Three firsts

Last night, I played in two MTTs, and achieved three firsts:

1. I made the money in an MTT for which I late registered
2. I made the money in an MTT where I actually lost money
3. I made the money in multiple MTTs in a single session

I've now played 17 MTT 8-games, and made the money in 10 of them. One beneficial side effect is that my Omaha game is improving slightly; to be fair, it couldn't have gotten much worse :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       122    13     5850
  4500       500           6        80    15     4440

delta: $290
MTT 8-game balance: $70,430
balance: $9,565,460

Late registration considered harmful

Last night, I played two MTT 8-games again, and again made the money in the second one. So far, I'm maintaining the MTT golden ratio. One thing I can't help but notice, however, is that I've never made the money in the first MTT of a multiple MTT session. Why might that be? I have a theory. I think it's likely due to the fact that a fair percentage of the time in such situations, I'm late registering for that first MTT. Late registration definitely has its pluses and minuses. I'm starting to think the minuses outweigh the pluses. The biggest minus is that when you late register, you're giving yourself a shorter runway for takeoff. If you don't manage to get airborne fast, you're going to crash pretty quickly. The biggest plus is that there's dead money in the prize pool - entry fees that belonged to players who have already busted, meaning there are less players to contend with.

I happened to notice that last night's second MTT and the previous night's second MTT both started at the exact same time - 11:42pm eastern standard time. That could be a coincidence, but intuition tells me it's not. I firmly believe another MTT 8-game will start tonight at that time. If I were smart, I'd wait around until 11:42 and only enter one MTT tonight. However, intuition also tells me I won't have the patience to do that :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        16    45        0
  4500       500           6       196     4    34800

delta: $24,800
MTT 8-game balance: $70,140
balance: $9,565,170

Sunk costs epiphany

Last night, I played two MTT 8-games, and managed to make the money in the second one by the slimmest of margins. I came in 18th, the final paid place. I was flirting with oblivion from hand 75 on. I made a costly mistake on hand 106 which made me realize I need to be much more systematic about calculating pot odds and using them to help me make good poker decisions. In other words, I need to start doing a little bit more math at the table, and a little bit less flying by the seat of my pants :-)

One of the positive outcomes of this realization is that I've finally taken the time to get to the bottom of a poker question which has been bothering me off and on for at least the last two years. Simply stated, it's this: does the amount of money one has put into the pot already have any bearing on a pot odds decision? Intuitively, it seems like it should, but it actually has no bearing at all. I had to go through the exercise of comparing and contrasting several poker scenarios to prove this to myself. I got corroboration of this by reading several pertinent articles I found on the topic of sunk costs, which I include here for reference:

http://www.pokerology.com/articles/the-sunk-cost-effect/
http://www.zeninvestor.org/behavioral-finance-2/the-sunk-cost-fallacy-what-it-is-and-how-to-avoid-it/
http://www.nj.com/onlinegamblingnj/index.ssf/2013/12/how_the_sunk_cost_fallacy_can.html

It's actually great news that each poker decision can be made on its own merits, without reference to what has happened before; it makes the math much simpler :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        12    46        0
  4500       500           6       108    18     5200

delta: $-4,800
MTT 8-game balance: $45,340
balance: $9,540,370

Non-paying places no object

One of the quirks of tournaments with late registration is that there's no easy way to tell how well you did when you finish out of the money. Whenever you bust, you finish one place below the number of active players at that time. If you bust really early on, before a lot of late entrants register, your finishing place can look much more respectable than it should. A better barometer for how well you did is therefore not your finishing place, but the number of hands you played. Last night, I finished in 59th place, which doesn't look too stellar, but managed to play 47 hands, which isn't that shabby. The hand that really hurt my chances was hand 19, when the flavor was Stud Hi/Lo Limit; I lost more than half my stack. I ran the numbers afterwards, and I was a 65.29% favorite after sixth street, but it wasn't meant to be. This was another one of those times I wished Stud had a no limit variant :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        47    59        0

delta: $-5,000
MTT 8-game balance: $50,140
balance: $9,545,170

The golden ratio for MTTs

Every poker style has its golden ratio. Briefly stated, that's the ratio of winning sessions to losing sessions which you must achieve in order to assure yourself of making a profit. For the first 3 1/2 years of my online poker career, the only poker style I played was cash game, so there was only one golden ratio I needed to worry about - the cash game golden ratio. It quickly became apparent to me that the cash game golden ratio is 2; as long as you win twice as many sessions as you lose, you'll be in the clover. From my brief experience of MTTs, I have a candidate for the MTT golden ratio. Not to keep you in suspense, I believe it's 1. Two slight alterations of the canonical golden ratio formula are required for MTTs:

1. rather than counting sessions, tournaments entered must be counted instead
2. rather than looking strictly at profit, what counts as a profit is "making the money", i.e., finishing in a paid position. It turns out that the payout schemes for MTTs on PokerStars sometimes have the lowest payouts below the level of the buy in plus the entry fee. In other words, you can "make the money" and still end up losing money.

Counting last night, I've now played 10 MTT 8-game tournaments, and have made the money in 6 of them. Therefore, I'm currently achieving the golden ratio in MTT 8-games, with a little room to spare :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       131    15     5730

delta: $730
MTT 8-game balance: $55,140
balance: $9,550,170

Staying above the clouds

I've figured out how to do well in MTTs. Unfortunately, I don't have any kind of recipe, or practical advice. The goal is easy to state, but there aren't any concrete steps I can enumerate which will guarantee success. What you need to do is stay above the clouds. By that I mean you must always have enough chips to be able to fold at any time. By having one of the largest stacks, you can pick your own fights, and stay away from any fights your opponents are trying to pick with you.

Last night I played two MTT 8-games. The first one was a bust, but I came in second in the second one. I stayed above the clouds most of the time. Understandably, I was very pleased with my play; however, it could definitely have been improved upon. Most notably, I made a major mistake when we got down to three handed play. Playing Limit Stud, I got confused and thought I was playing Limit Stud Hi/Lo. When I made the nut low on the river, which was also a five high straight, I bet it out, believing I had a chance to scoop the whole pot. I lost to a higher straight. Pretty stupid, I know. Luckily for me, there's no such thing as no limit stud :-) I would have finished in third place for sure if there were.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        84    31        0
  4500       500           6       225     2    60630

delta: $50,630
MTT 8-game balance: $54,410
balance: $9,549,440

Second MTT final table

Last night, on Christmas Eve, I made my second ever MTT final table. Like the first time, it was an 8-game tournament. Also like the first time, I came in fourth. I'm now net positive in MTT 8-games, having made the money in four of the seven I've entered. One habit I've gotten into while playing these wonderfully fun MTTs is picking an opponent somewhat at random and tracking my progress against his/hers over the course of the tournament. The reason my selection is only somewhat at random is that I always pick someone who has more chips than I do :-) I figure if I can keep up with that person, I'll be doing okay. It's working out pretty well so far.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       149     4    32510

delta: $27,510
MTT 8-game balance: $3,780
balance: $9,498,810

Dream poker

I haven't remembered a dream in quite a while. I can remember remembering them, though :-) One dream I remember remembering must have occurred about 4 or 5 years ago. As I thought about it afterwards, I realized it had been a dream about poker. Like all dreams, this one had distorted reality for its own unknown purposes, but there was an underlying reality there all the same. How realistic can a dream about poker be if it doesn't include playing cards? As it turns out, quite realistic. Every poker player who's played long enough knows what it feels like to be running hot. In this dream, I was running hot. I could do no wrong. I knew I had this special skill, and the skill was working like a charm. I was sitting at a table, with other people. We were competing by doing something with our hands, but there were no cards. I remember this feeling of euphoria, and rightness; I remember feeling I was doing what I was born to do. I wasn't prideful in the dream; I didn't think the skill was something I could take credit for. All I knew was that I had it, and it felt so good and right to use it. I imagine that's how I'll feel the first time I win an MTT.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        40    61        0
  9000      1000           6         9    78        0
  4500       500           6        53    24        0
  4500       500           6        70    12     7350

delta: $-17,650
MTT 8-game balance: $-23,730
balance: $9,471,300

The beauty of versatility

By a series of happy accidents, occurring over a long period of time, I think I've finally found my perfect poker niche. For a long time, I believed it was cash game pot limit hold'em. For an even long time, I believed it was cash game no limit hold'em. At times I wanted it to be (but acknowledge it never was) cash game pot limit Omaha. At other times I wanted it to be (but acknowledge it never was) cash game deuce to the seven triple draw lowball. At other times I wanted it to be (but acknowledge it never was) cash game seven card stud. At still other times I wanted it to be (but acknowledge it never was) sit and go no limit hold'em. Imagine my surprise to discover that the most fun I have at a poker table is when I'm playing MTT 8-games. The best flavor of poker to play, regardless of how well you do at it, is the flavor that provides you with the most fun. Of course, the better you do, the funner it is :-)

Last night, I cashed in my third MTT in a row. The first and third were MTT 8-games; the middle one was an MTT no limit hold'em I entered the session before last when no 8-game was in the offing. Probably not coincidentally, I barely made the money in the MTT no limit hold'em, but finished quite a bit higher in the 8-games.

Am I really good at 8-games, or is this a fluke? I'm pretty sure it's not a fluke, since I did very well in sit and go 8-games before I ever thought of playing MTTs. Why am I good at 8-games? The answer's pretty simple. I'm not the best at any of the games, but I'm quite good at all of them. That means I can pretty much trounce anyone who's the best at one or two of the flavors.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       151     7    14470

delta: $9,470
8-game tournament balance: $395,620
balance: $9,488,950

Min cash

Last night, I cashed in my second straight MTT. It was a min cash, as I came in 18th and 18 places were paid. I think the total number of entrants was 90. One definite vibe I'm getting from MTTs is that a lot of not very good players enter them :-) That definitely increases my chances of doing well.

One really nice feature of the software is that you can see where you stand in the tournament at any time. Towards the end, I knew I was really near the money bubble, and also knew my chip stack was really short. I ended up folding my way into the money :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6        44    18    16600

delta: $6,600
MTT balance: $-23,950
balance: $9,479,480

First MTT cash

Last night, I cashed for the first time in an MTT (multi-table tournament). It was only the third MTT I've ever entered. Pretty heady stuff, considering there were 77 entrants. I came in fourth. I was the chip leader when the final table began, but got way too frisky on a deuce hand, which dropped me quickly down to being one of the short stacks. I'm very happy with the way I played overall.

I realize I need to pick a buy in level and stick with it. The last go around with tournaments, I decided the $50,000 buy in level was my bread and butter. This time, I'm going to drop all the way down to the $5,000 buy in level.

I'm super excited about playing MTTs; it's such a rush!

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       191     4    29450

delta: $24,450
8-game tournament balance: $386,150
balance: $9,472,880

A wonderful new toy

Last night, I played two 8-game tournaments. However, for the first time ever in my PokerStars experience, they weren't 6 player sit and gos. Instead, they were multi-table tournaments. That meant that they were scheduled to start at a set time, regardless of how many people had signed up by then, and accepted late registrations for a lengthy period after the official start time. One of the really intriguing features of multi-table tournaments is that you never know when you register how big the prize pool will grow to be. Obviously, the more players that register, the bigger the prize pool gets, and consequently the bigger the prizes.

I have to say, I'm already hooked on multi-table 8-game tournaments. They're what I see myself playing for the foreseeable future. They're just so much fun, and such great value for money! The only quibble I have with the software is that in the auto-generated logs, the number of registered players at the time of one's tournament exit doesn't appear, so there's no way to know precisely how well one did unless one manually saves this number at the time of exit.

I'm going to give myself even a longer tournament leash than when I last played them. I'm prepared to lose five million play dollars (more than half of my current bankroll) playing tournaments, and will consider it money well spent for the entertainment value alone.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 45000      5000           6        73    21        0
  4500       500           6        58    42        0

delta: $-55,000
8-game tournament balance: $361,700
balance: $9,448,430

Consolation

Every time I lose a session, I look for a silver lining. Sometimes, it's easy to find one. Other times, as with last night's session, not so much. The best one I can come up with for last night's session is that I was net positive on my all ins. Here are the numbers:

     -5174 3d 3s hand  65
      9927 Qc Kh hand 115
      5525 6s 2d hand 124

I have a hankering to play an 8-game sit and go tonight, so that's just what I'm going to do :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 127 hands and saw flop:
 - 17 out of 20 times while in big blind (85%)
 - 12 out of 18 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 55 out of 89 times in other positions (61%)
 - a total of 84 out of 127 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 9 of 24 (37%)
 Pots won without showdown - 12

delta: $-91,515
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,598,331
balance: $9,503,430

Aces cracked and mended

Last night, on the penultimate hand of the session, I had my seventh most lucrative cash game no limit hold'em hand ever. I was dealt pocket rockets, and went all in pre flop with them. I'm pretty sure my aces were cracked on the flop, then mended on the river. The flop had two queens in it, and I felt sure one of the three opponents who called me had a queen. Luckily for me, I spiked an ace on the river for a full house, aces full of queens. Let me check the archives to see if my foreboding was justified ... As it turns out, it wasn't; none of my opponents had a queen, so I didn't need to spike an ace to win the monster pot of $155,132. In reality my aces were neither cracked nor mended. Still, it makes for a good blog post title :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 56 hands and saw flop:
 - 9 out of 13 times while in big blind (69%)
 - 4 out of 10 times while in small blind (40%)
 - 15 out of 33 times in other positions (45%)
 - a total of 28 out of 56 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 8 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $54,632
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,689,846
balance: $9,594,945

Getting it in good

I've used this blog post title before, but it's good enough to use again :-) In poker, you always want to get your money in good. Essentially, that means getting it in when you're a big favorite. Now that I have a "did it float?" utility, my modified definition of getting it in good means that the decision to put all your chips in floated, i.e., had a net positive long term return on investment. You don't always have to go all in to be able to answer the "did it float?" question, although that's the most usual case. The other case is when another player, who you have covered, goes all in, and you call. The key component of being able to answer the "did it float?" question is that the decision point where you're asking the question was your last decision of the hand.

Last night, my three biggest hands in terms of the absolute values of the deltas were all losses. In all three, the "did it float?" question applied. Here are the numbers:

558000 (2758000 2200000)
504152 (1903676 1399524)
-951920 (1600000 2551920)

What this boils down to is that I got the money in good in two of the three hands. If I'd won those two hands, I still would have lost money on the night, but it would have been a lot less than I actually lost - only $20,092, instead of $102,164. So that means I was actually playing pretty well for playing so shittily :-) Poker's like that sometimes.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 128 hands and saw flop:
 - 18 out of 21 times while in big blind (85%)
 - 8 out of 20 times while in small blind (40%)
 - 42 out of 87 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 68 out of 128 (53%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 16 (43%)
 Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $-102,164
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,635,214
balance: $9,540,313

Double stealth double up

The poker hands where much money is both won and lost are the ones where multiple players have the flop hit their hands hard. One common way this can happen is what I call double stealth. That's when two players have stealth hands. By definition, no pair appears in the flop when there's a stealth hand. Stealth hands are wired in to the board. There are several double stealth scenarios. Here are two of the most common:

1. both players have a stealth two pair
2. one player has a stealth two pair and the other player has a set

A set, by definition, is a stealth hand. It's non-stealth cousin is called trips :-) Last night, double stealth arose on hand 20. I'd been dealt 5h 5c, and the flop came 7d 5d Th. I went all in, and actually got a caller. He'd been dealt 7c Tc, so he had a stealth two pair. My set held up, and I won a pot worth $103,504, $51,752 of which was o.p.m. (other people's money). That gave me the freedom to play a lot longer if I wanted, and still be assured of a profit on the night. I decided not to play that many more hands.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 29 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 5 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 3 out of 5 times while in small blind (60%)
 - 13 out of 19 times in other positions (68%)
 - a total of 21 out of 29 (72%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 3 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $51,008
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,737,378
balance: $9,642,477

10 New York minutes

On Saturday night, I set a new personal best for futility. In just eight hands, I lost $150,000. The whole process took just over eight minutes - in other words, 10 New York minutes :-) I've only lost more money in a single session of cash game no limit hold'em once, and I've never lost that much money that fast. Here are the hands I was dealt, along with the hand deltas:

As Jc      $3,275
Jd Jc     $-4,000
8s 4s       $-500
Kh Kd    $-35,000
Ks Kc    $-13,775
9h Kh        $630
Js Kd    $-50,630
Jc Kh    $-50,000

I hit the felt at the end of hands 5, 7, and 8. On hand 8, I was a 95.45% favorite after the turn, but my opponent hit a 2 outer on the river. Whatcha gonna do? :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 8 hands and saw flop:
 - 1 out of 1 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 0 out of 0 times while in small blind (0%)
 - 7 out of 7 times in other positions (100%)
 - a total of 8 out of 8 (100%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 7 (28%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $-150,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,686,370
balance: $9,591,469

The cruelest hand

Last night, I suffered the cruelest hand of my career. At least, it was the cruelest I can remember. The cruelty of a cruel hand has nothing to do with how much you lose on it; rather, it has to do with the false hope it instills in you, and the irony that it is that false hope alone which causes you to lose your money. Of course, it adds to the pathos if you happen to hit the felt on the hand, and also if you happen to lose a good amount of money on it. The icing on the cake is if you use both your hole cards and the river card to make your best hand. The more wired in you are to the board, the less likely it is for an opponent to be wired in harder. All of these factors were true in the final hand of last night's session. I was dealt Ts Qh. The flop came 9c 6s 6h. The turn was the jack of spades. The river was the king of hearts. So, as you can see, I "got there" on the river; I made a king high straight. It was the higher of the two possible straights I could have made on the river. Since I was using both my hole cards, and neither of them was the low card of the straight, there was no straight that could beat me. Since the board didn't have three cards to a flush, my hand couldn't be beaten by a flush. The only hands that could beat me were a full house or a four of a kind. The fact that the river card delivered me my straight made it less likely that it also delivered my opponent a full house. And yet, that's precisely what happened. My opponent turned over Ks 6c, and won a pot worth $71,486 with a full house, sixes full of kings. I lost $35,118 on the hand, hit the felt, and quit for the night. That was the second time I'd hit the felt in the session. I know when I'm not wanted :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 64 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 8 times while in big blind (75%)
 - 6 out of 8 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 25 out of 48 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 37 out of 64 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 8 (37%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,836,370
balance: $9,741,469

Pocks and freqs

I want to talk a little bit about pocks and freqs. Pocks are pocket pairs. Freqs are frequencies of occurrence. Every pock has a freq of 221. That is to say, every pocket pair occurs, on average, once every 221 hands. Since the vast majority of the sessions I play are less than 221 hands in length, that means that it's generally more likely than not that any particular pocket pair will not occur in a session. Last night, a freq-y thing happened :-) I got pocket fours multiple times. Four times, in fact! That turns out to be 6.41 times as frequently as they should have occurred. I was aware that fours kept coming up, but only remember them coming up three times. The fourth time was the charm. I flopped a set, ended up going all in, and won a side pot worth $50,708 and a main pot worth $74,882. It was the most lucrative pocket fours hand of my career by far, and my 14th most lucrative pocket pair.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 138 hands and saw flop:
 - 15 out of 18 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 6 out of 15 times while in small blind (40%)
 - 62 out of 105 times in other positions (59%)
 - a total of 83 out of 138 (60%)
 Pots won at showdown - 9 of 17 (52%)
 Pots won without showdown - 11

delta: $25,590
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,936,370
balance: $9,841,469

The $500,000 yardstick

Though I measure my play wealth in millions, I often gauge my progress in half millions. $500,000 turns out to be a pretty good yardstick for how well or how poorly I'm doing. Encouraged by realizing last night that I'd had a very good eight session run, I decided to widen my observation window to see if I've been doing better for an even longer period. Sure enough, including last night's win, I've had a run of twelve winning sessions out of fifteen. In that stretch, I've made a profit of $499,979. My cash game no limit hold'em blue distance is down to a reachable $101,147. Things are looking up!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 76 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 10 times while in big blind (80%)
 - 6 out of 12 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 29 out of 54 times in other positions (53%)
 - a total of 43 out of 76 (56%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 10 (40%)
 Pots won without showdown - 10

delta: $29,781
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,910,780
balance: $9,815,879

The new normal

One of the great things about poker is that it's constantly changing on you. It's truly protean :-) When you think you're really in a rut, you might happen to look up and suddenly realize you just won seven of your last eight sessions. That's what happened to me after last night's session. Welcome news, indeed! No matter how much attention you think you're paying to what's going on, these streaks still manage to get the jump on you. The new normal starts happening before you realize. Very much like life :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 23 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 3 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 3 out of 4 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 11 out of 16 times in other positions (68%)
 - a total of 16 out of 23 (69%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 2 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $52,630
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,880,999
balance: $9,786,098

Many zeroes to cross

Last night, I had nine zero crossings. That tied for 13th place on my all time list of cash game no limit hold'em zero crossings. That means I achieved consecutive top 20s! I'm on a roll :-) Obviously, the more zero crossings you have, the more you're treading water. It's not a good idea to have a high zero crossings number. The best number to have is 0 (if you win your first hand of the night) or 1 (if you don't). If you're going to have a high number, you have to try to end the session when your last zero crossing was one of the good kind, putting you into the black. I managed that last night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 66 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 9 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 4 out of 9 times while in small blind (44%)
 - 28 out of 48 times in other positions (58%)
 - a total of 38 out of 66 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 10 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $12,776
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,828,369
balance: $9,733,468

Another top 20

The more poker sessions I've played, the harder it is for a session to make it into the top 10 in some category. So I'm now declaring that 20 is the new 10 :-) If a session manages to make it into the top 20 in some category, I now consider that a pretty big deal. That was the case last night. In honor of how many pots I won without a showdown last night, I came up with a new poker statistic, pots won without showdown percentage; it's the ratio of pots won without a shodown to the total number of hands played. Here are the top 20:

0.2917  2014-04-25
0.2647  2013-04-08
0.2500  2013-05-08
0.2500  2013-02-20
0.2381  2014-11-17
0.2367  2013-10-14
0.2346  2013-05-28
0.2333  2013-08-05
0.2327  2013-12-06
0.2308  2013-08-23
0.2308  2013-03-29
0.2297  2013-10-13
0.2268  2014-10-02
0.2222  2014-01-06
0.2093  2012-03-24
0.2039  2012-06-27
0.2024  2013-08-29
0.2000  2014-12-06
0.2000  2014-07-03
0.2000  2013-08-21

The bar chart of my stack size over the course of the session has an unusual shape - a steady upward trend. I'll take it :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 70 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 8 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 8 out of 9 times while in small blind (88%)
 - 33 out of 53 times in other positions (62%)
 - a total of 49 out of 70 (70%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 15 (46%)
 Pots won without showdown - 14

delta: $75,515
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,815,593
balance: $9,720,692

Hello, Mr. Chips

Last night, two record highs in my poker career were set. One of them had nothing to do with me, and the other very little, but they were interesting all the same. The one that had very little to do with me was the record high for the number of chips at the start of a hand, summing the chip stacks of all the active players at the table. It was an eye-popping $1,814,762, over $34,000 more than the previous high. The one that had nothing do with me was the record high for the starting stack of a single player at the start of a hand; this one was was an incredible $870,640, over $194,000 more than the previous high. Hello, Mr. Chips!

Players at this table were playing aggressively, so I tightened up my play accordingly. I bided my time, and was ultimately rewarded with a monster hand. I won a pot worth $198,446 with an ace high flush, and called it a night the next hand.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 45 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 5 times while in big blind (40%)
 - 3 out of 5 times while in small blind (60%)
 - 15 out of 35 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 20 out of 45 (44%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 7 (57%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $97,946
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,740,078
balance: $9,645,177

Repenting at leisure

There's an old saying, "Marry in haste, repent at leisure". This lesson applies to poker as well; it can be paraphrased, "Be frisky in haste, repent at leisure". When you play poker friskily, you're likely to hit the felt. It generally takes a long time to recover from that, if you can manage it at all. Last night, I hit the felt on hand 17, playing much too friskily. I lost a whopping $41,204 on the hand. I reupped for the max, then settled in for a long climb back. I finally got there on hand 129, when I won a pot worth $100,250 with a queen high flush.

When I started playing online poker, I soon realized that a good way to limit my losses was to quit playing for the night if I ever hit the felt; I made it a rule and a point of honor never to reup. That lasted for a year or so, but finally I got fed up with that rule :-) Was I right to ditch it? I wrote some more utilities to find out. As it turns out, I was right. Here are the numbers:

I've hit the felt at least once in 241 of the 722 sessions of cash game no limit hold'em poker I've played. Had I not reupped a single time, I would have lost a grand total of $10,320,000 in those sessions. However, I did reup in a good number of them, and the total amount of play money I lost in those sessions actually comes out to $9,054,111. So I recouped more than a million play dollars by having the stubbornness to believe that hitting the felt is just a hiccup, and that a big rebound from a big loss is never far away.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 130 hands and saw flop:
 - 9 out of 16 times while in big blind (56%)
 - 12 out of 17 times while in small blind (70%)
 - 61 out of 97 times in other positions (62%)
 - a total of 82 out of 130 (63%)
 Pots won at showdown - 12 of 27 (44%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $16,749
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,642,132
balance: $9,547,231

A night of busted flushes

I've mentioned before on this blog that I'm a bit of a flush chaser. I've also mentioned that the name of Travis McGee's boat is the Busted Flush. Travis is the fictional creation of mystery master John D. MacDonald. Tuesday night was a night of busted flushes for me. Of the ten flushes I chased after, fully eight of them broke up on the rocks. The first one took me down to the felt.

Thinking about flush chasing, and busted flushes, I decided to do some analysis to determine whether flush chasing is profitable for me or not. My definition of flush chasing is when you have four cards to a flush on the turn, and you pay to see the river. If you flopped a flush, there's nothing to chase. Similarly, if you make your flush on the turn, you can't really categorize that as chasing.

The verdict is in - my flush chasing has definitely paid off over the course of my career. So far, I've made a profit of $748,553 chasing flushes, although I lost $33,483 chasing them on Tuesday night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 142 hands and saw flop:
 - 16 out of 19 times while in big blind (84%)
 - 12 out of 18 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 59 out of 105 times in other positions (56%)
 - a total of 87 out of 142 (61%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 14 (35%)
 Pots won without showdown - 17

delta: $-26,259
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,625,383
balance: $9,530,482

House money

Last night, I won a pot worth $139,514 with a stealth two pair on hand 4. That rocketed me to the chip lead, giving me "house money" to play with all night. That's what I proceeded to do. Unfortunately, I never caught lightning in a bottle again. When I managed to double up on hand 82, after giving back all but $12,158 of my early profit, I knew it was time to call it a night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 83 hands and saw flop:
 - 9 out of 10 times while in big blind (90%)
 - 2 out of 11 times while in small blind (18%)
 - 25 out of 62 times in other positions (40%)
 - a total of 36 out of 83 (43%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 5 (40%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $26,830
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,651,642
balance: $9,556,741

The beauty of the blinds

On Friday night, on the penultimate hand of the session, I had my best 54o (five four offsuit) ever. It was a real outlier; I won a pot worth $160,032 with it, $103,281 of which was o.p.m. (other people's money). For comparison purposes, my next best 54o only won a pot worth $90,350, of which $36,750 was o.p.m. Friday night's big hand illustrates the beauty of the blinds. The blinds exist to ensure there's a modicum of action on every hand, but one of their unforeseen consequences is that players can end up seeing flops they never would have seen otherwise. Most of the time, I won't pay to see the flop with 54o. However, I happened to be in the small blind on Friday's big hand, so it was worth it to pay another small blind to see the flop. I hit a straight on the turn, and went all in with it. Somehow, miraculously, I got three callers! I think the reason they called was that I was the big stack, and they thought I was trying to bully them off their hands.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 27 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 4 times while in big blind (75%)
 - 3 out of 4 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 12 out of 19 times in other positions (63%)
 - a total of 18 out of 27 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 5 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $189,588
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,624,812
balance: $9,529,911

Three quarters of a million lost with aces

Last night, I had pocket aces cracked again. That makes twice in a row. This time was worse than before, since I had an 80.84% chance of winning, whereas the first time I'd had only a 25.45% chance. The sum of my losses with pocket aces has now exceeded three quarters of a million play dollars. That's going some, but is still a far cry the most I've ever lost with a specific hand. Drumroll, please! That honor goes to AKo, with which I've lost a grand total of $1,444,939.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 117 hands and saw flop:
 - 18 out of 23 times while in big blind (78%)
 - 17 out of 24 times while in small blind (70%)
 - 43 out of 70 times in other positions (61%)
 - a total of 78 out of 117 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 23 (26%)
 Pots won without showdown - 16

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,435,224
balance: $9,340,323

48 million cash game no limit hold'em play dollars lost

The title of this post speaks for itself. Since returning to cash games from tournaments on September 23, 2014, the sum of my losing hand deltas is a staggering $-4,796,509, taking my career sum of losing hand deltas to $-$48,037,138. Last night alone, the sum of my losing hand deltas was $-167,552. I hit the felt twice; the second time, I'd been dealt pocket rockets. It's never fun to have your aces cracked. It's clear I'll never make it to 3 million in profit this calendar year; I'll be happy if I can just manage to preserve the 2 million and change profit I have right now.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 66 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 7 times while in big blind (85%)
 - 3 out of 8 times while in small blind (37%)
 - 26 out of 51 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 35 out of 66 (53%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 11 (27%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,535,224
balance: $9,440,323

Best AKo ever

Last night, on the penultimate hand of the session, I had my best AKo ever. I won a pot worth $154,248 with it, of which $103,109 was o.p.m. (other people's money). That vaulted my career AKo earnings over the one million play dollar mark. Currently at $1,075,910, AKo is now my second most lucrative hand, trailing only pocket rockets (an unchallengeable $2,287,871).

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 50 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 8 times while in big blind (62%)
 - 4 out of 8 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 13 out of 34 times in other positions (38%)
 - a total of 22 out of 50 (44%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 7 (57%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $104,248
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,635,224
balance: $9,540,323

My blog's birthday, and his older brother

Today is my blog's birthday. I wrote my first post on November 25, 2009, exactly five years ago. At the time I started, I had no idea how long I'd keep writing. It's a little embarrassing to reflect on how proud I was the day I reached 50 posts. It seemed like a big deal at the time. This post is my 1,342nd. If I'd managed to write a post every day, as Seth Godin does, this would be my 1,827th. As it is, I'm posting at a 73% clip, which isn't too shabby. Given the subject matter of this blog, that means I'm playing poker at a 73% clip, too :-)

I haven't mentioned my blog's older brother before, at least not by that sobriquet. His name is "Leadership and Management / Turning Adversity to Advantage", and he's written by my friend Bruce Lynn. Here's the link:

https://brucelynnblog.wordpress.com/

Leadership just turned nine; like First, he's a Sagittarius too :-) Without his example, along with that of other blogs I admire, I wouldn't have had the courage to bring First into the world.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 21 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 3 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 3 out of 3 times while in small blind (100%)
 - 6 out of 15 times in other positions (40%)
 - a total of 12 out of 21 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 3 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $61,699
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,530,976
balance: $9,436,075

Twin prime hold'em hands

In mathematics, twin primes are prime numbers whose difference is two. Here are some examples: 1 and 3, 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 11 and 13, and 17 and 19. I'm going to apply a similar concept to hold'em hands. I'll define twin prime hold'em hands as hands where you've been dealt the exact same hole cards, in the exact same order, two hands apart. This is obviously an extremely rare occurrence. In the 54,330 cash game no limit hold'em hands I've played for which I have the full hand history, I've only had twin primes 23 times. The 23rd came during Friday night's session. Strangely enough, I didn't notice it at the time. The only reason I noticed it later was that I was looking at the hand where I had the largest positive delta, saw that it was jack seven suited, had a hunch that might have been the most lucrative jack seven suited of my career, ran the numbers to test my hypothesis, and looked at the results. As it turns out, it was the second most lucrative jack seven suited of my career, followed two hands later by the second most expensive jack seven suited of my career. You just can't make this shit up :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 37 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 5 times while in big blind (80%)
 - 0 out of 4 times while in small blind (0%)
 - 15 out of 28 times in other positions (53%)
 - a total of 19 out of 37 (51%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 2 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $45,662
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,469,277
balance: $9,374,376

Nine nine nine nine? Nein nein nein nein!

Last night, I doubled up on the very first hand. Did I quit right afterward? I think you know the answer to that question. I play largely for entertainment purposes, and there's very little entertainment in playing a single hand and then quitting. I hit the felt on hand 46 in bizarre fashion. I'd been dealt pocket kings, and raised all in preflop with them. A player acting before me had already gone all in, and a player acting after me called my raise, so three of us were going to showdown. The flop hit one of my opponent's hands the hardest I recall ever seeing a hand hit. He'd been dealt pocket nines, and flopped quads. I was drawing razor thin - I had a 0.22 percent chance of winning. The only two hands which would have done it for me were quad kings and a king high straight flush :-) The other opponent was actually drawing dead on the turn, an almost unheard of occurrence. When I saw those other two nines on the flop, I was outraged. One nine I could have stomached, but two? Come off it! I reupped for the max, went to work, and finally made it back into the black.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 191 hands and saw flop:
 - 52 out of 55 times while in big blind (94%)
 - 42 out of 57 times while in small blind (73%)
 - 45 out of 79 times in other positions (56%)
 - a total of 139 out of 191 (72%)
 Pots won at showdown - 27 of 56 (48%)
 Pots won without showdown - 35

delta: $12,814
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,423,615
balance: $9,328,714

Fourth worst loss with trip kings

When you're running bad, there's only so much you can do about it. My biggest loss last night came on a hand I'd normally expect to win. I was dealt king eight off, and hit trip kings on the flop. I went all in and got two callers, both of whom I had covered. One of them had king seven off, so I had him outkicked, but the other made his flush on the river. I lost $29,000 on the hand, leaving me with only $8,382. That was the fourth worst loss I've ever had with trip kings in a cash game no limit hold'em hand. About the only bright spot of the night was the fact that I somehow avoided hitting the felt :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 77 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 10 times while in big blind (80%)
 - 5 out of 10 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 30 out of 57 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 43 out of 77 (55%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 8 (62%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $-31,962
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,410,801
balance: $9,315,900

Failure milestone

Last night, I hit the felt for the 301st time in my cash game no limit hold'em career. I've hit the felt at least once in almost a third of the cash game no limit hold'em sessions I've ever played. You could say I'm an expert at failing :-) I'm also an expert at picking myself up off the canvas and starting over.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 135 hands and saw flop:
 - 15 out of 21 times while in big blind (71%)
 - 7 out of 20 times while in small blind (35%)
 - 41 out of 94 times in other positions (43%)
 - a total of 63 out of 135 (46%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 13 (38%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $9,559
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,442,763
balance: $9,347,862

Down is up

Johnny Depp is one of my favorite actors. Captain Jack Sparrow is my favorite Johnny Depp character. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is my favorite Captain Jack Sparrow movie. Johnny delivers so many great lines in it, it's an embarrassment of riches! One of my favorites is "Send this pestilent, traitorous, cow-hearted, yeasty codpiece to the brig". What does "At World's End" have to do with poker? It's simple, really. There's a great scene where Jack figures out that the way to get to World's End is to capsize his ship, The Black Pearl. He figures this out because of a cryptic phrase on the map he has to guide him. It takes him a while to figure it out; here's another great line he delivers while doing so: "Up is down. That's just maddeningly unhelpful. Why are these things never clear?". In poker, up is down and down is up. The way to make money is to lose money first. And the way to lose money is to make it first. You have to be prepared for the swings. Always! The most pronounced swing you can have from one night to the next is to be completely underwater one night and completely above water the next. That's what happened to me in my most recent two sessions. On Friday night, I was underwater the whole time, and last night, I was above water the whole time. I got curious to see if that's ever happened to me before, so I wrote a utility to find out. It's happened to me three times in all, twice before last night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 21 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 3 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 1 out of 2 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 11 out of 16 times in other positions (68%)
 - a total of 15 out of 21 (71%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 4 (75%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $52,104
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,433,204
balance: $9,338,303

Deked on the turn

My slump continues apace. I'm playing pretty abominably. On Friday night, I hit the felt twice. The first time, I got deked on the turn. An opponent who'd hit the nut flush on the turn bet small, then fired at the river. I was lulled by the small turn bet into thinking the huge river bet was a bluff. I've employed this ruse before myself, so it hurt even more to be taken in by it. The second time I hit the felt, it was at the end of a long steady decline, and I was tired of waiting for a good hand. I was dealt ace eight offsuit, went all in preflop, and whiffed on everything. My cash game no limit hold'em balance is nearing a record blue distance, which I don't need to tell you is a bad thing.

You might think I should change my playing style to try to break out of my slump, and I've been seriously considering it. However, I've come to the conclusion that if I did, I wouldn't be being true to myself. As I've said before, you need to dance with the one who brung you :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 93 hands and saw flop:
 - 12 out of 14 times while in big blind (85%)
 - 7 out of 13 times while in small blind (53%)
 - 37 out of 66 times in other positions (56%)
 - a total of 56 out of 93 (60%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 14 (35%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,381,100
balance: $9,286,199

20th hammerbye

As I've said before, I often like to quit a cash game when one of my hole cards is a deuce or a trey. By this I don't mean that I quit whenever I'm dealt a deuce or a trey; that would just be silly. What I mean is that when I'm looking for a quit signal, being dealt a deuce or a trey fits the bill. I'm generally only looking for a quit signal in one of three cases:

1. I'm trying to preserve a profit
2. I'm trying to minimize a loss
3. It's late and I want to go to bed

The best quit signal of all is being dealt a hammer (seven deuce offsuit). I hereby dub the act of quitting in this scenario a hammerbye. I'll even go so far as to give it a verb form :-) Last night, I hammerbyed right after winning my largest pot of the night. It was the 20th hammerbye of my career.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 110 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 14 times while in big blind (71%)
 - 8 out of 14 times while in small blind (57%)
 - 55 out of 82 times in other positions (67%)
 - a total of 73 out of 110 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 14 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-2,079
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,481,100
balance: $9,386,199

100,000 hands

I'm nearing a significant milestone in my poker career. In roughly ten more sessions, I'll have played 100,000 hands. Actually, I've already unofficially hit this milestone, but since I didn't start recording the number of hands played per session right away, I haven't officially hit it yet. Assuming each hand takes about a minute and a half to play, those 100,000 hands are the equivalent of playing poker 24 hours a day for 104 straight days. No wonder I feel like an expert :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 74 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 9 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 6 out of 10 times while in small blind (60%)
 - 28 out of 55 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 40 out of 74 (54%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 14 (35%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $33,182
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,483,179
balance: $9,388,278

A ballet of three

Last night, using live streaming, I watched the final broadcast of the 2014 WSOP main event. Instead of the expected heads up match, however, there were three players left over from the night before. This made for a lot more drama, in my opinion. I think the WSOP should consider doing this on purpose in the future, ending the penultimate broadcast as soon as the fourth place finisher busts.

It was riveting to watch the three players exchanging blows, and observe the unique dynamic that occurs at three handed tables. In any one hand, generally at most two of the players will make a stab at the pot. It's just too dangerous for all three of them to stay in the hand. That means there are three distinct matchups - Player A versus Player B, Player A versus Player C, and Player B versus Player C. The way the hands unfold is quite artistic; it's like a ballet of three!

There's something very intimate about the confrontations; the players watch each other so very closely. They can't help but end up having the utmost respect for each other. In a way it's a shame there can only be one champion.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 62 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 7 times while in big blind (57%)
 - 2 out of 7 times while in small blind (28%)
 - 26 out of 48 times in other positions (54%)
 - a total of 32 out of 62 (51%)
 Pots won at showdown - 1 of 3 (33%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $2,603
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,449,997
balance: $9,355,096

Final table fandom

Last night, I watched roughly five hours of play, via live streaming, from the final table of the WSOP main event. I played poker on PokerStars at the same time :-) It was heartbreaking to see Mark Newhouse bust in ninth place for the second year in a row. As several commentators mentioned, he showed a ton of heart.

My slump continued, but at least I didn't hit the felt multiple times. It's a minor victory these days to hit it only once a session :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 164 hands and saw flop:
 - 13 out of 20 times while in big blind (65%)
 - 15 out of 19 times while in small blind (78%)
 - 65 out of 125 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 93 out of 164 (56%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 19 (42%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $-29,105
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,447,394
balance: $9,352,493

Don't Look Now

Yet again, I'm using the title of a work of fiction for the title of a blog post. In this case, it's a short story by Daphne du Maurier. On Friday, I hit the felt three times. It served me right, actually; in that night's blog post, I crowed that I might be over my slump. "Don't look now" is good poker advice; basically what it means in a poker context is don't fret about the size of your stack. Doing so is a recipe for disaster, since it often causes you to make bad decisions.

Even though I had a horrendous October, losing $331,144, and November has started badly, I'm still having a great year. So far I've won $2,226,333. I'm going to try to reach $3,000,000 by December 31st.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 109 hands and saw flop:
 - 12 out of 15 times while in big blind (80%)
 - 6 out of 14 times while in small blind (42%)
 - 46 out of 80 times in other positions (57%)
 - a total of 64 out of 109 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 19 (42%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $-150,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,476,499
balance: $9,381,598

Top 10 total wagered amount

I always like it when a session makes it into the top 10 in one category or another. That happened last night, in the category of total wagered amount. Here are the top 10:

$1,050,062 2013-06-11
  $705,747 2013-06-12
  $675,772 2014-02-04
  $567,534 2014-06-18
  $559,974 2014-01-27
  $550,107 2014-07-02
  $537,929 2014-06-13
  $496,742 2014-05-13
  $495,904 2014-10-29
  $485,172 2014-11-06

Last night's session was unusual in another way - even though my largest absolute value delta came from a losing hand, I still managed to make a really decent profit. Don't look now, but I think the slump is over :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 60 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 8 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 5 out of 8 times while in small blind (62%)
 - 24 out of 44 times in other positions (54%)
 - a total of 37 out of 60 (61%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 9 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $75,394
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,626,499
balance: $9,531,598

41st dolphin leap

There's something immensely satisfying about being underwater all session long and then finally getting above water at the very end. I call that a dolphin leap. Last night, I achieved my 41st dolphin leap in 769 sessions of cash game no limit hold'em. The hand which vaulted me into profitability was trip sixes. An opponent with a busted gutshot tried to buy the pot on the river, but I was having none of it :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 99 hands and saw flop:
 - 11 out of 13 times while in big blind (84%)
 - 7 out of 13 times while in small blind (53%)
 - 39 out of 73 times in other positions (53%)
 - a total of 57 out of 99 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 20 (40%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $37,900
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,551,105
balance: $9,456,204

Poker interruptus

Lately, I've been having issues with my internet connectivity at night. Sometimes it slows way down, and sometimes it even stops working completely. That's a horrible feeling, especially when I'm playing poker. Last night, it happened without warning, giving me a bad case of poker interruptus. Since I was in the black at the time, considering the way I've been playing lately, maybe it was a blessing in disguise :-) Be that as it may, I fervently hope it doesn't happen again.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 53 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 7 times while in big blind (71%)
 - 5 out of 7 times while in small blind (71%)
 - 26 out of 39 times in other positions (66%)
 - a total of 36 out of 53 (67%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 10 (40%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $20,735
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,513,205
balance: $9,418,304

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Once again, I'm using the title of a novel I've never read as the title of a blog post. As before, it's written by an author I greatly admire (Philip K. Dick in this instance), whose work I've read widely. That title was what sprung to mind when I looked at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of last night's session. All the blue bars hanging below the zero line are like the tracks of so many tears. As you might have guessed, the session ended with another crash to the felt. I've now hit the felt six times in the last six sessions, only two shy of my all-time six session record. I set a new all-time record for a 17 session cash game no limit hold'em stretch, losing more money in such a stretch than ever before - a whopping $464,644. I'm really kind of curious to see just how bad this slump might get :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 97 hands and saw flop:
 - 9 out of 13 times while in big blind (69%)
 - 11 out of 14 times while in small blind (78%)
 - 36 out of 70 times in other positions (51%)
 - a total of 56 out of 97 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 15 (33%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,492,470
balance: $9,397,569

Did it float?

I used to watch my fair share of "Late Night with David Letterman", but that was before I started playing online poker :-) One of the recurring segments which I found amusing was the one called "Will it float?". There was a small backyard-style pool on the set, and every time the segment came up, a different object had been chosen to drop into it. Before that happened, though, Dave had to predict whether or not the object would float. It was clear that some objects would sink like a stone. A surprising percentage of the time, however, objects which seemed like they should sink actually floated.

A poker player often asks himself this same question. "Will it float?", in a poker context, translates to "Is this play which I'm contemplating making profitable in the long run?" For certain plays, there's no way to find out. That can be the case when the decision you're about to make is not guaranteed to be your final decision of the hand. However, in the case where you're faced with an all in decision, that guarantees it will be your final decision of the hand, and you can retroactively find out the answer to the "Will it float?" question. Due to the retroactive nature of the answer, a more accurate way to phrase the question is "Did it float?" :-)

On Friday night, I hit the felt on hand 122. I was dealt a pair of jacks, and ended up going all in preflop with them. Three other players went to showdown. Even though I lost the hand, did my decision to go all in "float"? It sure did! I had a 33% chance of winning the hand, spent $25,950 on it, and would have won a total of $103,100 if I'd won the hand. Running the numbers 100 times, with 33 wins and 67 losses, the result is a profit of $807,300. That eases the pain of hitting the felt considerably.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 122 hands and saw flop:
 - 13 out of 17 times while in big blind (76%)
 - 8 out of 20 times while in small blind (40%)
 - 61 out of 85 times in other positions (71%)
 - a total of 82 out of 122 (67%)
 Pots won at showdown - 12 of 17 (70%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,542,470
balance: $9,447,569

One Hand to rule them all

Looking at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of last night's session, the penultimate hand sticks out like a sore thumb. That's what I like to see! It was such an outlier that it inspired me to come up with a formula for calculating what I'm calling the outlier factor. Simply put, it's the ratio of the maximum positive delta to the average of the remaining positive deltas. Last night's outlier factor came out to a respectable 11.66. I ran the numbers for sessions of 40 hands or more, and last night's value came in 63th out of 546 sessions. Not too shabby.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 41 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 5 times while in big blind (80%)
 - 1 out of 6 times while in small blind (16%)
 - 17 out of 30 times in other positions (56%)
 - a total of 22 out of 41 (53%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 7 (85%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $59,826
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,592,470
balance: $9,497,569

Career worst 14 bagger

My slump has now reached epic proportions. I've lost more money in the last 14 sessions than in any other 14 session stretch of my cash game no limit hold'em career. Here are the 10 top:

$-424,470 2014-10-10 2014-10-29 (6)
$-385,403 2013-05-16 2013-05-29 (5)
$-377,892 2011-06-11 2011-08-15 (6)
$-377,542 2011-06-10 2011-08-14 (6)
$-354,726 2013-06-11 2013-06-29 (6)
$-351,335 2013-05-19 2013-06-01 (5)
$-345,350 2013-11-14 2013-12-01 (6)
$-334,604 2013-05-18 2013-05-31 (5)
$-330,108 2013-11-23 2013-12-11 (7)
$-328,719 2013-05-17 2013-05-30 (6)

The only redeeming feature about last night's session is that I achieved the longest felt distance of my career - 247 hands on a single buy in. There's not much to say about my slump, other than that I desperately need to start playing better :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 247 hands and saw flop:
 - 29 out of 45 times while in big blind (64%)
 - 33 out of 49 times while in small blind (67%)
 - 74 out of 153 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 136 out of 247 (55%)
 Pots won at showdown - 23 of 39 (58%)
 Pots won without showdown - 23

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,532,644
balance: $9,437,743

A counterfeit house

Last night, on the final hand of the session, I lost the most money I've ever lost with a full house - $52,697. My problem was that I got there on the turn, and was so convinced I had a lock on the hand that I didn't pay attention to the river card. It paired the board, counterfeiting my full house, but I didn't notice. The board was showing two pairs, a very dangerous situation which I completely missed. I went all in, got snap called, and that was all she wrote. It's a cardinal sin to make a raise of any kind when your hand has been counterfeited. One thing I realized about my thought process afterwards is that somehow I inverted the places of the three of the kind and the pair; I'd made a full house of deuces full of queens, but somehow thought I'd made queens full of deuces. Inexcusable, but there you have it. The slump continues. At least I only lost one buy in last night instead of two :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 53 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 9 times while in big blind (77%)
 - 6 out of 8 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 22 out of 36 times in other positions (61%)
 - a total of 35 out of 53 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 11 (36%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,582,644
balance: $9,487,743

Bottom two

As you may know, I've had a career-long love/hate relationship with the hand which I call the stealth two pair. A stealth two is when you don't have a pocket pair, the flop has no pairs, and both your hole cards match one of the cards in the flop. You can make a lot of money with stealth twos, and you can also lose a lot with them. Last night, my final hand of the session was a stealth two, and I lost a lot with them - $38,016 to be precise. In this case, it was a bottom two stealth two. I was up against an opponent who'd flopped a top and bottom stealth two. I made a full house on the river, and my opponent made a better full house. I went all in, and hit the felt.

I was curious to see how I've fared with bottom two in my career, so I wrote a utility to find out. I turns out that I've flopped bottom two 163 times in 52,462 hands, and have a slight profit, $316,193, for my trouble.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 142 hands and saw flop:
 - 16 out of 20 times while in big blind (80%)
 - 12 out of 21 times while in small blind (57%)
 - 56 out of 101 times in other positions (55%)
 - a total of 84 out of 142 (59%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 27 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,632,644
balance: $9,537,743

A perfect three and out

In football, a three and out is a bad thing. In poker, it can be either good or bad. Last night, I had a perfect three and out of the good variety. It occurred at the second table I joined; I had to join a second because my first quit on me. Here's what went down:

- on the first hand at the new table, I was dealt a big slick; I ended up winning a pot worth $114,016 with a pair of aces
- on the second hand, I was dealt a pair of tens; I ended up winning a pot worth $40,270 with them
- on the third hand, I was dealt a ten jack offsuit; I ended up winning a pot worth $28,650 with a jack high straight
- on the fourth hand, I was dealt a deuce queen offsuit, folded before the flop, and called it a night; when possible, I like to end a session when dealt a hand containing a deuce or a trey, and the poker gods obliged me :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 66 hands and saw flop:
 - 9 out of 11 times while in big blind (81%)
 - 7 out of 11 times while in small blind (63%)
 - 22 out of 44 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 38 out of 66 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 13 (46%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $75,688
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,732,644
balance: $9,637,743

A Widow for One Year

Though I'm a big fan of John Irving, somehow I've never gotten around to reading his 1998 novel "A Widow for One Year". That won't stop me from appropriating its title for the title of this post, however. You don't have to read a book in order to recognize the power of its title. The power of this one is industrial strength.

What do I mean by a widow for one year? Simply stated, the feeling of being out of the blue for an extended period of time. The longest continuous stretch my cash game no limit hold'em balance has ever been out of the blue is 133 sessions, from May 19th, 2013 through October 10th, 2013. My current stretch, which started on August 29th, just hit 31 sessions.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 55 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 7 times while in big blind (42%)
 - 7 out of 8 times while in small blind (87%)
 - 22 out of 40 times in other positions (55%)
 - a total of 32 out of 55 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 9 (55%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $8,636
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,656,956
balance: $9,562,055

House money

I've always said that my favorite type of hand is a flush. Esthetically, that's still true. However, in examining my voluminous poker data, a different type of hand emerges head and shoulders above the rest. Not to keep you in suspense, it's a full house. Check out these career numbers:

  $-7,694,163   high card
  $-7,114,726   one pair
   $2,712,047   two pair
   $4,774,047   three of a kind
   $4,754,725   straight
   $4,593,552   flush
   $5,374,438   full house
     $510,979   four of a kind
      $82,700   straight flush
      $55,688   royal flush

Last night, I had two full houses; here are the numbers by hand type for the session:

     $-14,932   high card
     $-14,120   one pair
     $-26,912   two pair
      $26,876   three of a kind
      $18,907   straight
      $57,568   full house

Given this evidence, I have to say that my practical favorite hand is a full house.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 80 hands and saw flop:
 - 9 out of 11 times while in big blind (81%)
 - 4 out of 11 times while in small blind (36%)
 - 39 out of 58 times in other positions (67%)
 - a total of 52 out of 80 (65%)
 Pots won at showdown - 10 of 24 (41%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $43,637
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,648,320
balance: $9,553,419

An eight which will live in infamy

Last night, I set a new personal worst. In my last eight sessions, I've lost more money than in any other 8 session stretch of my cash game no limit hold'em career. Call it an eight which will live in infamy :-) Here are my top 10 worst 8 session stretches:

$-352,431 2014-10-10 2014-10-22 (3)
$-340,282 2013-06-11 2013-06-18 (3)
$-330,862 2011-06-16 2011-06-28 (2)
$-319,600 2011-06-11 2011-06-23 (3)
$-295,039 2013-05-22 2013-05-29 (2)
$-290,862 2011-06-20 2011-08-13 (2)
$-281,799 2013-06-12 2013-06-19 (3)
$-278,562 2011-06-13 2011-06-24 (3)
$-273,540 2014-08-29 2014-09-08 (2)
$-268,409 2013-05-19 2013-05-26 (2)

To compound my misery, I ended the night with my 8th costliest hand, and costliest cowboys. Here are my top ten costliest hands:

$-102,200 Ah Jd 2012-06-02 hand 121
 $-97,932 Qd Ad 2013-06-13 hand  53
 $-83,453 Ac Qd 2014-04-12 hand  59
 $-76,121 9c Td 2014-05-05 hand  34
 $-75,617 2c 2h 2014-10-07 hand 114
 $-74,096 Kc 9c 2014-01-23 hand  58
 $-71,323 Kc Td 2013-12-23 hand 136
 $-67,422 Kh Kc 2014-10-22 hand  60
 $-65,982 Ac Ks 2013-11-26 hand   8
 $-65,789 Kh Qh 2012-04-17 hand  21

It's pretty clear I need to retool my game.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 60 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 7 times while in big blind (85%)
 - 4 out of 7 times while in small blind (57%)
 - 26 out of 46 times in other positions (56%)
 - a total of 36 out of 60 (60%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 8 (37%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,604,683
balance: $9,509,782

Top 10 felt distance

Last night, I hit the felt twice, losing $100,000. Funnily enough, it didn't take too long for me to come up with a positive takeaway from the session. After reupping, I made my second stack last a full 153 hands. Defining felt distance as the number of hands played with a single buy in before hitting the felt, last night's second felt distance made my top 10 all time list, clocking in at number 8:

    211 2013-06-12
    192 2011-12-21
    175 2012-08-02
    174 2013-05-22
    165 2012-11-18
    159 2013-12-06
    158 2011-12-30
    153 2014-10-21
    140 2012-01-24
    139 2014-06-09

Coincidentally, I hit the felt for the second time on a hand number which divided the sum of the buy ins evenly; as a result, I lost an average of exactly one big blind per hand.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 200 hands and saw flop:
 - 43 out of 50 times while in big blind (86%)
 - 38 out of 50 times while in small blind (76%)
 - 52 out of 100 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 133 out of 200 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 19 of 33 (57%)
 Pots won without showdown - 35

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,704,683
balance: $9,609,782

40th all above water session

Last night, for the first time in over four months, I had an all above water session. It was the 40th such session of my cash game no limit hold'em career. This type of session is quite rare, and is also more enjoyable than your run of the mill session. Obviously, you must win the first hand, which I refer to as being "shot from guns". That's just the first step, however; you must then play well enough to keep your stack in the black for the rest of the session. Having all above water sessions is not a goal that I set myself, it's just a nice treat that happens from time to time :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 53 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 8 times while in big blind (87%)
 - 6 out of 8 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 18 out of 37 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 31 out of 53 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 9 (55%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $63,436
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,804,683
balance: $9,709,782

One Hand to rule them all

On Friday night, one hand stood head and shoulders above the rest. I won a pot worth $46,638 with it, $25,694 of which was o.p.m. (other people's money). In came early on, on hand 4. I won more money on that one hand than I did on all my other winning hands combined. I probably should have quit right afterwards, but wanted to get my entertainment's worth out of the session. One interesting feature about hand 4 was that I won it without a showdown; I bet $5,372 on the flop, an opponent raised to $18,694, I reraised all in to $50,867, and the raiser folded. For the record, I'd been dealt pocket kings and flopped a set. Out of curiosity, I just ran the numbers to see where that hand ranks in my all time list of winning no showdown hands; it clocked in at number 17.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 51 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 11 times while in big blind (36%)
 - 8 out of 10 times while in small blind (80%)
 - 12 out of 30 times in other positions (40%)
 - a total of 24 out of 51 (47%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 3 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $6,798
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,741,247
balance: $9,646,346

11th worst four bagger

I just spent a lot of time trying to put lipstick on a pig. While examining Wednesday night's session, I tried and tried again to find some statistical bright spot, but the data just wasn't there. I could have saved myself a lot of effort if I'd just started out with a different goal - namely, to measure how poor my results have been lately. The last four sessions comprise the 11th worst cash game no limit hold'em four bagger of my career; here are the top 12:

$-419,220 2013-06-11 2013-06-14 (0)
$-372,519 2013-06-10 2013-06-13 (1)
$-290,268 2014-08-30 2014-09-03 (0)
$-271,871 2014-08-29 2014-09-02 (0)
$-266,691 2013-06-12 2013-06-15 (1)
$-256,150 2011-12-30 2012-01-04 (0)
$-243,006 2014-08-31 2014-09-04 (1)
$-240,000 2012-01-18 2012-01-23 (0)
$-226,940 2014-05-12 2014-05-15 (1)
$-225,669 2014-06-06 2014-06-10 (0)
$-222,665 2014-10-10 2014-10-15 (1)
$-214,500 2011-06-14 2011-06-21 (1)

2014 is over-represented here; that's a good indication that this has been a substandard poker year for me. I'm not worried, though; I've weathered worse slumps than this.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 125 hands and saw flop:
 - 18 out of 20 times while in big blind (90%)
 - 10 out of 19 times while in small blind (52%)
 - 48 out of 86 times in other positions (55%)
 - a total of 76 out of 125 (60%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 16 (43%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $-75,422
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,734,449
balance: $9,639,548

It was the best of sessions, it was the worst of sessions

If you're a Charles Dickens fan, as I am, you'll surely recognize that the title of this post is a snowclone of the opening of "A Tale of Two Cities". Last night, I hit the felt twice, losing $100,000 in the process. That ties for my ninth worst cash game no limit hold'em session ever, covering the worst of sessions part of the title admirably. What about the best of sessions part? If two hands where I was the favorite had gone my way, I would have ended the night $162,032 richer, which would have been my fourth best cash game no limit hold'em session ever. So I can't feel bad about the session at all :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 47 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 6 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 3 out of 5 times while in small blind (60%)
 - 19 out of 36 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 28 out of 47 (59%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 8 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,809,871
balance: $9,714,970

Folding machine

I've noted this paradox before - the way to get rich in poker is to fold nearly every hand before you get to showdown. You basically need to become a folding machine :-) Looking at the numbers from last night's session, I thought I was folding at a high percentage, but it turned out not to be as high as I thought. I folded 115 times in 147 hands, for a decent 78.32 folding percentage, but it was a far cry from my personal best folding percentage of 94.74 (18 of 19 hands), set on March 15th, 2012. In fact, last night's 78.32 was only my 311th highest folding percentage, in 685 sessions of cash game no limit hold'em.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 147 hands and saw flop:
 - 15 out of 25 times while in big blind (60%)
 - 14 out of 25 times while in small blind (56%)
 - 41 out of 97 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 70 out of 147 (47%)
 Pots won at showdown - 10 of 15 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 17

delta: $2,757
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,909,871
balance: $9,814,970

All flavors bankroll distance

The key feature of the total chip distance poker statistic I came up with recently is that it unites wins and losses, instead of setting them against each other. The point is not that you won or lost, but that the size of your stack changed; every change contributes to the total. Total chip distance only makes sense for cash games; in tournaments, changes in stack size have little bearing on the outcome, and don't reflect actual play dollar amounts. After some thought, I came up with a way to combine cash game numbers with tournament numbers; I'm calling this new statistic the all flavors bankroll distance. It's not a chip distance; it's the total distance your bankroll has traveled, taking all flavors of poker into account. The only thing that matters in tournaments is how much money you won or lost as a result of playing them; therefore, the correct contribution of each tournament to the all flavors bankroll distance is the absolute value of the tournament delta. Here is my all flavors bankroll distance as of the end of Friday night's session:

 $94,534,675   cash game total chip distance
 $46,685,760   sum of the absolute values of the tournament deltas
============
$141,220,435   all flavors bankroll distance

On the final hand of the night, I had pocket tens and was an 86.36% favorite to win after the turn; however, my opponent had a big slick and paired his king on the river. The $17,218 I lost on the hand, causing me to hit the felt, was my biggest loss of the night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 75 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 9 times while in big blind (77%)
 - 6 out of 10 times while in small blind (60%)
 - 39 out of 56 times in other positions (69%)
 - a total of 52 out of 75 (69%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 11 (27%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,907,114
balance: $9,812,213

Ending with a big bang

A while ago, I came up with a criterion for determining whether a session ended with a bang - it's when the final positive hand delta of the night comes from one of the high chaparral hands. Looking at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of last night's session, I was inspired to come up with a criterion for determining whether a session ended with a big bang - it's when the final positive hand delta of the night is also the largest positive hand delta. That was the case last night. I got curious, so I ran some numbers on sessions, winning sessions, ending with a bang winning sessions, and ending with a big bang winning sessions. The results are gratifying, and also show some nice symmetry. In each case when moving from a less restrictive set to its nearest more restrictive set, the more restrictive set is over half the size of the less restrictive:

683  cash game no limit hold'em sessions
463  winning cash game no limit hold'em sessions
298  ending with a bang winning cash game no limit hold'em sessions
197  ending with a big bang winning cash game no limit hold'em sessions

Taking the ratio of the most restrictive to the least restrictive, nearly 29% of all the cash game no limit hold'em sessions I play are winning ones ending with a big bang.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 52 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 7 times while in big blind (85%)
 - 6 out of 8 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 20 out of 37 times in other positions (54%)
 - a total of 32 out of 52 (61%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 8 (62%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $55,324
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,957,114
balance: $9,862,213

Seventh best straight

Last night, on the final hand of the session, I had my seventh best straight ever. Here are the top 10:

    $115,642 2014-07-04 hand  31
    $102,548 2014-05-10 hand 122
     $81,300 2012-12-22 hand  23
     $78,550 2012-03-21 hand  91
     $73,985 2014-06-25 hand  39
     $72,500 2012-05-09 hand   7
     $65,575 2014-10-08 hand  54
     $63,451 2013-05-08 hand   2
     $60,581 2014-05-19 hand  54
     $57,250 2014-06-17 hand   1

The thing about straights, as I've said before, is that there are too many hands that can beat them. I felt like I had the stone cold nuts on the turn, but actually I was only a 77.27% favorite. That was due to the fact that my opponent had flopped a set. Of the 44 possible river cards, 9 of them gave him a full house and one of them gave him a four of a kind. I knew for sure I had the stone cold nuts on the river, since no flushes, full houses, or four of a kinds were possible at that point. Accordingly, I went all in, and was lucky enough to get a call.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 54 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 6 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 5 out of 8 times while in small blind (62%)
 - 19 out of 40 times in other positions (47%)
 - a total of 29 out of 54 (53%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 12 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $47,228
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,901,790
balance: $9,806,889

Double jeopardy

Last night, my session ended abruptly. I'd hit the felt once, but my luck seemed to have turned. On the final hand I played, I stood to make a killing. If I'd won that final pot, I would have made a profit on the night of over $100,000. However, it wasn't meant to be, and in a particularly cruel way. I was up against two other players, and was an 85.71% favorite after the turn. There were two pots, a main pot of $146,648 and a side pot of $54,302. One of my opponents had no chance at the main pot, and only a very slim chance at the side pot. The river card was a killer. It helped both my opponents, giving one of them a straight to win the main pot and the other one a set of aces to win the side pot. As you might have guessed, the river card was an ace. For the record, I'd flopped a set of deuces.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 114 hands and saw flop:
 - 17 out of 18 times while in big blind (94%)
 - 14 out of 18 times while in small blind (77%)
 - 37 out of 78 times in other positions (47%)
 - a total of 68 out of 114 (59%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 17 (35%)
 Pots won without showdown - 12

delta: $-98,690
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,854,562
balance: $9,759,661

Working my way back to blue

As I've mentioned before, I'm old enough to remember some really classic songs. One of them is "Working My Way Back to You", by the Four Seasons. Here's how it starts:

I'm workin' my way back to you babe
With a burnin' love inside
Yeah I'm workin' my way back to you babe
And the happiness that died

Right now, I'm working my way back to blue, with a burnin' love for poker inside :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 64 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 8 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 4 out of 9 times while in small blind (44%)
 - 24 out of 47 times in other positions (51%)
 - a total of 32 out of 64 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 5 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $41,973
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,953,252
balance: $9,858,351