Life Gets In The Way

Well, for the last couple of weeks I have been struggling with my ability to make smart choices with my life.  While nothing is ever perfect, it does seem that the responsible option isn't always the most fun.  Recently registration opened up for the WSOP Circuit event in Vancouver.  Now, Vancouver has hosted tournaments in the past, but never before has the WSOP been involved and never before have the tournaments actually been affordable for me.  Obviously the term "affordable" is relative.  On October 27th they are having a NL holdem tourney with a $365 buy in, and on the 28th the buy in is $580.  To anyone who doesn't play cards they would likely never consider spending that kind of money of a game of fun and chance.  To those that do play, including myself, the buy in is the investment you have to make in order to have the chance at a big score.  First prize in either of these tournaments isn't going to be life changing, but ~$30,000 or maybe ~$50,000 for the bigger event would be awfully nice.  I have a really solid live cash game playing style, but my tournament game is largely untested in a live game setting.  The other thing telling me to go play is that I can ultimately finance the whole trip with earnings from previous poker games.  If I was still young, dumb, single and only responsible for myself I would be there no questions asked.  At the same time, I'm not sure that I would be in the place I am at now in terms of occupation and poker game if not for my family.  I think that the presence of my family around me has provided me with motivation to play my best poker game more often, and to stick with an occupation long enough to reap the rewards of paid vacation time.    Ultimately, my decision has come down to timing, and realizing that the 8 hour drive is not something I want to do twice, if there are only a couple of days of poker playing in between.  We could work it out so that I could go down from say Friday until Monday or maybe even Tuesday, but in the end I feel like it isn't really worth it.  Rushing down and rushing back are not exciting propositions in my book.  While somewhat disappointed, I have to make the adult decision to take a pass this time.