Thursday, December 31, 2015

Biggest MTT payout

Last night, I had my biggest MTT payout ever - $74,020, for coming in second in an MTT 8-game. That one tournament took over 2 hours to play. Since the buy in plus entry fee was $5,000, that means I made a profit of $69,020, which comes out to roughly $575 a minute. That turns out to be chump change :-) The last time I came in first in a sit and go (which was the session before last), I made a profit of $125,500 in about 36 minutes, which comes out to roughly $3,486 a minute. There's clearly a better ROI in sit and gos than in MTTs, but I still like to play MTTs for the sheer fun of them.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6   191      94   18     2    74020
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    26       6    3     3        0


delta: $19,020
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,574,300
balance: $10,535,364

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The deepest dive

Last night, my overall balance returned to the blue. As always when this happens, it's a wonderful feeling :-) This reversed the deepest dive between blues I've ever undergone - a whopping deficit of $3,357,215. I've never had a blue session on a December 31st, but that's what I'm aiming for tomorrow night. I have a hunch it's going to happen.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    27       6    2     4        0
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    56      93   18    27        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6   105       6    2     1   175500
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6   113       6    2     2    94500
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    77      78   18     8    11400
MTT   NLHE      900   100       6    69     876  216    94     2680


delta: $123,080
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,624,300
balance: $10,516,344

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

The 39 steps

This is the second time I've used this blog post title; the first was on July 26th of last year. Again, I'm echoing the title of a classic Alfred Hitchcock movie. This time, however, instead of referring to the number of hands in a session, I'm referring to the number of hands which were needed to get to the first elimination in the first sit and go no limit hold'em tournament I played last night. It's quite an astonishing number. It bested the previous record, set in a tournament I played in 2012, by 3 hands. Just for some perspective, the average number of hands it takes to get to the first elimination in a sit and go no limit hold'em tournament is 9.18.

Sometimes, when all the players at a table are highly skilled, poker rises to the level of performance art. In such cases, everyone is contributing to the creation of something which no one could have created on their own. At the height of the art, the other players are no longer your opponents, but your collaborators :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    59     120   24    29        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    93       6    2     3        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    67       6    2     2    94500
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    47      81   18    25        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    46       6    2     1   175500
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    29       6    2     3        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    86       6    2     2    94500


delta: $104,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,504,300
balance: $10,393,264

Monday, December 28, 2015

Appointment cancelled

Last night, for the first time, I experienced the MTT equivalent of a sit and go table which doesn't fill up - a cancelled MTT. Earlier in the session, I'd played (and narrowly missed making the money in) the MTT 8-game which started at 9:42 pm. To while away the time until the next MTT 8-game, which wasn't scheduled to start until 11:42 pm, I played several sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments. When I tried late registering for the 11:42 pm MTT 8-game sometime after midnight, it was nowhere to be found. Apparently, if not enough people pre-register for an MTT, PokerStars simply cancels it :-(

There's not much I can do to make 8-game more popular on PokerStars. No limit hold'em is the 800 pound gorilla. Looks like I'll be playing more "gorilla" than 8-game in the foreseeable future. Oh, well; there are worse things :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    57     102   24    26        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    44       6    2     2    94500
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    25       6    2     4        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    41       6    2     3        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    27       6    2     3        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    82       6    2     2    94500


delta: $-66,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,379,800
balance: $10,288,764

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Appointment poker

I first used this blog post title on April 8th of this year. I was referring to the PokerStars MTTs which start at a regularly scheduled time each day. After lots of experimentation, I think I've found the best poker style to use with each of my two favorite poker flavors, and perhaps not too surprisingly, each flavor has a different best style. Also, neither of the styles is cash game :-) I've sworn off cash games for the indefinite future. As you may know, my two favorite poker flavors are no limit hold'em and 8-game. The best poker style for no limit hold'em, at least for me, is sit and go. The best poker style for 8-game, at least for me, is MTT. Sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments are typically fast and furious affairs, whereas MTT 8-game tournaments typically take over an hour to complete. I like both paces, at different times. Success in November with sit and go no limit hold'em is what saved my 2015 poker year, but I think my best long term profit potential lies with MTT 8-games. Accordingly, I'm going to play appointment poker for the rest of the year, and on into the new year.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    25      18    4    14        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9     8      45    7    29        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6   102       6    2     2    18900
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6   139      79   18     5    23100


delta: $7,000
MTT 8-game balance: $153,420
balance: $10,354,764

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Shopping horror

I played six sit and gos last night, and didn't make the money once. I can accept the results of the first five tournaments with equanimity. The sixth tournament was torture, however. I was doing really well, right up to the point when my internet connection went south. Every time I tried to reconnect, it stayed up for only a couple of seconds before getting dropped again. The consequence was that I got blinded out of the tournament, bubbling in 8th place. That hurt!

I think I've figured out what the problem was. The day after Christmas has become as big an online shopping day as Cyber Monday. I don't know if they've come up with a name for this day yet, but they probably should. My guess is all that online shopping activity used up so much internet capacity that it seriously affected my PokerStars internet connection. It just felt so unfair to miss the money through not being able to communicate with the PokerStars servers. Shopping horror!

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    52     5        0


buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    21      45    7    12        0
  9000  1000       9    46      18    4     8        0
  9000  1000       6    45       6    2     4        0
  9000  1000       9    41      18    4     6        0
  9000  1000       9    17      45    7     8        0


delta: $-60,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,451,900
balance: $10,347,764

Friday, December 25, 2015

Saved by Broadway

Playing a sit and go is much like canoeing down a river which has some dangerous whitewater sections. Much of the time, you're not in any danger; however, there are periods of intense danger which you must survive if you're going to make it all the way to the sea. Sometimes, you're forced to throw caution to the winds. That's what happened to me on hand 9 of the second tournament I entered last night. I'd been dealt a big slick (ace king), and called a big pre-flop bet to go all in. I spiked a jack on the river to complete Broadway (an ace high straight). Saved by Broadway - what a great feeling :-) That allowed me to play 35 more hands, come in 3rd, and make a healthy profit on my investment.

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    78      18    4     4    16200
  9000  1000       9    44      45    7     3    66825
  9000  1000       9    85      18    4     4    16200


delta: $69,225
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,511,900
balance: $10,407,764

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Aces out

I first used this blog post title on July 3rd of this year. "Aces out" is what I call it when you hit the rail at a tournament on a hand where you've been dealt pocket rockets. It's a painful way to go. It's even worse when you've been rivered. That's what happened to me in the second sit and go I entered last night. I was a 79.55% favorite after the turn to win the hand, but my opponent spiked trip sevens on the river, and that was all she wrote.

This made me curious to find out how many times I've had aces out in my sit and go no limit hold'em career. The answer? 9 times, in 980 tournaments.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    86     3        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    59     3        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    28     5        0


delta: $-30,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,442,675
balance: $10,338,539

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

A bet-shy opponent

The fewer opponents you have at a table, the less shy you should be about betting. What this means in sit and gos is that you should get less shy as the tournament goes on. When you get to heads up play, you shouldn't be shy at all. Last night, the opponent I faced heads up didn't follow this maxim. When I noticed this, I knew I had little risk of losing :-)

Here's a breakdown of the decisions I made during heads up play:

fold   29 check  144 call   50 bet   39 raise    5

Here's a breakdown of the decisions my opponent made during heads up play:

fold   57 check  151 call   41 bet   24 raise    6

He had almost double the number of folds, and I had 50% more bets. After a certain point, the outcome was never in doubt.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game  45000  5000       6   203     1   175500


delta: $125,500
Sit and go 8-game balance: $695,210
balance: $10,368,539

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Triple knockout

The most memorable hand of last night's session was the very first one. Folding to a pre-flop raise, I was merely an interested bystander for the bulk of the hand. Be that as it may, I witnessed something I'm sure I never had before - a triple knockout. Four players went all in, and one came out on top. The winning hand was quad fives. The winner of that hand went on to knock out his remaining two opponents, which included me, in relatively short order. It's pretty rare for one player to knock out all his opponents in a six seater sit and go, but not as rare as a triple knockout on a single hand :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    22     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    33     3        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    22     4        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    23     4        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    19     4        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    58     2    18900


delta: $-22,200
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,462,675
balance: $10,243,039

Monday, December 21, 2015

10, 9, and 2

If you play long enough, you're going to suffer some brutal bad beats. However, you're also going to inflict some brutal bad beats on your opponents. That's what I got to do in the first sit and go no limit hold'em tournament I played last night. Let me break down the numbers in the title of this post:

10: the number of hands I went all in
9 : the number of hands I went all in and got to showdown
2: the number of hands I went all in, got to showdown, and won the pot by spiking a card on the river

It's lucky enough to spike a card on the river once in a tournament; twice is ridiculous (but I'll take it :-))

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    79     1    35100
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    86     1    35100
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    38     4        0


delta: $40,200
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,484,875
balance: $10,265,239

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Blue counts by year

Although I'm greatly relieved to have been able to preserve my streak of profitable poker years (barring some sort of calamitous collapse in my final 12 sessions of 2015), there's a very sobering number staring me in the face - my 2015 blue count, especially when considered in relation to my blue counts of previous years. As a refresher, a session where my overall balance achieves a new all-time high is a blue session. The blue count of a session is either 0 or 1 - 0 if the session was not a blue session, and 1 if it was. The blue count of a poker year is the number of blue sessions achieved in that year. Here are my blue counts by year so far:

2009: 14 of 128 (0.109375)
2010: 29 of 208 (0.139423)
2011: 79 of 253 (0.312253)
2012: 67 of 298 (0.224832)
2013: 25 of 311 (0.080386)
2014: 31 of 280 (0.110714)
2015:  2 of 263 (0.007605)


Less than 1 percent of my 2015 sessions have been blue. That's a number I intend to better in 2016.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    77     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    29     1    35100
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    43     4        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    49     1    35100


delta: $49,100
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,444,675
balance: $10,225,039

Saturday, December 19, 2015

UPS

The acronym UPS stands for a lot of different things. One of them is uninterruptible power supply. The undisputed uninterruptible power supply in poker is no limit hold'em. There is never a shortage of players who want to play it, at any conceivable buy in. Despite my love for 8-game, there just aren't enough 8-game enthusiasts out there for me to more than dabble in it. As I periodically realize anew, no limit hold'em is my bread and butter, and I'm forced to keep returning to it, sometimes seemingly against my own will :-) Tonight, I'm going straight to the power source.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game    900   100       6    96     2     1890
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    94     1    35100


delta: $25,990
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,395,575
balance: $10,175,939

Friday, December 18, 2015

Leaving Lilliput

One of the really great features of sit and go 8-games is that they generally last a long time, often over an hour. That makes them a great value for (play) money. Another advantage is the variety they provide; you can't get bored when you're playing 8 different games in rotation. I find a heck of a lot to like about sit and go 8-games. They do have two serious drawbacks, however:

1. the tables take much longer to fill up than sit and go no limit hold'em tables
2. at the stakes I really want to play, it's not clear if the tables ever fill up at all :-(

Right now, I'm waiting for a 10K table to fill up. So far, I'm the only customer. I'm trying to leave Lilliput (in other words, give up the small stakes tables), but that's easier said than done. Poker players need action, and waiting an hour or more for a table to fill up ain't it.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game    900   100       6   164     1     3510 


delta: $2,510
Sit and go 8-game balance: $568,820
balance: $10,149,949

Thursday, December 17, 2015

yagr (yet another golden ratio)

As you may know, my favorite poker statistics category is that of golden ratios. The idea behind golden ratios is to provide a guarantee of poker success. The theory is that, if you can achieve a particular golden ratio, you'll be successful in the poker flavor it was designed for. Golden ratios give you something to shoot for over the long run, which you generally can't achieve in a single session.

My new ratio (at least I think it's new; I need to double-check my old posts to be positive :-)) is what I'm calling the top to bottom sit and go ratio. It's the ratio of your first place finishes to your sixth place finishes. My theory is that the golden top to bottom sit and go ratio is 4. In sit and go 8-games, I'm currently hitting it on the nose:

place count

    1    24
    2    17
    3    13
    4     8
    5    12
    6     6


Last night, I played two no limit hold'em massives to start off the session; I got impatient waiting for a sit and go 8-game table to fill up. My final tournament was a sit and go 8-game. Tonight, I'll try to be patient from the get-go, and only play sit and go 8-games.

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

   900   100       6    12    1077  264   597        0
   900   100       9    65    1219  315   357        0

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game    900   100       6   177     2     1890


delta: $-1,110
Sit and go 8-game balance: $566,310
balance: $10,147,439

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The seventy-per-cent solution

This blog post title was inspired by the title of a novel I read years ago. In the post I wrote on November 29th, 2010, entitled "The seven-per-cent solution", I explained the connection:

Fans of Sherlock Holmes and of the writer Nicholas Meyer will recognize in the title of this post the title of Meyer's first novel, which starred the famous fictional detective and Sigmund Freud. In Sherlock's case, the solution was a mixture of water and cocaine ...

In my current case, the solution is what I consider to be the ideal percentage of days (or rather, nights :-)) to play poker. Since I started recording my poker data on March 24th, 2009, and including tonight, 2,459 days will have elapsed. Out of those days, I will have played poker on 1,737 of them. Friends and neighbors, that amounts to 70.64%.

Last night, I got temporarily sidetracked on my quest to play 8-game when the lobby showed me a nearly full sit and go no limit hold'em 18 seater as I logged in. I jumped on, and had a chance to make the money, but unfortunately squandered it when I got engrossed by a chess video I was watching and didn't notice when the PokerStars software automatically sat me out. I eventually got blinded off, finishing in sixth place. I then registered at an 8-game, and ended up coming in first an hour and a half later.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    43     6        0
SNG   8-Game    900   100       6   120     1     3510


delta: $-7,490
Sit and go 8-game balance: $565,420
balance: $10,148,549

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

High time to get to sea

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Herman Melville, "Moby-Dick"

After last night's session, it's starting to feel like a damp, drizzly November in my poker soul. It's clearly high time to get to sea :-) In this case, that means switching poker flavors. One of my very favorite flavors is sit and go 8-game, so that's what I'll play tonight. It naturally provides a great deal of variety, which is what I'm craving at the moment.

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    15      45    7    20        0
  9000  1000       9    69      18    3     5        0
  9000  1000       9    23      18    3    11        0
  9000  1000       9     9      18    3    16        0
  9000  1000       9    31      18    3     8        0
  9000  1000       9    51      18    3     8        0


delta: $-60,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,380,475
balance: $10,156,039

Monday, December 14, 2015

Fortuitous session

When you make the money in two straight six seat sit and gos, you know without a doubt that you're in the sweetness. It's not as clear cut when you make the money in two straight 18 seat sit and gos. Since 3rd and 4th place finishes make the money in 18 seaters, in addition to 1st and 2nd place finishes, it all depends on how excited you can get about finishing 3rd or 4th. I've discovered I can't get very excited about that. Therefore, I can't say I was in the sweetness on Saturday night; since I came in 4th and 2nd, let's just say it was a fortuitous session :-)

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    72      18    4     4    16200
  9000  1000       9   130      18    4     2    48600


delta: $44,800
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,440,475
balance: $10,216,039

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Evermore and ever better correction

It turns out my probability radar was off, after all. Instead of just 2, I've actually had 6 evermore and ever better sessions:

date          delta  count

2012-07-17  -243000      3
2012-08-17   251150      4
2015-04-07    -5550      3
2015-12-04     2400      3
2015-12-08    95800      5
2015-12-09   -30000      3


Note that I only consider sessions where I played 3 or more sit and gos to be eligible. As the 2012-07-17 session vividly demonstrates, you can lose a ton of play money even when you're steadily improving throughout a session.

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    14      18    4    13        0
  9000  1000       9    53      18    4     9        0
  9000  1000       9    84      18    4     4    16200
  9000  1000       9    54      18    4     9        0

delta: $-23,800
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,395,675
balance: $10,171,239

Friday, December 11, 2015

Everless session

The opposite of an evermore session is an everless session - one where the number of hands played decreases each successive tournament. Everless sessions are somewhat easier to come by than evermore sessions, and I had one last night. If you don't make the money in the first tournament you play in an everless session, you're unlikely to do it at all. That was the case for me last night. The one bright spot, if you can call it that, was that I bubbled the first tournament :-)

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    65      18    4     5        0
  9000  1000       9    42      18    4    11        0
  9000  1000       9    30      18    4     7        0


delta: $-30,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,419,475
balance: $10,195,039

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Evermore and ever better, all for naught

Just one session after having what I believe was my very first evermore and ever better session, I had my second, but it was all for naught. The best I could do was bubbling the third tournament. My enthusiasm for 45 seaters is currently on the decline, but my enthusiasm for 18 seaters hasn't wavered. Let me at 'em :-)

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    11      18    4    17        0
  9000  1000       9    13      45    7    11        0
  9000  1000       9    49      18    4     5        0


delta: $-30,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,449,475
balance: $10,225,039

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Evermore and ever better

An evermore session is one where you play multiple tournaments, and manage to play more hands each tournament than you did in the previous one. An ever better session is one where you play multiple tournaments, and manage to place better each tournament than you did in the previous one. An evermore and ever better session is, as you'd expect, an session which is both an evermore session and an ever better session. Last night, I had such a session, and if it wasn't the first of my career, my probability radar is way out of whack :-)

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9     1      45    7    44        0
  9000  1000       9     9      45    7    22        0
  9000  1000       9    71      18    4     3    32400
  9000  1000       9    91      18    4     2    48600
  9000  1000       9    92      18    4     1    64800


delta: $95,800
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,479,475
balance: $10,255,039

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Just say yes to hypers

I've long felt that hyper tournaments on PokerStars are a losing proposition, and have avoided them like the plague. Hyper tournaments have some defining detrimental characteristics:

1. you start out chip-starved
2. the antes and blinds escalate quickly
3. you run up against lots of bingo players

However, my experience in last night's session is forcing me to revise my evaluation of hypers - slightly :-) I will still avoid them like the plague, except in the case of hyper 45 seater sit and gos. Playing 18 seater sit and gos got me really interested in multiple table sit and gos, and when I saw a 45 seater filling up in the PokerStars lobby, I jumped in without noticing that it was a hyper. I ended up cashing, and was hooked just like that :-)

I really think multiple table sit and gos are a third kind of tournament animal, neither sit and go nor MTT, yet sharing some features of both. Since everyone starts playing at the same time, there's no dead money at the beginning, as is the case when you late register an MTT. However, since there are multiple tables, you're insulated from some potential big stack bullies until the tables consolidate, which doesn't occur in a normal sit and go.

What makes a hyper 45 seater different from a normal hyper sit and go, which only seats 6 players? The differences can be summed up in three words: time, panic, and patience. In a hyper sit and go, you have no time, whereas in a hyper 45 seater, you have more time than most players realize. When you realize this, you have a distinct advantage over players who don't. The players who don't realize this play in panic mode from the get go, and soon hit the rail. The players who do realize this can afford to exercise patience, which will often take them a long way.

Tonight, I'm going to play a bunch of hyper 45 seaters; it's my new favorite flavor :-)

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

  9000  1000       9    29      45    7     6    24300
  9000  1000       9     3      18    4    15        0
  9000  1000       9    52      45    7     2    87075
  9000  1000       9    26      45    7    13        0
  9000  1000       9    26      45    7     9        0
  9000  1000       9    93      18    4     4    16200
  9000  1000       9    30      18    4     7        0


delta: $57,575
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,383,675
balance: $10,159,239

Monday, December 7, 2015

Three final tables

When a tournament only starts with two tables, as these 18 seaters do, it's a little grandiose to talk about final tables. It's exponentially harder to make the final table of an MTT than it is to make the final table of an 18 seater. Nevertheless, it's still an achievement to make the final table at every 18 seater you enter during a single session, even if you fail to make the money in any of them (as I did last night). Even though I've only made the money once in nine 18 seaters, I'm really enjoying them, and will continue to play them for the time being.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    53     7        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    63     5        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    39     8        0

delta: $-30,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,356,100
balance: $10,131,664

Sunday, December 6, 2015

First 18 seater bubble

I've decided to call my new favorite type of tournament an 18 seater. Last night, I had my first 18 seater bubble, when I came in fifth in my final tournament of the night. I played three in all and failed to cash in any of them. I'm not discouraged, though; I think there's a real profit potential in these 18 seaters. I'll play another three or so tonight.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    46     8        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    20    10        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    57     5        0


delta: $-30,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,356,100
balance: $10,131,664

Saturday, December 5, 2015

The land of the twos

I think I've found the perfect tournament. It was just sitting there for years, waiting for me to find it :-) It's a sit and go no limit hold'em tournament with 18 seats, spread across two 9 seat tables. 4 places are paid, which translates to 22.222222% of the participants - in other words, the land of the twos. Last night, I played three such tournaments, and came out in the black, thanks to cashing in the final one. I'll be playing some more of them tonight :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    24    11        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    69     6        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    73     3    32400

delta: $2,400
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,386,100
balance: $10,161,664

Friday, December 4, 2015

A chip and a chair

This is the third time I've used this title; the first was on October 27, 2011. I included a reference in both previous posts, and I'll do the same here:

An old poker adage says that all you need to win is a chip and a chair, especially since Jack “Treetop” Straus pulled off this feat in the '82 championship.

James McManus, "Positively Fifth Street"


Last night, I played two MTTs and one sit and go. In the sit and go, I was in dire straits after 8 hands. I had only $90 in chips of the $6,000 in play, which is a meager 1.5%. The classic chip and a chair scenario! However, I didn't end up winning. Nor did I come in second. However, I did come in third, fully 43 hands later. That's a noteworthy comeback. I'll have to check, but I'm pretty sure I've never played longer than 43 hands starting with just 1.5% of the chips in play.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   NLHE     4500   500       6    64    32    11000
MTT   NLHE     4500   500       9     5    74        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    51     3        0


delta: $-9,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,383,700
balance: $10,159,264

Thursday, December 3, 2015

MTT personal best

As you know, I really like personal bests. Last night, I had another one - the longest MTT no limit hold'em tournament of my career, in terms of number of hands. At a whopping 154 hands, it dwarfed its nearest competitor (104). This was not in a massive, by the way. I may have to adjust my thinking about massives. Massives apparently only get that way due to their low buy in; higher buy ins don't attract as many players. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. One disadvantage is that you have to outlast an ungodly number of opponents to get to the decent money. Another is that a fair percentage of the field plays bingo poker. I'll have to come up with a name for a reasonably big, yet not massive MTT. I know - I can call them mid-caps :-) I'll be on the lookout for a mid-cap tonight.

buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

   900   100       6    20    1140  264   473        0
  4500   500       6   154     174   42    12    17200


delta: $11,200
MTT NLHE balance: $3,372
balance: $10,168,264

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Massive crush

I have a real hankering to play a bunch of massive field MTTs. Let's call them massives for short. You could say I have a massive crush on massives :-) I stopped playing massives in October since I really wanted to get my 2015 balance back into the black. Now that I've done that, there's nothing to stop me from indulging my hankering. Of course, the only massives I've encountered so far have been in no limit hold'em, so that's the flavor I'll play. I can't wait!

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game  45000  5000       6    78     5        0


delta: $-50,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $562,910
balance: $10,157,064

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

My toughest opponents

What makes poker so special is that you're always relearning things you learned before. Poker keeps you humble that way :-) What I relearned last night is that my toughest opponents on PokerStars are the ones who play for the lowest stakes. It's actually kind of foolish of me to play at those low stakes tables, unless I'm a glutton for punishment. The alternative is too attractive to pass up - play against lower quality opponents for way more play money. I guess you could argue that I'm never going to improve by playing so many fish, but I'll take my chances :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game    900   100       6    64     5        0
SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   101     1    35100


delta: $24,100
Sit and go 8-game balance: $612,910
balance: $10,207,064

Monday, November 30, 2015

The remedy

Even though I enjoy playing sit and go 8-games very much, and am quite good at them, often I don't have the patience to wait for a table to fill up. Sit and go 8-game tables can take over an hour to fill up, and that's torture when you want some action and you want it now :-) Saturday night was another time when I didn't have the patience. The remedy in such situations, as always, is sit and go no limit hold'em. Sit and go no limit hold'em tables fill up in a New York minute :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    86     1    35100
SNG   NLHE    22500  2500       6    73     3        0


delta: $100
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,393,700
balance: $10,182,964

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Raise and take it

I'm reasonably sure I first heard the poker phrase "Raise and take it" prior to this year's WSOP Main Event, but it was cemented in my consciousness when I watched this month's November Nine. Joe McKeehen had a monster stack at the start of the final table, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger until he had all the chips at the table. Norman Chad being the color man, it was play-by-play man Lon McEachern who kept repeating the phrase "Raise and take it" whenever McKeehen took down a pot by raising (which was quite often).

There are actually two circumstances under which a raise will take down the pot the majority of the time:

1. you have a monster stack, like McKeehen did (this takes down the pot 95% of the time)
2. you're heads up, and your opponent is sitting out (this takes down the pot 100% of the time)

The second circumstance is much rarer than the first, and feels very odd when it occurs. It's happened to me before, but never to the extent it did in the second sit and go I played last night. Of the 90 hands I played heads up, my opponent sat out for fully 82 of them. I just sat there clicking the raise button, continually taking down small pots until I finally came in first. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   107     2    18900
SNG   8-Game  45000  5000       6   191     1   175500


delta: $134,400
Sit and go 8-game balance: $588,810
balance: $10,182,864

Friday, November 27, 2015

The streak is dead. Long live the streak!

I first used this blog post title on March 31st, 2012. Here's an excerpt of what I wrote then:

When I first heard the phase "The king is dead. Long live the king!" it made no sense to me. How can the king live a single day, let alone a long time, when he's dead? Of course, the answer is that the phrase refers to two different kings. So you'll understand that when I say "The streak is dead. Long live the streak!" I'm referring to two different streaks. I'm hoping to start a new winning streak tonight.

On Wednesday night, my streak of 11 straight winning sessions came to an end. It started during my "These are the good old days" run, when I amassed over $2,000,000 in just 10 sessions. What makes this streak notable is that I played sit and gos exclusively while it lasted. It's much easier to win a cash game session than a sit and go one. My longest prior sit and go winning streak was a mere 5 sessions.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    96     3        0
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    19    54        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    61     2    18900
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    71     3        0
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    52    39        0


delta: $-21,100
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,393,600
balance: $10,048,464

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Tournament table boss

While being the table boss can be an uncomfortable feeling in a cash game, in a tournament it's a wonderful feeling. In a cash game, you don't want to give back your gains, and have to decide when to quit. In a tournament, quitting is not an option, and you want the leverage that having a big stack provides. Another reason you don't feel the same about a big stack in a tournament as you do about one in a cash game is that the chips don't represent what you actually have on the line. What you have on the line in a tournament, at any time, is a constant - your buy in plus your entry fee. What you have on the line in a cash game changes from hand to hand, and actually from moment to moment within a hand. I started out loving cash games, but now I sort of hate them. Luckily for me, it turns out I love tournaments :-)

Last night I was the last one to join a sit and go 8-game, and was also the last one standing at the end. I was the table boss for 48 of the 80 hands, which isn't too shabby.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    80     1    35100


delta: $25,100
Sit and go 8-game balance: $464,410
balance: $10,069,564

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Back to the dime

On the strength of a first place finish in a $45,000 buy in sit and go 8-game, I was able to push my balance over the $10,000,000 mark again. Back to the dime! I'm determined to finish the 2015 poker year above that milestone.

Out of curiosity, I decided to aggregate the hand deltas from my first place sit and go 8-game finishes by poker flavor. The results weren't quite what I expected :-) Here they are:

     36358 Triple Draw 2-7 Lowball Limit
     16833 Hold'em Limit
     25374 Omaha Hi/Lo Limit
     20346 Razz Limit
     12861 7 Card Stud Limit
     22379 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit
      6585 Hold'em No Limit
      9264 Omaha Pot Limit


I was surprised to see such a low total for no limit hold'em and pot limit Omaha. Since my sample size is small (20 first place finishes so far), no real conclusions can be drawn from this data. As I accumulate more data, I'll keep an eye on these aggregates.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game  45000  5000       6    74     1   175500
SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    68     4        0


delta: $115,500
Sit and go 8-game balance: $439,310
balance: $10,044,464

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Play where the players are

Last night, I joined a higher stakes sit and go 8-game table than normal, for the simple reason that that's where I found players waiting to play. You have to play where the players are :-) This tells me that people are more willing to gamble it up on Saturday nights, which isn't terribly surprising. I'll definitely be surprised if I see the same behavior tonight, however. For the record, until this year I felt it was somehow sordid and/or unseemly to play poker on a Sunday night, but I've cured myself of that Puritan attitude :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game  45000  5000       6   105     2    94500


delta: $44,500
Sit and go 8-game balance: $323,810
balance: $9,928,964

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Puzzlepoker

Over the years, I've experimented with a lot of diversions while playing poker. My latest one is solving chess puzzles. There's a free chess site called lichess which has a training section. I find that early in an 8-game tournament, very little attention needs to be paid to the poker; however, when it gets down to head up play, the chess puzzles have to take a back seat.

Last night, I had my first non-money finish since returning to 8-games. I still had a profit on the night, however, since I was able to win the second tournament I entered.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6    73     4        0
SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   172     1    35100


delta: $15,100
Sit and go 8-game balance: $279,310
balance: $9,884,464

Friday, November 20, 2015

Training wheels

One of the really great things about sit and go 8-game is the fact that most tournaments last a nice long time. Another great thing is the variety; it's almost impossible to get bored. The only drawback I can find is that the tables take a while to fill up. That never happens with sit and go no limit hold'em :-)

One of the reasons sit and go 8-game tournaments last so long is that 5 of the 8 games come equipped with training wheels, in the form of limit betting. There's only so much damage which you can inflict on yourself, or have inflicted on you by others, with these training wheels in place. The three games without training wheels, however, can decimate your stack in a New York minute :-)

The three 8-game games without training wheels are limit deuce, no limit hold'em, and pot limit Omaha. Wait a minute, you might be saying to yourself. Don't the limit betting on deuce and the pot limit betting on Omaha qualify as training wheels? In a word, no. The reason why is that even with limits in place, the pots in these games can get seriously big in a hurry. In both, you really don't know where you stand until the very end, so you're forced to call any bets your opponents make if you want to find out how good your hand might be.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   140     1    35100


delta: $25,100
Sit and go 8-game balance: $205,110
balance: $9,869,364

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Last Omahan standing

I've made no secret of the fact that Pot Limit Omaha is my least favorite poker flavor. Last night, in the second sit and go 8-game I played, I actually won when that was the flavor, making me the last Omahan standing :-) I knew this had to have been a rare occurrence, so I did some digging to find out how rare. Here are the numbers: out of 65 sit and go 8-game tournaments, I've won 17; of those 17, the flavor of the final hand has been Pot Limit Omaha exactly once.

The way I won was instructive; my opponent was betting heavily every hand, and I was folding. Finally, I got a premium hand, got into a raising war with him, got him all in, and crushed his pair of deuces with my three of a kind, queens.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   147     2    18900
SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   172     1    35100

delta: $34,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $205,110
balance: $9,844,264

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Double century

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the best value for money on PokerStars is sit and go 8-game. Last night, I returned to this poker flavor after a hiatus of more than three months. I played for nearly an hour and a half in a single sit and go; at 200 hands, it was the fourth double century of my career. My top 20 longest sit and gos have all been 8-games. I've won all four double centuries :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   8-Game   9000  1000       6   200     1    35100


delta: $25,100
Sit and go 8-game balance: $205,110
balance: $9,810,264

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Sealing in the sweetness

As I was sure I would, last night I brought my 2015 balance back into the black. I ended up making more play money in a ten session stretch than I ever had before - $2,008,000, to be exact. I want to honor this achievement by refraining from playing sit and go no limit hold'em for the remainder of the year - sealing in the sweetness, as it were :-) Of course, I'll still be playing lots of poker; it's too much fun not to play as much as I can. Now that I've salvaged my poker year, I'm going to drop back down in stakes and just have some pure fun :-)

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    34     2   189000
 90000 10000       6    55     1   351000
 90000 10000       6    47     3        0


delta: $240,000
2015 balance: $162,834
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,394,700
balance: $9,785,164

Monday, November 16, 2015

These are the good old days

The second time I used this title for a post, it was January 22, 2014. Here's an excerpt of what I wrote then:

The first time I used this title for a post, it was June 1, 2011. Here's an excerpt of what I wrote then:

The title of this post comes from Carly Simon's classic song "Anticipation". It's how I feel about how I'm playing poker right now. I have a hunch (and you know how us poker players love our hunches :-) that I'm playing the best I'll ever play.

Judging purely based on session deltas, this hunch was wrong. I'm on a cash game hot streak right now which rivals any I've had before; I've won 13 of the last fourteen sessions.


My implicit second hunch was wrong as well. Based on the evidence, I've never played better than I'm playing right now. In the last nine sessions, I've increased my balance by a whopping 1,768,000 play dollars. That's my career best nine session series; the second best, which ended on August 24th, 2012, netted me 1,524,650 play dollars.

I have a very realistic chance of getting my 2015 balance back into the black this very night. I mean to do it.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    76     1   351000
 90000 10000       6    55     1   351000
 90000 10000       6    93     2   189000


delta: $591,000
2015 balance: $-77,166
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,154,700
balance: $9,545,164

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Early exits

In computer programming, early exits from functions are used as optimizations; when certain conditions are met, it makes no sense to continue. Poker sessions can have early exits, too :-) The rationale for an early exit when playing sit and gos is also an optimization; it's to maximize profit. Since my goal is to play four sit and gos a session, an early exit would be to play one, two, or three sit and gos instead. I'd never quit after just one sit and go, but I'm very likely to quit after two or three if I've just won the most recent one.

Last night, I won the third sit and go I played, and got out of Dodge. I won the minimum profit possible for three sit and gos, but it was still a profit :-)

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    39     3        0
 90000 10000       6     7     5        0
 90000 10000       6    92     1   351000


delta: $51,000
2015 balance: $-668,166
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,563,700
balance: $8,954,164

Saturday, November 14, 2015

A fine week

A week ago, I decided that come hell or high water, I needed to get my 2015 balance back into the black. I decided that the only way to do this was to stick with sit and gos, raise the stakes, and play really well. One week later, I've added over a million play dollars to my 2015 balance. It's still in the red, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel :-)

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    66     2   189000
 90000 10000       6    47     3        0
 90000 10000       6    55     1   351000


delta: $240,000
2015 balance: $-719,166
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,512,700
balance: $8,903,164

Friday, November 13, 2015

Lonesome ace

One of the deceptive things about sit and gos is that no matter what buy in you pick, and no matter what number of tournaments per session you pick, there will always be more unique winning deltas than unique losing deltas. For example, at my current favorite combo of $90,000 buy in and four tournaments played per session, there are eleven unique winning deltas but only four unique losing deltas. The reason this is deceptive is that there are many more combinations (155) which result in one of the 4 losing deltas than there are combinations (55) which result in one of the 11 winning ones. For example, there's only one way to achieve the greatest winning delta of $1,004,000, but there are 70 ways to achieve the greatest losing delta of $-400,000.

Last night, I had a lonesome ace session since I managed one first place in the four tournaments. That's happened to me once before at the $90,000 buy in level, just four sessions prior to last night's. I'll take a lonesome ace over a shutout any day :-)

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    70     1   351000
 90000 10000       6    35     5        0
 90000 10000       6    39     3        0
 90000 10000       6    40     5        0


delta: $-49,000
2015 balance: $-959,166
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,272,700
balance: $8,663,164

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Twin towers

Continuing my recent trend of quoting from an earlier post when I happen to be reusing its title, here's an excerpt from my August 23rd, 2013 post:

I never had the chance to visit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York city when they were standing. I only know them from photographs. Nevertheless, they live on in my memory, straight, tall, and true. I know I'm not alone in that regard.

Last night, the twin towers were my two first place finishes, which bookended the session. To add drama to my chase to get my 2015 balance back into the black, from now until the end of the year I'll be including my current 2015 balance in the balances at the end of each post.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    43     1   351000
 90000 10000       6    24     3        0
 90000 10000       6    38     3        0
 90000 10000       6    73     1   351000


delta: $302,000
2015 balance: $-910,166
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,321,700
balance: $8,712,164

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Lonesome deuce

I'm settling nicely into the rhythm of playing four $90,000 buy in sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments a night. Last night was the tenth such session of my career. I only managed a single second place - in other words, a lonesome deuce :-) This is the second session of the ten where I've had this result. Disregarding the buy in level, I've had 33 sessions where I've played four sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments; of those 33, 6 have been lonesome deuce sessions. Not to jinx myself, but so far I've never been shut out playing four $90,000 sit and gos in a session. Disregarding the buy in level, I've been shut out five times. I'm going to stick to what's working, and hope it stays working :-)

Regarding the November Nine, I found last night's final night of the WSOP Main Event to be the least interesting of the three nights; something truly extraordinary would have to have happened in order for Joe McKeehan not to win, and of course it didn't.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    91     2   189000
 90000 10000       6    15     4        0
 90000 10000       6    62     3        0
 90000 10000       6     6     6        0


delta: $-211,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,019,700
balance: $8,410,164

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Two more BPA wins

Double pokering has enabled me to discover a rather peculiar technique for winning sit and gos, which I hereby dub BPA. It's been a while since I unleashed a new neologism here, so I'm happy to end the drought :-) BPA is my acronym for "Barely Paying Attention". When you're playing BPA poker, you can't possibly get on tilt, since you don't remember enough about what happened before to get mad about it. Also, you're forced to treat each situation on its own merits, which is what all the poker experts recommend, but which is generally quite hard to do. Finally, BPA poker enables you to care very little about the outcome, which is another highly recommended ingredient for poker success. I'm going to try to BPA my 2015 balance all the way back to the black!

Of course, to truly be playing BPA poker, about 90% of your attention needs to be actively engaged elsewhere. That's easy to achieve when it's November Nine time, as it has been the last two nights, and will be again tonight. The real test will be to see if I can replace the November Nine with other engaging attention getters starting tomorrow night.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    13     5        0
 90000 10000       6    55     1   351000
 90000 10000       6     5     6        0
 90000 10000       6    64     1   351000


delta: $302,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,230,700
balance: $8,621,164

Monday, November 9, 2015

Double poker

The November Nine is upon us once again. Last night was the first night of the final table of the WSOP main event. I was watching (via streaming) and playing on PokerStars at the same time. Double poker! It's like having chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce on top. I saw Chan and Butteroni hit the rail, and went to bed right after McKeehen and Stern chopped a big pot with trip aces. Somehow I won the final tournament I entered without having to think very hard; I don't remember how I did it. I was too busy having fun watching the November Nine :-) I'll be double pokering again tonight and tomorrow night.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    16     5        0
 90000 10000       6    29     3        0
 90000 10000       6    14     5        0
 90000 10000       6    72     1   351000


delta: $-49,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $928,700
balance: $8,319,164

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Eighth 2015 sincemillion

Through the first six months of 2015, I registered seven in-year sincemillions. Last night, I finally got my eighth. It was another magic three session. I won twice as much as I otherwise would have, since I'd moved up in stakes from the $45,000 buy in level to the $90,000 buy in level. It was the second best session of my poker career, delta-wise. Needless to say, I'm very happy with the results!

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 90000 10000       6    67     1   351000
 90000 10000       6    86     2   189000
 90000 10000       6    87     1   351000


delta: $591,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $977,700
balance: $8,368,164

Saturday, November 7, 2015

The $20,000,000 challenge

Counting today, there are 55 days left in 2015. I feel the need to do everything in my power to bring my 2015 balance back into the black. The slump I've been in this year really bothers me, though I've tried to laugh it off at times. It rankles.

Here's my plan: I'm going to move up to the $90,000 buy in level, and play at least four tournaments a night, for as many of the remaining days of the year as I can keep my balance above $4,000,000. I'm aiming for 50 days of the remaining 55. If I'm able to achieve that, I will have wagered $20,000,000 in 50 days. That's why I'm calling this the $20,000,000 challenge. Wish me luck!

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 22500  2500       6    63     3        0
 45000  5000       6    13     4        0
 45000  5000       6    71     1   175500
 45000  5000       6    36     4        0
 45000  5000       6    50     2    94500


delta: $45,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $386,700
balance: $7,777,164

Friday, November 6, 2015

Superbad decision

I never saw the movie "Superbad", but have always loved the title, which makes for a great adjective. Last night, I played 238 hands, and made 485 poker decisions. Most of my decisions were good, but one of them was very bad; so bad, in fact, that it was superbad :-) On the very first hand of the fourth tournament I played, I way overplayed the pair of aces I hit on the flop. When an opponent went all in on the turn, I should have realized he had at least two pair and was miles ahead of me. The only correct play was to fold. Instead, I stubbornly called, and was out in sixth in a New York minute.

Memorable as my superbad decision was, however, it wasn't the most memorable moment of the session. There were actual two moments more memorable, and they both happened during the third tournament I played, and were eerily similar. On hand 29, I was dealt pocket rockets, but lost $680 to a full house of jacks full of tens. On hand 38, I was dealt pocket rockets again, but lost $1,270 to a five high straight, hitting the rail in the process. I lost both hands to the same opponent. Double ouch!

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 45000  5000       6    44     4        0
 45000  5000       6    19     6        0
 45000  5000       6    38     4        0
 45000  5000       6     1     6        0
 45000  5000       6   116     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    20     4        0


delta: $-205,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $341,700
balance: $7,732,164

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Double fall in

To quote from my March 18, 2014 post "The fall in":

There are three ways of having all your chips go into the middle:
1. the all in
2. the call in
3. the fall in


The all in is when the action is on you and you decide to put all your chips in the middle. The call in is when the action is on you and someone who bet before you bet big enough to put you all in if you call, and you decide to call. The fall in is when you're in the small blind or the big blind, and are so short-stacked that the forced bet puts you all in. You want to avoid the fall in at all costs, since it removes all decision-making from you.

Last night, in the second tournament I played, I had two fall ins in a row, and was lucky enough to win both of them. Of course, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that you're not going to win a tournament after falling in. I didn't, but had the good fortune to have made it to heads up play before falling in, so I was still able to make a profit on the tournament.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 45000  5000       6    73     1   175500
 45000  5000       6    70     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    36     3        0


delta: $120,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $547,200
balance: $7,937,664

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Bookend firsts

I've now had fifteen sessions where I've played five sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments at the $45,000 buy in level. I've managed in those fifteen to get more first places than second places twice. The second time was last night. I had bookend first places, with a second place thrown in for good measure. Since returning to sit and gos on October 20th, I've increased my balance by $606,000. I want to keep up this good trend, and end 2015 on an upswing.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 45000  5000       6    29     1   175500
 45000  5000       6    63     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    20     5        0
 45000  5000       6    44     5        0
 45000  5000       6    43     1   175500


delta: $195,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $427,200
balance: $7,817,664

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Banjacksed

On the most memorable hand of last night's session, I took a 2 by 4 to the head, figuratively speaking. It was my third sit and go, and by hand 62 I'd gotten to three handed play and had over half the chips in play. To be precise, I had 3,562, one opponent had 1,506, and the other had 932. I'd been dealt Ad 4d. The short stack, who'd been dealt Th Jh, went all in preflop. I called, and the middle stack got out of the way. I was a slight favorite (53.71%) to win the pot, until the flop, that is :-) The flop came 7h Js Jc, and just like that, I was a huge underdog. I had only a 0.3% chance of winning the pot. After the turn, I was officially drawing dead. To add insult to injury, the river card was the case jack. I'd been banjacksed! I ended up bubbling in third place.

Being so far ahead and then failing to make the money really hurt. It made me curious to look at all my third place finishes and see if I'd ever had a bigger percentage of the chips in play in any of the others than I had at my high point in last night's third tournament. Answer: no (as I suspected :-)).

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 45000  5000       6    66     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    34     3        0
 45000  5000       6    80     3        0
 45000  5000       6    99     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    38     4        0


delta: $-61,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $231,700
balance: $7,622,164

Monday, November 2, 2015

Magic three session

Last night, I accomplished something I'd only done once before - I made the money in the first three tournaments I played, then found the will to stop playing. I call that a magic three session :-) In general, I keep playing as long as I keep making the money. I was definitely in the sweetness, but didn't ride it all the way to the end. Sometimes, it's fine to sit back and take a nice profit :-)

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 45000  5000       6    49     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    97     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    73     1   175500


delta: $214,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $292,700
balance: $7,683,164

Sunday, November 1, 2015

SeƱor Dos

This is the second time I've used this blog post title; the first was on February 20th, 2014. I was SeƱor Dos on Friday night since I came in second three times in four tournaments. Here are my sit and go no limit hold'em place counts to date:

+-------+----------+
| place | count(*) |
+-------+----------+
|     1 |      142 |
|     2 |      179 |
|     3 |      187 |
|     4 |      152 |
|     5 |      126 |
|     6 |       71 |
+-------+----------+


The reason I have significantly more second place finishes than first place ones is that until I make the money, I play simply to make the money, not to come in first. As a result, I enter heads up play more frequently with a smaller chip stack than my opponent than I enter it with a larger one. That's okay with me, though; if the numbers were the other way around, that would mean I was playing too riskily, and I'd actually be making it to heads up play much less frequently.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 45000  5000       6    48     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    42     2    94500
 45000  5000       6    31     4        0
 45000  5000       6    83     2    94500


Note: I discovered today that I'd incorrectly entered some sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments into my poker database as sit and go no limit 8-game tournaments. I've corrected those errors, but haven't gone back and corrected any incorrect sit and go no limit hold'em balances previously reported on this blog. From this point on, the balances will be accurate :-)

delta: $83,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $78,200
balance: $7,468,664

Friday, October 30, 2015

Aggregate evaluation

When you fail to make the money in any of the sit and gos you play in a single session, it might not be the case that you're not playing well. On the other hand, that might indeed be the case. How can you distinguish a losing session where you played well from one where you played poorly? I've come up with a method. You need to use aggregated past results as a guide, where the aggregation is driven by characteristics of your current session. Let me use last night's session as an example. I played three sit and gos, and failed to make the money in any of them. However, I bubbled two of the three, and all three lasted a fair number of hands. My shortest sit and go lasted 37 hands, and my longest lasted 53. Using those numbers as bookends, I aggregated my results in all sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments which had a length in that range; here are the counts:

+-------+----------+
| place | count(*) |
+-------+----------+
|     1 |       35 |
|     2 |       48 |
|     3 |       62 |
|     4 |       36 |
|     5 |       11 |
+-------+----------+


If all of those 192 tournaments had been played at the $45,000 buy in level, I would have made a profit of $1,078,500 on them. That proves that I was playing quite well indeed last night, even though I failed to make the money. The real lesson here is that when you play sit and gos, you should pay very little attention to the results of any particular session; instead, you should take the long view and look at your results over extended periods of time.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 45000  5000       6    45     3        0
 45000  5000       6    37     4        0
 45000  5000       6    53     3        0


delta: $-150,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $294,700
balance: $7,385,164