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