Near cycle

In baseball, when a player gets a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game, it's known as hitting for the cycle. It's possible to hit for the cycle in poker, too; I nearly accomplished it last night. In 6-max, hitting for the cycle means coming in first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth in a six tournament stretch. As in baseball, the order of the results doesn't matter.

Of course, hitting for the cycle guarantees that you'll lose money, due to the entry fees. The amount you lose is equal to the sum of the entry fees. These days on PokerStars, it costs more to hit for the cycle than it used to. Nevertheless, I think any time you can accomplish this you should be pleased.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 45000      5000           6        32     3        0
 45000      5000           6        17     1   175500
 45000      5000           6         6     5        0
 45000      5000           6         4     6        0
 45000      5000           6        39     2    94500
 45000      5000           6         4     6        0

delta: $-30,000
tournament balance: $2,118,840
balance: $9,001,539