House falls on man

For the title of this post, I thought I'd try something that sounded like a newspaper headline :-) In this case, the house was a full house, and the man was me. Near the end of the second tournament I played last night, when I was heads up with most of the chips, I hit a flush on the turn, and called an all in bet by my opponent. I was already celebrating the victory when I saw the PokerStars software inexplicably moving chips to my opponent's spot at the table instead of mine. I was stunned, dumbfounded, and gobsmacked. My opponent had flopped a full house of aces full of fives. My stack fell from $3,695 to $1,390 in a heartbeat.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating. As a poker player, you must expect cold decks like that to hit you with regularity. By that, I don't mean frequently; they won't hit you often, but they will hit you with regularity. In a way, they're a badge of honor; they signify you've played long enough to get hit by them. If you've managed to play that long, you must be pretty good :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 50000       800           6        66     1   195000
 50000       800           6       118     2   105000
 50000       800           6        19     5        0

delta: $147,600
tournament balance: $1,389,890
balance: $6,520,621