A cardinal MTT sin

I didn't get to play poker while watching the November Nine last night, which was a bummer. The reason? The live stream didn't work for me. It's not working tonight, either :-( I did watch some of the November Nine last night on cable, after I'd played. I committed a cardinal MTT sin in the first tournament I entered - I got frisky near the bubble. All I had to do to make the money was fold my way in, but I didn't have the discipline to do it. Starting tonight, I'll try to fix that hole in my MTT game.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    34     893  180   183        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    24     699  144     -        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    27     290   72    92        0

By the way, whenever you see a hyphen in the place column, it means I didn't even outlast the late registration period, which is pretty disgraceful :-)

delta: $-60,000
MTT NLHE balance: $898,548
balance: $10,545,380

16k the hard way

I generally play multiple MTT NLHEs per session, and always know where I am profit-wise. When I start the session with a failure to make the money, I know that each subsequent failure will make it that much harder for me to turn a profit. On Friday night, I started out with three failures, but was able to recoup my losses in the final tournament I played, with a little profit to spare. I call that making 16k the hard way :-)

In 15 minutes, I'll be watching the November Nine get under way, via live streaming. I'm excited about it! I'll be playing some online poker at the same time.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    20     634  135   213        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    39     413   96   158        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    12     565  117   286        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6   102     380   96    15    96400

delta: $16,400
MTT NLHE balance: $958,548
balance: $10,605,380

6 max versus 9 max

When I select an MTT NLHE to play, the only thing I'm looking for is a BI+EF (buy in plus entry fee) of $20,000; I don't look at the maximum number of players at the table. As it turns out, roughly half of the MTT NLHEs I've played have been 6 max and the other half have been 9 max. Here's the breakdown:

    delta players count

 $280,512       6   129
 $661,636       9   122

At first glance, it appears that 9 max is the way to go. However, when I remove the outlier from the 9 max results, we see a different picture:

    delta players count

 $280,512       6   129
$-193,964       9   121

There are advantages and disadvantages to both 6 max and 9 max. Not surprisingly, what's an advantage to one is a disadvantage to the other. Here's my take:

main 6 max advantage:  "coolers" are less likely to happen
main 6 max disadvantage: blinds come around more frequently

main 9 max advantage: blinds come around less frequently
main 9 max disadvantage: "coolers" are more likely to happen

From a player's perspective, the ideal tournament would start out at 6 max and morph to 9 max in the final stages. That would allow players to be protected from coolers in the beginning, and would mitigate the damage the escalated blinds inflict at the end. Of course, no poker room would ever run a tournament that way :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9     4     511  108     -        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    15     249   63   125        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    61     369   96    86    26400

delta: $-33,600
MTT NLHE balance: $942,148
balance: $10,588,980

Ever better session

Last night, I played four MTT NLHEs. I had an ever better session - in each succeeding MTT, I placed higher than I had in the previous one. Unfortunately, I didn't make the money until the final tournament. I nearly had an evermore and ever better session, but missed it due to the fact that I played the same number of hands in tournaments two and three. The most memorable thing about the session was that at one point I had two chop pots in a row; I'm pretty sure that's never happened to me before.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    16     454  114   257        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    38     634  135   153        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    38     381   96   107        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    66     531  108    39    32400 

delta: $-47,600
MTT NLHE balance: $975,748
balance: $10,622,580

My first MTT NLHE play million

Last night, I achieved my latest poker milestone - my MTT NLHE balance topped the one million play dollar mark for the first time. There were three other memorable things about last night's session:

1. in 267 hands, I was dealt pocket rockets four times, which is 3.31 times the expected frequency
2. I had a straight flush on one of the hands
3. in the final tournament I played, I fell in four times, and miraculously survived the first three

I'm now just $30,184 in the hole on the year. Things are looking up :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    80     420   96    59    48500
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    56     403   96   112        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9     8     601  126   277        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6   123     320   84     7   151200

delta: $119,700
MTT NLHE balance: $1,023,348
balance: $10,670,180

Doppeltourneys

I've talked before about doppelsessions; tonight I want to talk about doppeltourneys. Last night, I played two MTT NLHEs, and they were so similar to each other that they inspired me to come up with the new term. In each, I had a chance to ladder up into the really big money, but it wasn't meant to be. That's okay though; as long as I keep making the money in these MTTs at my current pace (which is better than 50% of the time), I'm going to be just fine :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    51     751  153    55    33400
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    57     646  135    73    24500

delta: $17,900
MTT NLHE balance: $903,648
balance: $10,550,480

Massives no more

It appears massives have gone extinct from PokerStars. As a reminder, that's my nickname for $1,000 BI+EF MTT NLHEs, named so due to the massive fields they attract. The smallest stake MTT NLHEs I can currently find on PokerStars have a BI+EF of $20,000. Even though I never made much money playing massives, they gave me a lot of MTT experience for a cheap price, and I'm grateful for that.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    17     732  153   291        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    78     592  126    59    27300

delta: $-12,700
MTT NLHE balance: $885,748
balance: $10,532,580

Dancing with the one who brung me

Every so often, I like to take stock of my poker life. This can't be too often, since I want to be able to identify trends. The most basic thing to look at is where you're making money and where you're losing money. Here's a summary of my 2016 poker year to date:

    delta  num_hands  count  style       flavor

 $894,396      7,751    168  MTT         No Limit Hold'em
  $29,400      2,403     26  Sit & Go    8-Game
  $-5,000         30      1  MTT         HORSE
 $-10,000        474     23  Spin & Go   No Limit Hold'em
 $-15,000         27      3  MTT         Limit Triple Draw 2-7 Lowball
 $-28,670      6,631    111  MTT         8-Game
$-152,314      1,775     77  KO poker    No Limit Hold'em
$-214,436      3,632     37  Cash game   No Limit Hold'em
$-653,460     24,509    535  Sit & Go    No Limit Hold'em

$-155,084     47,232    981

For the remainder of the year, I'm going to dance with the one who brung me - namely, MTT NLHE. I need to swear off MTT 8-games for the time being, no matter how fun they are to play. I'm deadly serious about ending my 2016 poker year in the black.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    12     743  153   267        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    41      85   18    27        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    11     669  135   313        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    87      52   12    10    58000
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    59      63   12    24        0

delta: $-132,000
MTT NLHE balance: $898,448
balance: $10,545,280

Money jumps

The title of this post is deliberately ambiguous. Is "jumps" a plural noun, or a verb? Actually it's both :-) The way all MTT payouts are structured, the gaps between the payout levels dramatically increase as you head from the bottom to the top; moreover, the number of paid places at each payout level decreases, until you reach the final table, where just one place is paid per level. Therefore, the higher up the ladder you go, the bigger the money jumps (a plural noun here) get. Also, the more the money jumps (a verb here) around from stack to stack.

It's certainly a thrill when you make it through the lower levels of a tournament and reach the really significant money jumps. It almost feels like cheating! Not only are you getting paid ridiculously more money for getting to the next level, it's easier to get there as well, since not as many players have to be eliminated in order to achieve that.

Last night, in the second MTT NLHE I entered, I got under the lights again. When the final table started, I had the fourth largest chip stack of the six players. Things went according to form, and I finished in fourth. I've now won $934,396 playing MTT NLHE this year. I'm going to try to push it over a million tonight :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    34     636  135   286        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6   185     447  114     4   289400

delta: $249,400
MTT NLHE balance: $938,448
balance: $10,677,280

Recent memorable poker happenings

Since I can't find anything particularly interesting to write about last night's session, I've decided to write about some interesting recent events that have happened to me on the virtual felt.

1. in a deuce hand during an MTT 8-game, I was dealt a #1, declined to bet it at first, and bet it heavily at the end. I ended up chopping the pot with someone who'd made another #1 on his third draw. I think that's the first time I've ever seen that.

2. I bubbled an MTT NLHE where the number of places paid was over 100.

3. I somehow made the money in an MTT NLHE when I hit the felt before the money bubble had burst. The only way I think this is possible is that I had better tie breaks than some of the others who hit the felt at the same time.

I'm looking forward to playing more MTTs tonight :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    18      35    9     -        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    30     546  117   130        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    28     365   96    87    26100
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    16       ?    ?   123        0

delta: $-83,900
MTT NLHE balance: $689,048
balance: $10,427,880

Gold from dross

I've found that it's beneficial to play more than one MTT at a time, since the shorter the time there is for me to make decisions, in general the better the decisions I make :-) Last night, I played four MTTs - two pairs of two. I made the money in both tournaments of the second pair. One was an MTT NLHE and the other was an MTT 8-game. I didn't have the patience to wait until my usual point for joining the MTT 8-game, which is about 8-10 minutes before the end of the late registration period. When my stack went on life support with about 19 minutes left in the late registration period, I was cursing my impatience. I mentally wrote off that MTT; I "knew" I had no chance of making the money. Even though I'd written it off, however, I kept playing it to the best of my ability. One consolation was that I was doing much better in the other tournament of the pair. Lo and behold, my fortunes turned around, and I ended up turning dross into gold. I got under the lights, and ended up in fourth. I'm proud to say that my career UTL (under the lights) percentage for MTT 8-games is now 12.06 (24 for 199). I'm renewing my pledge to play only MTTs for the rest of the year.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    25     637  135   136        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    56      49    9    14        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    91     589  126    22    43700
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   126      60   12     4   256000

delta: $159,700
MTT 8-game balance: $317,170
balance: $10,511,780

The fractal nature of impatience

Impatience is the enemy of good poker. There are many ways to be impatient, and none of them bode well. Impatience has a fractal nature; when you're impatient, you tend to be so on a large scale, on a small scale, and everywhere in between. Last night, I was not actually impatient in my play, but I was impatient in my table selection, which was just as bad. I ignored my recently stated goal of avoiding $50,000 BI+EF MTT NLHEs. I didn't willfully ignore it, I just plain forgot about it. I wanted to join MTT NLHEs which were nearing the end of their late registration periods, so I dipped into the $50,000 region without thinking twice. That was my first table selection mistake. The second one was to join one of them too late in the registration period to have a realistic chance of making the money. Tonight, I'm promising myself that I won't play a single $50,000 MTT NLHE :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000  6000       9    17     133   27    62        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    21     411   96   169        0
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9     3      77   18     0        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    51      48    9    26        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       9    15     121   36    83        0

delta: $-220,000
MTT NLHE balance: $719,248
balance: $10,352,080

The perils of profit-taking

Poker rewards intuition, yet many poker truths are counter-intuitive. I've just run up against another such truth. Last night, I joined a cash game table which had a maximum starting stack amount of $200,000, and bought in for the max. On the very first hand, I won a pot worth $105,850, $52,930 of which was o.p.m. (other people's money). Eventually, that profit all melted away, and when I left the table after playing 121 hands, I was $46,140 in the hole. This got me to thinking. I formulated the hypothesis that if I somehow had the discipline to quit all cash games after making at least 25% of my starting stack amount in profit, I'd come out way ahead. Tonight I wrote a utility to test out this theory, and it's dead wrong. If I'd followed this strategy in my cash game career, I would have won $705,437 less than I actually have done. That's good to know :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 121 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 14 times while in big blind (57%)
 - 4 out of 15 times while in small blind (26%)
 - 27 out of 92 times in other positions (29%)
 - a total of 39 out of 121 (32%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 10 (60%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9     2      82   18     -        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    31     308   81    93        0
MTT   NLHE     8700  1300       9    18     750  153   272        0

delta: $-126,140
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,698,087
balance: $10,572,080

Under the lights

On Friday night, I got under the lights again. It's a great feeling :-) You need both skill and luck to get there. When you're running good, you feel invincible; it doesn't matter how small your stack is. Playing poker is like riding a train over tracks which either appear just before you're about to get to them, or fail to appear. In the latter case, of course, you derail; in the former, your train keeps blithely chugging away, making further progress across the countryside. Playing poker when you're running good is this same scenario, with the addition of your strong belief that the tracks will never fail to appear :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    37      42    9    15        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9   115     327   81     6   161000

delta: $91,000
MTT NLHE balance: $969,248
balance: $10,698,220

From honeymoon to trial separation

The bloom is off the rose. My honeymoon period with KOs is now officially over. So over, in fact, that we're now in a trial separation :-) It was bound to happen, given that I was focusing on KOs so compulsively (not to say obsessively). Any activity done to excess is bound to pall. Right now, I have a hankering for 8-game, so that's the poker flavor I'll focus on tonight.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     4     6        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     9     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    14     5        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     3     8        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    45     2    11475
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    12     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    17     4     4250
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    14     1    44625
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    19     3     7650
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    30     3    11900

delta: $-20,100
KO no limit hold'em balance: $-152,314
balance: $10,607,220

Four bubbles

As you may have inferred, I'm really enjoying playing KOs. You could say KOs and I are in our honeymoon period :-) One of the things I like about them is that they're quick. Another is that even so, there's room for patience, and patience pays in poker. When I was enamored of sit and gos, it always felt like six was the right number to play per session. With KOs, the right number feels like ten. I played ten again last night, bubbling four of them. Not surprisingly, given the number of near misses, the session was a losing one, but I feel fine about it since I was playing good poker.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    33     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    26     1    40375
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    26     3     7650
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    24     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    53     2    19975
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    20     3    11900
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    10     5        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    20     3     7650
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    20     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    16     4        0

delta: $-12,450
KO no limit hold'em balance: $-132,214
balance: $10,627,320

Heads up marathon

Last night, I played 10 KOs, as I had the night before. I've now played 57 of them; the average length is 23.86 hands. That's why I claim that I had a heads up marathon in the eighth KO I played last night. 28 of the 42 hands I played were heads up. Considering that I started heads up play with just 899 chips to my opponent's 3601, I think I did very well; in the end, I came up short. A highly unusual feature of this second place finish is that I had no bounties. That's the first time that's happened to me.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    43     2    19975
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    19     3     7650
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     9     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    13     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    26     1    31875
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    19     3     7650
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    10     5        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    42     2    15725
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    40     2    11475
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    25     3    11900

delta: $6,250
KO no limit hold'em balance: $-119,764
balance: $10,639,770

The beauty of bounties

Even though I've only played 47 KOs in my career so far, I'm catching on to the beauty of bounties :-) The true beauty of bounties is not actually in collecting them, though that's a nice side benefit; the true beauty is that they attract a lower caliber of player to the table. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the ugly truth of successful poker is that the profit derives from playing against players who aren't as good as you. The more poor players there are at a table, the better the odds for the players who are marginally better.

Since I started playing KOs again, two sessions ago, I've made the money in 14 of the 20 I've played. My career making the money percentage is now 57.45 (27 of 47).

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    28     2    19975
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    26     3    16150
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    27     1    36125
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    26     2    19975
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     6     5        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    14     7        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    23     2    11475
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    39     1    27625
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    24     3     7650
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    27     3     7650

delta: $46,625
KO no limit hold'em balance: $-126,014
balance: $10,633,520

Another sweet spot

Last night, since I knew I would be watching the presidential debate, but wanted to play some poker beforehand, I chose to play some KO. The reasoning was simple - KOs don't last long. I fit two of them in before the debate started; I came in fifth in the first, and first in the second. After the debate, I continued playing KO, since those two tournaments had really whetted my appetite for it. I played the lowest stakes I could find, which at the moment are $4,250+$4,250+$1,500 (buy in, bounty, and entry fee). When I first started playing KOs, I thought the lowest stakes were $26,400+$26,400+$7,200, due to a quirk in the tournament selection interface. Unlike the lower stakes in cash games, I think the lower stakes in KOs attract some pretty bad players, which is just fine by me :-) Based on my results last night, I think I may have found another poker sweet spot; only time will tell.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     5     5        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    56     1    31875
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    32     1    36125
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     1     8        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    24     1    40375
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    15     1    48875
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     5     7        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9     9     4        0
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    29     2    24225
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    72     1    44625

delta: $126,100
KO no limit hold'em balance: $-172,639
balance: $10,586,895

When is a KO not a KO?

To answer the question posed by the title of this post, a KO is not a KO when it's actually an MTT :-) I've decided to recategorize as MTTs a bunch of tournaments that I'd originally categorized as KOs. A true KO is a 9 player sit and go with a knockout format. The fact that some MTTs have a knockout format isn't enough to qualify them as KOs. I'm not going to bother to go back and edit all my old posts to change KOs to MTTs where appropriate, nor to correct old MTT NLHE balances; however, going forward, I'll make sure the categorizations and the balances are accurate.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    15     192   54    96        0
MTT   NLHE    44000  6000       9    37      86   18    12    42500

delta: $-27,500
MTT NLHE balance: $828,248
balance: $10,460,795

Lightning in a bottle

After thinking about it, I realize that my ROI comparison from two posts ago was highly suspect. The only reason the MTT NLHE ROI was so high was due to a single outlier event. Remove the outlier, and the ROI plummets from above 90% to below nine tenths of one percent. How are the mighty fallen :-)

The thing is, MTT NLHE is all about outlier events; if you remove them, you remove the soul of MTT NLHE. MTT NLHE is all about lightning in a bottle; that time when you can do no wrong, and your stack rockets to the top :-)

I'm going to stick by my guns, and continue to play MTT NLHE for the remainder of the year. It's by far the most satisfying poker style/flavor combo I've ever encountered; I'm already looking forward to my next outlier event.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    25     299   72   138        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    90     234   63    11    71000

delta: $31,000
MTT NLHE balance: $863,468
balance: $10,488,295

Sweet spot

Friends and neighbors, I think I've found my poker sweet spot. It's MTT NLHE with a BI+EF of $20,000. So far I've only played 12 of these tournaments, so the jury's still out, but the early returns are promising. I've made the money in 8 of them, including all three I played last night. You can bet I'll be returning to them tonight :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    51     431  117    62    47000
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    71     395   99    45    58000
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    58     307   81    50    44000

delta: $89,000
MTT NLHE balance: $832,468
balance: $10,457,295

A simple ROI comparison

If I ever needed any more reasons to stay away from sit and go no limit hold'em, I just found another. I decided to do a simple ROI comparison between SNG NLHE and MTT NLHE. The results couldn't be more conclusive:

SNG NLHE ROI:  2.46%
MTT NLHE ROI: 91.22%

I'm going to make it my new goal to play only MTT NLHEs for the rest of the year.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    37     505  135   120    29000
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    45     447  117   129        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    98     356   99    13    76000

delta: $45,000
MTT NLHE balance: $743,468
balance: $10,368,295

Staying the course

One of the hardest things to do in poker is to stick with a plan when things aren't going well. Of course, things not going well could be a sign that it's not a good plan :-) However, that's not a given. I stopped playing sit and go no limit hold'em since it was a bad plan to be playing them, even though I like playing them a lot. I saw that PokerStars was likely to keep increasing their entry fees, beyond even the gouging territory where they'd gotten to. Last night, I proved myself correct by falling off the wagon, and playing two SNG NLHEs at the end of a long (and frustrating) losing session. The last time I'd played a $50,000 BI+EF sit and go, the entry fee had been a whopping 12%. Now, it's at an unconscionable 15%. Who knows what they'll charge next; I hope I never find out :-)

The plan I'm finding it hard to stick to right now is playing higher buy-in MTTs. In the last two sessions, I've lost close to half a million play dollars with this plan. I guess I need to tweak it a bit. My amended plan is to play the $20,000 BI+EF MTTs, but not the $50,000 ones. We'll see how I do.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9    28     141   36    30    46000
SNG   8-Game  17000  3000       6    28       6    2     6        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    14      89   21    56        0
SNG   8-Game  17000  3000       6    34       6    2     5        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6     8     404   96   261        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    28      64   22    23        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    41     513  135   133    29000
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    11     338   81   213        0
SNG   NLHE    42500  7500       6    46       6    2     3        0
SNG   NLHE    42500  7500       6    25       6    2     5        0

delta: $-275,000
MTT NLHE balance: $698,468
balance: $10,323,295

A sorely missed datum

MTTs have become my favorite style of poker. Unfortunately, the PokerStars software doesn't save what I consider to be a vital MTT datum - the number of players who are still in the tournament at the start of a hand. Without this, there's no way to do a post-mortem evaluation to see if I was modulating my decisions appropriately at crucial times. When it's bubble time, you almost never want to bet or raise, and very rarely want to call. Last night, I seem to remember being too frisky at bubble time in one of the tournaments, but there's no good way to tell.

Even though I came out a big loser last night profit-wise, I think I was making good decisions; that's really all you can ask of yourself.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    21      71   18    30        0
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9    17     120   27     -        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    84      65   12    12    73000
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9     5     133   27    48        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    45      59   12    17        0

delta: $-177,000
MTT 8-game balance: $311,170
balance: $10,598,295

Back in the black

Last night, thanks to another final table appearance, I brought my 2016 balance back into the black. The last time it was there was on July 21st. I'm hoping to keep it there :-) One thing I won't do is sit out for the remainder of the year; I'm going to play out the string. If 2016 is to be my first poker year in the red, after seven straight years in the black, so be it.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    13     118   30    59        0
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9    19     117   27     -        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   146      52   12     4   239000

delta: $89,000
MTT 8-game balance: $388,170
balance: $10,775,295

Upside potentials

Having recently made such a big score in an MTT NLHE, I'm rethinking my evaluation of the upside potentials of the various poker style/flavor/buy in combos. I think it would be foolish of me not to devote more of my poker time to bigger buy in MTTs. I made a mistake when I lavished so much attention on what I call massives, since their first place payouts are generally so meager. When I join an MTT now, ideally I want to see a first place payout exceeding half a million play dollars. I've proven to myself that I can get to the final tables, so they should have something worth winning when I do :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    20     330   81    95        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   150      58   12     8    97000

delta: $27,000
MTT NLHE balance: $983,468
balance: $10,686,295

However improbable

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

Sherlock Holmes (to Dr. Watson)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Sign of the Four"

There's something amiss with my overall PokerStars balance. For some unknown reason, I have 50,000 more play dollars than I should have. I first noticed this two sessions ago. It's as if PokerStars forgave me the buy in plus entry fee for a $50,000 tournament, all unbeknownst to me. I've been worrying over this problem ever since I became aware of it. I think I have the solution now, and I owe it all to Sherlock Holmes :-) The PokerStars software forbids players from transferring funds from other players to themselves; however, as far as I can determine, it doesn't forbid gifts from one player to another. The only logical explanation I can come up with for my $50,000 windfall is that for altruistic reasons I can't immediately fathom, the player I came in second to in the MTT NLHE I played on Thursday night sent this money my way after he won the tournament. I've decided to accept this gift, and to silently thank my benefactor for his largesse :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 24 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 3 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 3 out of 4 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 9 out of 17 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 14 out of 24 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 6 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    45      65   12     0        0
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    70     128   36    24    36000
MTT   NLHE    18000  2000       9    83     285   72    16    64000

delta: $141,190
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,744,227
balance: $10,659,295