Perhaps sadly, I have little to report from this past weekend’s Face Up $10k WSOP Voucher + Cash tourney. I woke up in time, had all my logins figured out, had synced my watch with the atomic clock … but the reason I couldn’t get in this time? Not enough points!

Oh, the despair.

The event — easily findable right at the top of the lobby — cost 1,000 “tournament points” to enter. I had 350. Not sure how I got them, and whether my number is unusually small. I posted on Al’s Face Up wall seeing if he could ship me some points, but he was busy playing, I guess, or maybe working, or just consciously ignoring …

As a paying customer @FaceUpGaming, I didn’t realize I needed anything special to get into the real-prizes tournaments. Turns out “tournament points” are not the same as “play chips” — kinda a bummer, since I have about 1.77 million of those. I tried clicking around the Face Up website to see where I could find additional tournament points — surely there’s gotta be a friend-request button or kabuki trading post somewhere … no?

Getting a bit pissy (because I was really ready to play!) I decided to take out my tilt by harassing the live-chat assistance. I figured whatever overseas customer service plugin workforce they were using wouldn’t have a clue about the difference between points and chips, let alone late registration theory and WSOP vouchers:

Pria: Hello, Mr. Dan, how can I assist you?

Pria: Hello, I am here to assist you, Mr. Dan. Please allow me to help.

Dan: Hi. Yes, um, the WSOP voucher tournament is about to start but I don’t have enough points. Can you help me? WTF?

Pria: You win points by playing in tournaments with smaller entry requirements. This tournament entry is 1,000 and you currently have 350.

Dan: Ah,

Pria: You can register for tournaments less than 350 points, available on the tournaments tab.

Dan: OK

Pria: Is there anything else for you to request me to help today?

Hmm, and grrr. But with a little more knowledge in hand, I jumped into a sit-n-go Aruba qualifier. Don’t really know the details of what it would send you to next, nor do I remember any hands, but now i was down to 250. I also at some point registered for a heads-up sit-n-go of some sort, but there were no takers so the game didn’t make … or so I believed until waking up down to just 150 in tournament points. Gah-dammit! Who knew playing for free would come down to a matter of bankroll management?

Al, it turned out, had no problems getting into the WSOP Voucher tourney … finishing 27th out of 392 to win $50 — real American virtual currency as per terms of PayPal, I presume. (Will have to check with him or another winning American play-ish money player for the scoop on how it really works. But alas, for the moment, cashing out isn’t yet a big part of my industry expertise.)

As our partner-friends at Face Up Gaming continue to juice up their action, here are the real winners of the day:

Results from  10K tournament on August 26th:

Wow. 2,000 points, really? Some of the 81st through 150th place finishers probably don’t even know how to appreciate that!