So close, so far away and such a big waste of time

So close, so far away and such a big waste of time
好近，但又好遠而且超級浪費時間

Right after I met my wife, I had the poker day of my life and won 60k in a FPP tournament (as I mentioned before), and a few months later I got invited to special freeroll at ultimatebet that awarded trip to their aruba tournament. After winning, she was convinced that I was a free roll master. 

在我剛剛認識我太太不久之後，我經歷人生撲克贏最多錢的一天 (6萬美金)，而且是打5000點數的比賽贏的，幾個月之後我被邀請參予一個Ultimatebet特別的免費比賽(給訂閱過Card Player的人打的)，贏的人可以去Aruba打WPT加上3000美元獎金。我很幸運得拿到了獎品，所以我太太從此認定我是一個打免費比賽的強手。

I guess the name got stocked. I have a feeling even if I win the WSOP main event one day, she will think of me as the freeroll king rather than world champion. She hates the idea of a losing day, or even a losing session. So when the Taiwan freeroll was announced she got really excited and she convinced (forced) me to take a shoot.

我想這個綽號會一直跟隨著我，我覺得就算有一天我贏了WSOP主賽事，她還是會把我定位在"免費錦標賽之王"而不是冠軍得主。她無法忍受我一天輸錢，甚至一天之中的某一段時間輸錢她也會受不了。所以當撲克之星公佈台灣的免費錦標賽開打之後，她非常開心，然後說服(逼>_<)我打。

 
For those of you not familiar with the Taiwan freerolls, they consist of three steps. First the daily tournament where 9 out of approximately 220 players get a seat in the weekly final. The weekly final has a slightly smaller field and again 9 players are award a ticket to the monthly championship. After about 20 daily tournament and three weekly finals I finally got a seat in the monthly championship. The monthly final awards 1 seat to a live final table, with the top price being a poker trip to Macau and the Red Dragon.

如果你不太了解這個錦標賽的比賽規則，讓我娓娓道來。這個比賽有分成三個階段。第一個是每日三場的免費錦標賽，每一場大約有220人左右參加，會取九位參賽者晉級到每周的錦標賽。每周的錦標賽有稍微少一點點的人數，也是取前9名到一個月一次的final。經歷了20天的每日錦標賽和3次的每週錦標賽，我終於打到每月的錦標賽，也就是最後一關。贏得最後一關的人可以到現場打一個9人比賽，9人比賽的冠軍可贏得紅龍杯參賽資格和免費的住宿。

If I was bored in the weekly tournament, and half asleep in the daily I was finally motivated to get back to my normal tournament schedule. All I had to do is win this 36 field tournament, and I could stop playing these time consuming tournaments. I worked my way all the way to headsup. Bang a missed flush draw and a coin flip later and I was back at square 1. 2^nd place, and nothing for the effort. Still have a few unused weekly tickets, so I might give it a last shoot. Luckily I have the bankroll for the normal satellite, but there is a certain satisfaction to qualify for free. However, when you get close like this it is hard not to look at these tournaments as huge waste of time.

每次當我在"每週"打到超無聊，或在"每日"打到快睡著的時候，我總是用自己比較常打的比賽來勉勵自己。我告訴自己"只要撐到每月的冠軍(36人取1)，我就再也不用打這類的比賽了"。我非常努力的打到剩下最後兩個人hp的時候，"轟隆一聲"我沒買到花，下一個coin flip又輸掉的時候，我又被打入第一階段(因為我拿了第二名)，長久以來的努力化成煙霧。我目前還有幾張"每週"的票，所以我可能會再試最後一次。還好我目前有足夠的錢可以打真正的錦標賽，但如果不用花任何一毛錢就打到票，心裡總會有一絲絲奇妙的滿足感。但是當你非常接近勝利，但卻沒有成功的時候，真的很難不認為自己其實浪費了很多時間!