Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Omaha fool's gold

I seriously considered titling this post "I hate Omaha". Last night, I got bitten by the Omaha fool's gold bug again. That's the situation where a good hold'em player mistakenly and severely overvalues what would have been a premium hand in hold'em, but is only a mediocre Omaha holding. On my final hand of the night, I started with $1,815 in chips and ended up with none. What got me all excited was that I hit a set on the flop. I lost to a straight, as I deserved to do. I'm going to try never to play an Omaha hand again in 8-game; we'll see how I do :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6        30     6        0
  4500       500           6        33    55        0
  9000      1000           6        59     5        0


delta: $-25,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $331,810
balance: $9,548,390

Monday, March 30, 2015

Another sit and go 8-game century

In the sport of cricket, a century is a score of 100 or more runs in a single innings by a batsman.

- Wikipedia

 In the sport of poker, a century is a session of 100 or more hands.

- neostreet

Sit and go no limit hold'em centuries are hard to come by; in 586 career no limit hold'em sit and gos, I've only achieved a century 10 times. Sit and go 8-game centuries, on the other hand, are quite easy to come by; in 43 career 8-game sit and gos, I've achieved a century 26 times. That included my most recent session, which I played last Tuesday night. Unfortunately, I was the bubble boy again.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6       109     3        0


delta: $-10,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $351,810
balance: $9,573,390

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Longest bubble yet

I've used this blog post title before, but actually I was misusing it. When I used it before, I was counting the total number of hands played in sit and gos where I wound up in third place, when what I should have been counting was the number of hands played three handed in sit and gos where I survived to three handed play, regardless of my final standing. On Sunday night, I played an incredible 99 hands three handed. The next longest bubble I've ever participated in was a mere 90 hands, in the 8th sit and go I played on February 13th, 2014.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 45000      5000           6       158     3        0


delta: $-50,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $361,810
balance: $9,583,390

Sunday, March 22, 2015

The sit and go dream ratio

I've talked a lot about various different ratios in this blog, most often about the golden ratio. I now have another to add to the list - the sit and go dream ratio. I call it a dream ratio because it's nearly impossible to achieve. I say nearly since I've now managed to achieve it, when only my results in sit and go 8 games are considered. The definition of this ratio is making the money at least half of the time. Here are my current place counts for sit and go 8 games:

place    count(*)
1    11
2    11
3    7
4    3
5    7
6    2
count(*)
41


Since first place and second place finishes make the money in sit and gos, I've made the money 22 times in the 41 times I've entered a sit and go 8game, for a gaudy 53.6585 percentage. I want to see how long I can keep this up :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6       139     1    35100


delta: $25,100
Sit and go 8-game balance: $411,810
balance: $9,633,390

Friday, March 20, 2015

Double blue

Last night, thanks to cashing in third place in an MTT 8-game, two of my lifetime balances got into the blue: my MTT 8-game balance, and my MTT balance. My 8-game balance isn't in the blue, but it's healthily in the black, to the tune of over half a million play dollars.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       158     3    53820


delta: $48,820
MTT 8-game balance: $143,250
balance: $9,608,290

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Funny funny money

Since I play poker for play money, that accounts for the second funny in the title of this post. What accounts for the first? The fact that due to some quirk in the algorithm PokerStars uses to determine tournament payouts, sometimes you can "make the money" in a multi-table tournament and still end up losing money. That happened to me again last night. Still, funny funny money is better than not making any funny money at all :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        75    17     4790


delta: $-210
MTT 8-game balance: $94,430
balance: $9,559,470

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

A trick of the hands

The guns were empty and they boiled at him, transmogrified into an Eye and a Hand, and he stood, screaming and reloading, his mind far away and absent, letting his hands do their reloading trick. Could he hold up a hand, tell them he had spent a thousand years learning this trick and others, tell them of the guns and the blood that had blessed them? Not with his mouth. But his hands could speak their own tale.

Stephen King, "The Gunslinger"

Like King's gunslinger, my hands have their own trick that they do quite well, when my mind steps aside to let them do their thing. That trick? To click the right buttons on the PokerStars interface to enable me to come out on top :-)  Technically speaking, I'm only using one hand. Full disclosure: I've quoted this exact passage before, in my post of March 5, 2014.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        35    52        0
  9000      1000           6       191     1    35100


delta: $20,100
8-game tournament balance: $481,350
balance: $9,559,680

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Lack of fish considered harmful

Last night, I was running late, and there happened not to be an 8-game multi-table tournament to join when I logged onto PokerStars. The next one wasn't scheduled to start for another 41 minutes. So I was forced to join an 8-game sit and go. Sit and gos generally have a 6 player field. The trouble with playing in such a small field instead of the larger fields of 75 and up which MTTs provide is that there just aren't enough fish to do you much good. Indeed, you might actually be one of the fish :-) I won't go so far as to say I was one of the fish last night, but I still went out in fifth place.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6        80     5        0


delta: $-10,000
8-game tournament balance: $461,250
balance: $9,539,580

Monday, March 16, 2015

Poker evaluation prejudice

Last night, I was done in by poker evaluation prejudice. That's when you overvalue or undervalue a hand based on its worth in a poker flavor other than the one you're currently playing :-) The classic example of poker evaluation prejudice is Hold'em players overvaluing hands when they're playing Omaha. Hands which would have won them truckloads of chips in Hold'em will often lose them boatloads in Omaha. A somewhat less common example, but just as real, is what I fell prey to last night. That's when you overvalue a Razz hand based on its worth in deuce. In deuce, an 8 low is pretty strong; in Razz, it's pretty weak. There are two reasons for this disparity in strength:

1. in Razz, the lowest card is an ace, not a deuce
2. in Razz, straights don't matter; they still qualify as low hands

Therefore, while the nut low in Razz is A 2 3 4 5, the nut low in deuce is 2 3 4 5 7. An 8 low in Razz is basically crap.

On hand 51, my stack was crippled when I way overvalued an 8 low. I lost $1,100 on the hand. That'll larn me :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        65    34        0


delta: $-5,000
MTT 8-game balance: $99,640
balance: $9,549,580

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Landing the plane

Making the money in a multi-table tournament is a bit like trying to land a plane on a distant runway when you're running out of fuel at an unknown rate. If you have enough altitude, you can just glide there, conserving fuel. Your glide path will lower your altitude at a steady, predictable rate, which is just what you want. If you don't have enough altitude, you have no choice but to use your fuel. This analogy obviously breaks down, since winning pots adds fuel to your reserves, something that can't happen on an actual flight. However, the analogy is still surprisingly apt. Last night, I made it to the runway, with a little room to spare :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       130    10     7350


delta: $2,350
MTT 8-game balance: $104,640
balance: $9,554,580

Saturday, March 14, 2015

The return of the apostate

I haven't played poker since January 16th. That's an ungodly long time ago. There's a simple reason for my lengthy absence; I was playing another game instead. Chess. My oldest friend in the world convinced me to join the chess website chess.com, and I was having a blast playing blitz on it. I dropped poker like a hot potato, after being devoted to it for over 6 years. Just on the face of it, that was highly unusual, and I should have realized that my switch of allegiances was suspect, and not likely to last. I didn't, since I was having too much fun.

However, the chess fun has really tapered off lately. Chess is too much like work! Also, it's not relaxing at all. For whatever reason, poker relaxes me like no other game I've ever played. Can you blame me for deciding to chuck chess, and return to poker? I can't :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        56    46        0


delta: $-5,000
MTT 8-game balance: $102,290
balance: $9,552,230