When the stars align

There's only so much you can do as a poker player to influence outcomes. The truly spectacular hands will have very little to do with you, and almost everything to do with a remarkable confluence of external conditions of which you are the happy beneficiary. This was the case for me on Friday night, on hand 78. I was dealt a pair of sevens, and flopped a set. Here are the actions I made on the ensuing betting round:

1. I bet $1,000
2. I reraised to $3,000
3. I reraised to $5,000
4. I reraised to $56,419 to go all in

It's clear there was some skill involved here; if I'd gone all in to start the betting, some of my opponents would have dropped out. As it was, all four put themselves all in during this betting round. What's more, all four ended up hitting the felt. I won the main pot and three side pots for a total haul of $173,164, $121,394 of which was o.p.m. I can't recall ever seeing four players hit the felt on one hand before. Needless to say, it was sweet! However, the reason it happened was not that I have mad poker skills. The reason it happened was that the stars were all in alignment for me; not only did I flop a monster, my opponents all had big hands of their own. I can't take any credit for that, but I can certainly take my good fortune to the bank :-)

The cherry on top is that I'm now back into the blue.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 85 hands and saw flop:
 - 11 out of 11 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 6 out of 11 times while in small blind (54%)
 - 43 out of 63 times in other positions (68%)
 - a total of 60 out of 85 (70%)
 Pots won at showdown - 11 of 22 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $129,469
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,345,478
balance: $7,702,431