Embracing risk

It's still early in my tournament poker career, but already I'm developing a philosophy about the best style of play to maximize one's chances for success in tournaments. It's simple to state - instead of avoiding risk, you must embrace it. What do I mean by that? Do I mean that you should throw caution to the winds, and play like a madman? No. What I mean is that it's imperative that you play to win, instead of playing not to lose. You can't be guided by fear.

Last night, I had a marathon poker session. I entered ten tournaments, and made the money in four of them. I only won one, but it was a monster win, since it had a monster buy in. I'm going to play those monster buy in tournaments very sparingly.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 80000      1000           6        84     2   168000

 80000      1000           6        19     4        0

 80000      1000           6        48     4        0

 80000      1000           6         9     6        0

 80000      1000           6        68     2   168000

 80000      1000           6         4     5        0

 80000      1000           6         8     5        0

 80000      1000           6        70     2   168000

 80000      1000           6        31     5        0

200000      1500           6        74     1   780000

delta: $353,500
balance: $5,479,036