a WPT." How else would he have quit his job, been able to go out there and be all LAGy and stuff.

I'm not really sure what you're asking Daryn. Plenty of people manage to propel their poker careers by hitting a sick overlay on an early attempt, which enables them to play fearlessly and win more high-profile tournaments.

My point was simply that Gale did it more impressively than most.

As for Sponger making fun of him for playing a 50-lb. buyin tournament, I think if anything it reflects positively on his genuine passion for NL tournaments. Gale is definintely one of the good guys in this movie.

[Ulysses]

shaniac,

Re: the average full-time touring pro (ignore backing) these days, a few questions:

1) How many events do they go to? One major a month? More, less?

2) How many tourneys will they generally play per event?

3) What is the average yearly outlay in tourney buyins and travel expenses?

4) What percentage of the tourney pros play primarily tournies and don't really play cash games much?

I am referring specifically to the guys who aren't the superstar players, but the name players who seem to be at most tourneys. So, not the Negreanu/Ivey/Brunson types and not the wannabes like that Schleger guy, but the ones in the middle.

Seems like it would be pretty easy to spend $15-25k/month on buyins and expenses these days.

[shaniac]

What do I look like? President of the National Council for Touring Pros?

I would say "it depends" or "I have no idea" to most of your questions.

The size and shape of the poker circuit is changing so rapidly that an accurate answer for 2005 would surely be drastically different from the same answer for 2004 or what I could project for 2006. There are more than twice as many major buyin tournaments every month in 2005-2006 than there were last year, or so it seems.

As for the guys who seem to go to EVERY tournament (John Phan, Men the Master, Michael Gracz, Allen Kessler) I'm sure they easily meet the 25K/mo. avg buyin figure you mentioned. My buyins for the 5-diamond poker classic far exceeded that amount, and I didn't play every event.

I think Jesus Ferguson plays every champiosnhip event, but doesn't play any prelims ever. That might be 20-30K/mo. Men the Master seems to play every single prelim and main event at every circuit stop. His buyins could be way higher than that.

I'm not more uniquely qualified to figure out their expenses than you, but one of these days I'm going to do a detailed breakdown of my buyins, cashes, and expenses for 2005, and maybe I'll publish it on my blog.

[HiatusOver]

If a blog is on the internet but it doesnt make a sound, is it really a blog at all?

[JustPlayingSmart]

[ QUOTE ]

What do I look like? President of the National Council for Touring Pros?

[/ QUOTE ]

Who is the president of this organization? Do you have a web site address? I tried nationalcouncilfortouringpros.org but it didn't work. I'm interested in becoming a member of this organization and would like some information on it. Thanks in advance.

[Subby]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not more uniquely qualified to figure out their expenses than you, but one of these days I'm going to do a detailed breakdown of my buyins, cashes, and expenses for 2005, and maybe I'll publish it on my blog.

[/ QUOTE ]
Please do - I think that would be a fairly interesting entry...

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]

Seems like it would be pretty easy to spend $15-25k/month on buyins and expenses these days.

[/ QUOTE ]



This is why I'd love for some site out there to track all of the actual entries into tournaments so that when you say Player X won 800,000 this year, you can also see that he entered 28 tournaments that cost him X dollars to see his net. Not to mention seeing the total tourneys entered would give a rough approximation of monies laid out for hotel, airfare, etc etc.


Player 1 wins 400,000 in 2005
Player 2 wins 100,000 in 2005

Who had the better year? Before you answer:

Player 1 entered 46 events that cost $290,000 just in entry fees

Player 2 entered 1 event that cost $5,000

Now let's factor in travel and hotel and--

--you see where this would go.

Barron Vangor Toth
BarronVangorToth.com