Friday, November 29, 2013

An ugly dozen

Last night, not only did I get kicked off the bus, I got beaten up while walking through the boondocks. After that, all I could do was crawl. In my last twelve cash game no limit hold'em sessions, I've lost a whopping $313,040. That's what I call an ugly dozen! It's not my ugliest, however. In my ugliest, back in 2011, I lost $421,062. At the rate I'm going, I won't hit the 8 million play dollar plateau until well into 2014. That's okay, though; I'm learning some poker humility along the way :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 193 hands and saw flop:
 - 28 out of 31 times while in big blind (90%)
 - 21 out of 31 times while in small blind (67%)
 - 73 out of 131 times in other positions (55%)
 - a total of 122 out of 193 (63%)
 Pots won at showdown - 13 of 31 (41%)
 Pots won without showdown - 16

delta: $-143,125
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,160,139
balance: $7,517,092

Thursday, November 28, 2013

The middle of nowhere

Playing poker can be likened to being on a long bus ride. You want to stay on the bus, and go as far as you can. Sometimes, though, you're forced off the bus, dropped off essentially in the middle of nowhere. How you deal with that situation has a lot to do with how successful a player you're going to be. What do you need to do when you're dropped off in the middle of nowhere? Hard as it might seem, you just need to walk. Use your own two legs and get moving. You won't get there as fast as if you were still on the bus, but with persistence and luck, you'll get there.

Last night, I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere on hand 56. I hit the felt, and was down the amount of my original starting stack, $50,000. I replenished my stack, and started my long walk back to the black. I reached it on hand 96, and quit the next hand.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 97 hands and saw flop:
 - 11 out of 12 times while in big blind (91%)
 - 8 out of 15 times while in small blind (53%)
 - 30 out of 70 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 49 out of 97 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 14 (42%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $5,722
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,303,264
balance: $7,660,217

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Worst AKo ever

Back on May 28th of this year, I wrote a post titled "Second worst AKo ever". Last night, I outdid myself; I had my worst AKo ever. I was dealt Ac Ks. When the flop came Qs Ah 9d, I bet $7,500, then went all in when one of the three big stacks at the table raised me to $36,500. I thought he was just trying to bully me. At showdown, he turned over Qh Ad for two pair, and won a pot worth $133,464. I lost a whopping $65,982 on the hand. That turned out to be the third largest single hand loss of my career.

Here's the thing. You have to go with your reads. There's no sense second-guessing yourself afterwards. I'm proud that I didn't back down.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 82 hands and saw flop:
 - 11 out of 12 times while in big blind (91%)
 - 8 out of 10 times while in small blind (80%)
 - 31 out of 60 times in other positions (51%)
 - a total of 50 out of 82 (60%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 14 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $-84,635
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,297,542
balance: $7,654,495

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Nell mezzo del cammin

I've only read bits and pieces of Dante's Inferno, but some lines have remained with me. Some, indeed, because my father has often quoted favorite passages of his, in the original Italian. Here are two lines that I can remember from my own perusal:

E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

This translates roughly to "And from there we emerged to rebehold the stars."  It's the final line of the Inferno. Come to think of it, the two lines that I remember are the first and last lines :-) Here's the first:

Nell mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

In Allen Mandelbaum's translation: "When I had journeyed half of our life's way". Whenever I'm driving, glance down at the gas gauge, and note that I have half a tank, this line comes to mind. The most recent full tank of gas has journeyed half of its life's way on these occasions. When I first had this thought, I was about 35, so the line applied to both the gas tank and my own life. Now that I'm 54, though, and have journeyed past the halfway point of my life, I can't apply it to myself.

Literally, "nell mezzo del cammin" means "in the middle of the road". In cash game poker, being in the middle of the road isn't such a bad place to be. On Saturday night, I was nell mezzo del cammin in three ways:

1. my seeing the flop percentage was 57
2. my pots won at showdown percentage was 50
3. my underwater percentage was 54

This all added up to a modest, but appreciated, gain.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 56 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 10 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 7 out of 10 times while in small blind (70%)
 - 15 out of 36 times in other positions (41%)
 - a total of 32 out of 56 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 8 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $10,020
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,382,177
balance: $7,739,130

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Worst to first

A poker table is like a big washing machine. You'll get tumbled around, but so will everybody else. As time goes on, you're guaranteed not to stay in the same place. You'll be pushed to the bottom at times, and pulled to the top at others. You shouldn't feel too bad when you're at the bottom, and also you shouldn't feel too elated when you're at the top. Bear in mind, I'm talking about when you're at a table with opponents who are your equals skill-wise. When you're at a table with opponents who are more skillful, you'd better resign yourself to being at the bottom of the washing machine.

Last night, I had a lengthy sojourn as the short stack at the table. On hand 41, I won a huge pot worth $126,967 with a pair of queens. That made me the big stack, enabling me to complete an improbable journey from worst to first.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 42 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 6 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 2 out of 5 times while in small blind (40%)
 - 16 out of 31 times in other positions (51%)
 - a total of 21 out of 42 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 3 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $86,561
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,372,157
balance: $7,729,110

Friday, November 22, 2013

A Broadway flop

If you're in the theater business, you never want to flop on Broadway. If you're in the poker business, though, you never turn up your nose at a Broadway flop. Lash night, I had a losing session, but it ended on a high note. On hand 150, I flopped Broadway (an ace high straight), went all in with it on the river, got called, and won a pot worth $72,878.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 151 hands and saw flop:
 - 25 out of 27 times while in big blind (92%)
 - 24 out of 30 times while in small blind (80%)
 - 54 out of 94 times in other positions (57%)
 - a total of 103 out of 151 (68%)
 Pots won at showdown - 11 of 25 (44%)
 Pots won without showdown - 19

delta: $-29,333
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,285,596
balance: $7,642,549

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Hijacked attention

Last night, a truly odd thing happened at the end of the session. My attention was hijacked, and so completely, I forgot I'd even been playing poker! Of course, this wouldn't have happened if the session had been engaging in any way. It was boring me to tears. Over the years, I've gravitated to focusing more and more attention on other activities than on playing poker while I'm playing. So I guess you could say an episode of hijacked attention was inevitable, but it still felt really strange. What was so engaging that it made me forget I was playing poker? The answer is a bit ironic - poker :-) I was watching a PokerStars TV video of the most recent Sunday Million final table.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 52 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 6 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 4 out of 6 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 16 out of 40 times in other positions (40%)
 - a total of 24 out of 52 (46%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 4 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $-19,778
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,314,929
balance: $7,671,882

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Lazarus wins again

20 years or so ago, I was a big fan of watching candlepin bowling on T.V. on Saturday mornings. The show was called "Candlepins for Cash", and was hosted by a sportscaster named Don Gillis. Don did a wonderful job of explaining the intricacies of this very regional brand of bowling. It's much harder to get a strike in candlepin bowling than in ten-pin, since the pins are thinner and the ball is smaller and lighter. I'll never forget seeing a bowler named Paul Berger bowl a 500 triple on the show. That's an average of 166.67 pins per string, an incredibly high standard in candlepin bowling.

Don had some great bowling terminology; much of it was devoted to describing the configuration of the remaining pins after the first ball had been bowled. A very common "leave", as it's called, was the one pin, two pin, four pin, and seven pin; Don called this "four horsemen, left side". Its mirror image, the one pin, three pin, six pin, and ten pin, was also common; Don called that one "four horsemen, right side". When you had four horsemen, your goal with the second ball was to hit the pocket between the one and the two (left side) or the one and the three (right side); you hoped the two would take out the four and the seven (left side), or that the three would take out the six and the ten (right side).

Believe it or not, the four horsemen was one of the easier leaves. A tougher one was one that Don called the diamond. The classic diamond is the one pin, two pin, three pin, and five pin; you can also have a "diamond left" consisting of the two pin, four pin, five pin, and eight pin, and a "diamond right" consisting of the three pin, five pin, six pin, and nine pin. With the diamond leaves, you still had to aim for the pocket between the lead pin and a pin immediately to its left or right; if you could convert 50% of your diamond leaves into spares, that was doing well. One of the phrases I heard Don say many times was "Diamond wins again", when someone failed to convert.

It took me three paragraphs to come to the point, but I'm finally here. In honor of Don's "Diamond wins again", I've titled this post "Lazarus wins again". That's actually shorthand for "The Lazarus line wins again". When your stack falls below the Lazarus line, and you subsequently hit the felt, the Lazarus line has won again. Last night, my stack fell below the Lazarus line on hand 122. Eight hands later, all my chips were gone.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 130 hands and saw flop:
 - 13 out of 17 times while in big blind (76%)
 - 8 out of 17 times while in small blind (47%)
 - 51 out of 96 times in other positions (53%)
 - a total of 72 out of 130 (55%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 14 (42%)
 Pots won without showdown - 11

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,334,707
balance: $7,691,660

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Sweet sixteen

By my unofficial count, this is my most frequent blog post title. What can I say? I like it, and I only use it when it's apt. On Sunday night, I won 8 pots in 50 hands, for a winning rate of .16, or sweet sixteen. My biggest pot of the night came courtesy of pocket aces. The board ran out Ts Jh Kc 3d 8h, and my pair of aces won a pot worth $41,068, beating a pair of sixes.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 50 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 7 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 4 out of 7 times while in small blind (57%)
 - 25 out of 36 times in other positions (69%)
 - a total of 36 out of 50 (72%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 9 (55%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $29,459
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,384,707
balance: $7,741,660

Sunday, November 17, 2013

The sortabs runtot combo

I use a lot of home-grown utilities to help me analyze my poker results. One of them is sortabs. I use sortabs to sort the hand deltas from a single session in descending order by absolute value. Another utility I use is runtot, which calculates the running total of a set of numbers. Very often, I use the output of one utility as the input for another. One example is the sortabs runtot combo. First, I run sortabs on the hand deltas; next, I run runtot on the sortabs output. What does this tell me? Believe it or not, it tells me how well I was playing in losing sessions, relative to other losing sessions. The further down the sortabs runtot list the first negative balance hits, the better I was playing, albeit in a losing cause. Last night, I didn't hit the first negative balance until observation 22. For comparison purposes, on Thursay night, I hit the first negative balance on observation 1.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 102 hands and saw flop:
 - 14 out of 14 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 7 out of 13 times while in small blind (53%)
 - 37 out of 75 times in other positions (49%)
 - a total of 58 out of 102 (56%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 12 (33%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $-24,981
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,355,248
balance: $7,712,201

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Big air

In the X games, big air means lots of daylight between you and your snowboard / skateboard / skis / motorcycle / bicycle and the slope / half-pipe / hill / dirt / trail. In poker, big air means lots of daylight between what you're representing your hand to be and what it actually is. To me, big air only makes sense in tournaments; I see no reason for it in cash games. Last night, I was the beneficiary of someone who thought he'd try big air in a cash game. I'd been dealt Ad 3d, and the flop came 8c As 7d. Big air bet $3,000, and I called. The turn was 8d. Big air bet $4,000 and I called. The river was 6c. Big air checked, and I checked behind. Big air turned over 3h 6h, and I won a pot worth $30,750. I realized how unusual the hand had been, and decided to honor its oddness by calling it a night the next hand.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 27 hands and saw flop:
 - 0 out of 2 times while in big blind (0%)
 - 1 out of 4 times while in small blind (25%)
 - 10 out of 21 times in other positions (47%)
 - a total of 11 out of 27 (40%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 3 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $57,050
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,380,229
balance: $7,737,182

Friday, November 15, 2013

Second worst cash game beating

Due to the differing natures of tournament poker and cash game poker, I know I'll never lose as much money in a single session of cash game poker as I've lost in a single session of tournament poker. The ugly (yet strangely beautiful) truth is that I've lost over one million dollars in a single session of tournament poker. But hey, it's just (play) money, right? However, significant losses are still possible in single sessions of cash game poker. $50,000 here, $50,000 there, pretty soon it starts to add up :-) Last night, I had the second worst cash game beating of my career. I hit the felt not once, not twice, but thrice. I joined an action table with several huge stacks; that's a recipe for either feast or famine. I hit the felt the first time when my flush ran into an uberflush. I hit it the second time when my pair of jacks lost to an ace high flush. I hit it the third and final time when my two pair of kings and sevens lost to a king high flush. Even I knew enough not to reup a third time.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 37 hands and saw flop:
 - 1 out of 4 times while in big blind (25%)
 - 1 out of 4 times while in small blind (25%)
 - 17 out of 29 times in other positions (58%)
 - a total of 19 out of 37 (51%)
 Pots won at showdown - 1 of 4 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $-150,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,323,179
balance: $7,680,132

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The best of its type

It's always a nice feeling to discover you've just achieved something in poker you never achieved before. The longer your career, the less likely this is to happen; consequently, the more delighted you are when it does. Last night, I had my best K8o (king eight offsuit) ever. I won a pot worth $97,048 with thee of a kind, kings ($62,899 of which was other people's money). My next best K8o came on July 26, 2012, when I won a pot worth $88,300 with a full house, kings full of eights ($52,300 of which was other people's money). Needless to say, I called it a night the very next hand.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 57 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 9 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 3 out of 8 times while in small blind (37%)
 - 20 out of 40 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 29 out of 57 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 6 (83%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $47,048
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,473,179
balance: $7,830,132

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Twotoyée

Over two thirds of my life ago, I learned French in school. Not much of what I learned remains accessible to me, not very surprisingly. One of the few things which does is that there are two ways to say "you" in French. One is formal (vous) and the other is informal (tu). You're only supposed to use the informal you with your loved ones or close friends. It would be a social gaffe to use the informal you with your French teacher, for instance. The French even came up with a word for this gaffe. It's a verb, actually - tutoyer. If you inappropriately use the informal you, the object of your misplaced affection has been tutoyée.

Let me introduce a homonym of this word into the poker world. You saw it here first! :-) When the poker gods want to give you a gentle nudge towards the poker exit, they will often twotoyer you. This is what I call it when they deal you a deuce as one of your hole cards. I have a rule of thumb never to play a hand where one of my hole cards is a deuce; the only exception is when both are deuces. Being dealt a deuce and any other card is almost like being dealt only one card instead of two. I'm certainly not the first person to observe this.

Last night, on hand 82, I was dealt 2h Ks. I knew that was my exit cue, and took it.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 82 hands and saw flop:
 - 12 out of 13 times while in big blind (92%)
 - 7 out of 13 times while in small blind (53%)
 - 29 out of 56 times in other positions (51%)
 - a total of 48 out of 82 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 6 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-35,322
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,426,131
balance: $7,783,084

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Getting it in good

The title of this post is an old poker expression. In a nutshell, what it means is that there's no shame in going all in and losing if your hand is a premium one. That's what happened to me on hand 51 on Saturday night. I got it in good with pocket kings. Three of us went to showdown. After the flop, I was a 51% favorite to win the hand; one of my opponents was a 29% dog, and the other was a 16% dog. There was a 4% chance that my two opponents would chop the pot. My first opponent hit a straight on the turn, and I hit the felt. I never feel bad about reupping in a situation like that; I'm secure in the knowledge that I made the correct play. Coincidentally, I played another 51 hands, and ended the night with a nice profit. That's three 51s in one session; very curious!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 102 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 15 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 13 out of 16 times while in small blind (81%)
 - 33 out of 71 times in other positions (46%)
 - a total of 56 out of 102 (54%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 16 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $13,749
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,461,453
balance: $7,818,406

Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Lazarus line in big blinds

I've talked about the Lazarus line on this blog before. As a refresher, it's the amount below which you cannot allow your stack to fall if you expect to avoid hitting the felt. When I first came up with the idea, I had a pretty conservative idea of where the line fell; as I recall, I thought it should be somewhere around 22% of your starting stack size. As my play matured and my skill level increased, I realized that number was too high, and adjusted it downward somewhat; I forget the exact umber I picked, but it was somewhere around the 15% mark. Now that I'm older, and poker-wiser, I realize that I was calibrating the Lazarus line all wrong. It shouldn't be a percentage at all, but a pure number - the number of big blinds below which you cannot allow your stack to fall. Of course, there's a way to translate back and forth between dollar amounts and big blinds, but by expressing the Lazarus line in big blinds, it drives home more forcefully the dire predicament you're in if your stack falls below it. The new Lazarus line is ...  drumroll, please ... 10 big blinds.

Last night, at the end of hand 96, my stack fell below my new definition of the Lazarus line. I was playing at a $250 / $500 table, so I needed to keep my stack above $5,000. It hit $4,944 at the end of hand 96. After that, I went on a tear. Not only did I not hit the felt, I brought my stack back up to within shouting distance of the black, though I never got there. I knew I'd made a good escape, and quit in order to consolidate it.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 141 hands and saw flop:
 - 13 out of 20 times while in big blind (65%)
 - 8 out of 21 times while in small blind (38%)
 - 48 out of 100 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 69 out of 141 (48%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 15 (46%)
 Pots won without showdown - 12

delta: $-8,293
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,447,704
balance: $7,804,657

Friday, November 8, 2013

The lonesome one

When I play cash game no limit hold'em at a nine player table, I aim for my winning rate to be at least the land of the ones. The more big stacks there are at the table, however, the harder that is to achieve. In cases where there are multiple big stacks, the land of the ones may be too much to hope for; a more reasonable goal is the lonesome one. To review, the land of the ones is when you win 1 of every 9 hands, for a winning rate of .111111...  The lonesome one is when you win 1 of every 10 hands, for a winning rate of .100000.

I just checked the archives, and discovered that I've played eight sessions where I hit the lonesome one on the nose. Of those eight, six were winning (including last night's) and two were losing. There's no better proof that patience pays in poker.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 40 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 6 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 4 out of 5 times while in small blind (80%)
 - 14 out of 29 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 23 out of 40 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 6 (33%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $6,428
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,455,997
balance: $7,812,950

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The poker player who came in from the cold

One of the best espionage novels of all time is "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", by John le Carré. I've always liked the title. Since it's been so long since I played poker, and I'm going to play tonight, I feel like I'm coming in out of the cold. How long was the hiatus? Almost, but not quite, a career high. The longest I've been out in the cold before is 13 days. This time, it was 12; the last time I played was October 25th. I don't remember much about the session, other than the fact that I won.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 76 hands and saw flop:
 - 12 out of 14 times while in big blind (85%)
 - 14 out of 15 times while in small blind (93%)
 - 23 out of 47 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 49 out of 76 (64%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 12 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $31,127
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,449,569
balance: $7,806,522