That's Not The Way It Was Supposed To Go
A couple of months ago, our department defended the Corporate Challenge Cup in a bowling match. That made three wins in a row for us and I have to admit we were cocky. Our nemesis department is Print Manufacturing and they were jonesing to come back at us. However, they suggested an intriguing idea instead of the usual head to head competition.
Open up the competition to all of the departments in the company with a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament.
Hmmm, poker? It took us about two seconds to agree.
One of our Finance guys actually won $41K in a tournament that is sometimes shown on TV. He became our tournament director, I coordinated the teams and bought the food and the Manufacturing guy booked the place.
The plan was to have 4 people from each department form a team. We ended up with 6 teams so 24 players. To prevent people just dumping off chips to a team member, we gave out points to only the top 12 finishers. That meant people had to try to stay in as long as possible. We also only put a max of 2 people from the same team at each table.
The Finance guy had some newbies on his team so he actually gave lessons at lunch to them. He said they were all fish so I wasn't worried about them but I figured he would actually win the whole thing.
Our receptionist was dying to play but HR didn't have enough players so they combined with the Execs so we had the receptionist, our CFO, Senior VP and the Director of HR all playing together. That's a group you don't want to piss off.
Our Inbound and Outbound Sales teams couldn't put four people together so the Inbound Manager became one of our dealers just so he could participate. Same with Creative - their Director was our other dealer.
The Manufacturing guys are all sharks and the guy who set it all up with us could be easily compared to Phil Helmuth. He's that arrogant and that obnoxious. It was funny to hear people in the hallway telling others, "Just as long as Manufacturing doesn't win." Actually, even people in his department were saying that just so they could shut him up.
Our team was my buddy Dave C who's now sucked me into Facebook Poker Tourney playing, the new guy who said he's pretty good and one of our developers who plays cards all the time. We were quite confident.
We shouldn't have been confident at all, considering how it turned out.
The new guy was second out of the tournament and Dave and the developer didn't last much longer. I limped along with the worst cards I've ever had. There was only one hand that I folded that I would have won with. It was 8-10 off suit and I would have Boated it. There was no way to bluff because the newbies were just as likely to call as to fold.
I ended up 12th, the lowest spot to collect points. So, we didn't get shut out but we did get destroyed.
Our Distribution department won with two of their guys finishing first and second. They were very (and justifiably) excited.
While I was really disappointed in our performance, I did have one highlight. Our own little Phil Helmuth busted out before I did and apparently left very quickly in a snit. That made me very, very happy.
Open up the competition to all of the departments in the company with a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament.
Hmmm, poker? It took us about two seconds to agree.
One of our Finance guys actually won $41K in a tournament that is sometimes shown on TV. He became our tournament director, I coordinated the teams and bought the food and the Manufacturing guy booked the place.
The plan was to have 4 people from each department form a team. We ended up with 6 teams so 24 players. To prevent people just dumping off chips to a team member, we gave out points to only the top 12 finishers. That meant people had to try to stay in as long as possible. We also only put a max of 2 people from the same team at each table.
The Finance guy had some newbies on his team so he actually gave lessons at lunch to them. He said they were all fish so I wasn't worried about them but I figured he would actually win the whole thing.
Our receptionist was dying to play but HR didn't have enough players so they combined with the Execs so we had the receptionist, our CFO, Senior VP and the Director of HR all playing together. That's a group you don't want to piss off.
Our Inbound and Outbound Sales teams couldn't put four people together so the Inbound Manager became one of our dealers just so he could participate. Same with Creative - their Director was our other dealer.
The Manufacturing guys are all sharks and the guy who set it all up with us could be easily compared to Phil Helmuth. He's that arrogant and that obnoxious. It was funny to hear people in the hallway telling others, "Just as long as Manufacturing doesn't win." Actually, even people in his department were saying that just so they could shut him up.
Our team was my buddy Dave C who's now sucked me into Facebook Poker Tourney playing, the new guy who said he's pretty good and one of our developers who plays cards all the time. We were quite confident.
We shouldn't have been confident at all, considering how it turned out.
The new guy was second out of the tournament and Dave and the developer didn't last much longer. I limped along with the worst cards I've ever had. There was only one hand that I folded that I would have won with. It was 8-10 off suit and I would have Boated it. There was no way to bluff because the newbies were just as likely to call as to fold.
I ended up 12th, the lowest spot to collect points. So, we didn't get shut out but we did get destroyed.
Our Distribution department won with two of their guys finishing first and second. They were very (and justifiably) excited.
While I was really disappointed in our performance, I did have one highlight. Our own little Phil Helmuth busted out before I did and apparently left very quickly in a snit. That made me very, very happy.
