The kind of streak I like

On Saturday night, for a personal best 12th straight MTT-R NLHE, I abstained from adding on. As long as I remain disciplined, this streak will never end. That's just the kind of streak I like :-) The reason I haven't played since then is that I came down with a case of food poisoning. I'm feeling much better now; poker, here I come!

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    55      72   15    22        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $38,780,500
2019 balance: $4,776,750
balance: $51,361,010

Final table half century

A half century, aka a tournament where you last at least 50 hands, is a good thing. A final table half century, aka a tournament where you last at least 50 hands after making the final table, is a superb thing. That's what I achieved last night. One of the secrets to lasting a long time after making the final table is to fold early and often :-) I started the final table in ninth (i.e. last) place, and laddered up five spots. The reason I was able to ladder up that many spots is that other players kept hitting the rail while I bided my time.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   161     105   27     4  2219000

delta: $2,119,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $38,980,500
2019 balance: $4,976,750
balance: $51,561,010

You were never shovelier

Realistically speaking, you can't win a tournament without going all in, but you also can't win a tournament by going all in too frequently. There's a happy medium, and it's up to you to find it. In Wednesday's final tournament, I went all in nine times, and came out on top the first eight. Interestingly, none of those all ins were fall ins; I consciously chose to shove all my chips in the middle each time.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    36      72   15    57        0
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9    10      95   27     -        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   144      56   12     5   913000

delta: $663,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $36,861,500
2019 balance: $2,857,750
balance: $49,442,010

Near-perfect rebound

Last night, I had a nice rebound from the night before. I won back all that I'd lost, plus an extra two grand. My sense of the probable tells me that this might have been the closest I've ever come to a perfect rebound. On the final hand of the night, I was dealt a big slick, got all my chips in the middle, and hit the rail. My consolation for this slickout was that I'd already made the money :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    58      77   18    16   402000

delta: $202,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $36,148,500
2019 balance: $2,194,750
balance: $48,779,010

Frozen out

After experiencing poker interruptus in a variety of different ways, I thought I'd covered the waterfront. Last night, I found out I was wrong. For the first time, I experienced what I'm calling a freeze out. The PokerStars site itself seemed to be the problem, not my internet connection. In the crucial late stages of the tournament I was playing, the site froze up on me and I couldn't successfully reconnect from that point on, despite the fact that I was still able to surf the web. I imagine other players may have experienced the same problem. The only fair thing to do in this circumstance is to throw the whole tournament out, as if it never happened. Unfortunately, that wasn't done in this case :-(

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    52      57   12    26        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $35,946,500
2019 balance: $1,992,750
balance: $48,577,010

yapb

Last night, I achieved yapb - yet another personal borscht. I recorded my smallest positive aggregate ROI for MTT-R NLHEs played in a single session. I played two of these tournaments, wagering a total of $300,000, and winning a total of $306,000. That meant my aggregate ROI was a minuscule 2%. As a point of comparison, my largest aggregate ROI for MTT-R NLHEs played in a single session is 4,048% :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    36      62   15    25        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    75      46   12     8   306000

delta: $6,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $36,146,500
2019 balance: $2,192,750
balance: $48,777,010

The entry fee problem

Last night, I played KO NLHE well, but not well enough to make a profit. I ran into a problem I've run into before, when I played sit and gos. I call it the entry fee problem. Briefly stated, it's that there are certain poker style and flavor combinations where the entry fee makes it impossible to make a profit over the long run. SNG NLHE is one such combination, and KO NLHE is another. The entry fee is a double dip, since it not only takes your money on the front end, but on the back end as well, since it reduces the size of the prize pool. It's financial madness to play combinations which have the entry fee problem, so I must regretfully give up KO NLHE. To illustrate my point, if there were no entry fee, I would have made a profit of $7,500 last night, instead of losing $23,625. This reminds me of a great quotation from "David Copperfield":

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9     9       9    3     4        0
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    22       9    3     3    38250
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    16       9    3     3    38250
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    50       9    3     2    99875

delta: $-23,625
KO NLHE balance: $-234,064
2019 balance: $2,186,750
balance: $48,771,010

A rare KO outcome

It's not possible to place first in a KO NLHE tournament without winning at least two bounties; one will be your own, and the other will be that of the player who finished in second. It's a rare KO outcome to place first and only win those two guaranteed bounties, but it's certainly possible. That's what happened to me in the first KO NLHE I played last night. As it turned out, the second place player knocked out all the other seven players, so he ended up making more money than I did. I just checked the archives, and found that I've never knocked out seven players and finished in second, so I'm guessing that's an ever rarer outcome.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    33       9    3     1   138125
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    65      64   12    32        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    57      63   15    27        0
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    20       9    3     4        0
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    22       9    3     2   142375

delta: $-19,500
KO NLHE balance: $-210,439
2019 balance: $2,210,375
balance: $48,794,635

Two new long-term goals

Some poker style and flavor combinations are really fun to play, even if you can't make a lot of money playing them. I've loved MTT 8-game ever since I started playing it, and have an on-again, off-again infatuation with KO NLHE. The latter is the style and flavor combination where I've lost the most play money in my career, but the fun factor makes it worth it. I have two new long-term goals:

1. get my MTT 8-game profit over a million play dollars
2. keep my KO NLHE loss under a million play dollars

The first should be easier to achieve than the second :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9     6      66   15    54        0
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    24       9    3     4        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   166      53   12     8    89000
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    67       9    3     1   180625
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    20       9    3     5        0
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9     6       9    3     6        0
KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    14       9    3     4        0

delta: $-130,375
KO NLHE balance: $-340,939
2019 balance: $2,229,875
balance: $48,814,135

Divided attention

Divided attention is bad for most pursuits, but turns out to be just fine for poker. Indeed, more than just fine - actively good. Last night, I played two tournaments simultaneously, and made the money in both. I've noted before that I seem to play better when I'm double tabling. I've come up with some theories about why this might be so. One of the simplest is that it's good not to spend too long on poker decisions, and you're forced not to spend too long on them when you have twice as many to make :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    85      64   12     8   108000
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    91      72   15    12   433000

delta: $391,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $36,340,500
2019 balance: $2,360,250
balance: $48,944,510

The golden ratio is obsolete

For many years, I was obsessed with the concept of a poker golden ratio. I originally came up with it while playing cash games, and soon saw that the golden ratio for cash games was 2. That is, if you can achieve twice as many winning sessions as losing ones, you'll essentially be printing money. I soured on cash games over two years ago, and have since played tournaments exclusively. For tournaments, there is no golden ratio; you can bat well below .500 and still make a killing. That's just the way I like it :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6     8      59   12    43        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    29      51   12    37        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   121      61   12    11    68000

delta: $-232,000
MTT 8-game balance: $381,170
2019 balance: $1,969,250
balance: $48,553,510

The simple truth about adding on

Poker is full of truths, and many of them are simple. The funny thing about simple truths is that they're so hard to believe :-) The simple truth about adding on in rebuy tournaments is that you should never do it. Period, the end. My aggregrate profit in the 340 MTT-R NLHEs where I abstained from adding on is $44,780,500. My aggregate loss in the 424 where I added on is $-8,573,000. I've never looked at these particular numbers before, and they sure are eye-opening. Let's see if I can teach myself never ever to add on :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   171      59   12     3   371000
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    44      65   15    47        0

delta: $21,000
MTT 8-game balance: $413,170
2019 balance: $2,201,250
balance: $48,785,510

Dubious top three

Looking at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of the MTT-R NLHE I played last night, one hand sticks out like a sore thumb. On hand 59, I lost 17,550 chips, which was 62% of my stack. I knew that had to be near the top of the list of the most chips lost on a single hand in an MTT-R NLHE where I failed to make the money. I just checked the archives; it clocked in at number three. Had I won that hand, I have no doubt that I would have made the money.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    52      58   12    21        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    76      59   12    15        0

delta: $-150,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $36,507,500
2019 balance: $2,180,250
balance: $48,764,510

A perfect river bet

The most memorable hand of Friday night's session featured a perfect river bet. Unfortunately, I was the player who called the bet, not the player who made it. With a holding of Ac Jc, and a board of Jd Tc 3c 5d 4d, the one opponent who was still in the hand with me bet 6000 chips on the river, into a pot of 136,200. I was getting huge pot odds, so of course I called. My opponent turned over pocket kings, and I lost over three quarters of my stack in a New York minute. Luckily for me, I'd already made the final table, so I still ended up with a good profit.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    54      85   18    31        0
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    44      90   18    45        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   105      63   15     6   769000
MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    27      72   18    42        0

delta: $269,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $36,607,500
2019 balance: $2,330,250
balance: $48,914,510

Ivory pure session

Last night, I had a top 20 session. When you've played thousands of sessions, making the top 20 is a pretty big deal. To figure out how big this was, I decided to calculate the percentile of the session. As the 15th best of 2,713 sessions, it clocks in at the 99.44th percentile. In other words, a session as pure as Ivory soap :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    38      79   18    32        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9   159      75   15     3  2431000

delta: $2,181,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $36,238,500
2019 balance: $2,061,250
balance: $48,645,510

A burst of big goodbyes

A big goodbye is what I call it when you exit a tournament with your largest absolute value hand delta. I had a big goodbye in the MTT-R NLHE I played last night. My lifetime percentage of big goodbyes in MTT-R NLHE is currently 23.75. However, lately I've been experiencing them at more than double that rate - 5 of my last 9. What made last night's somewhat unusual is that it occurred quite close to the money.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    34      68   18    48        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    78      56   12    15        0

delta: $-400,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $34,057,500
2019 balance: $-119,750
balance: $46,464,510

Phantom rockets

My best hand in last night's session was pocket rockets ... except that it wasn't :-) My memory played a trick on me. My best hand was actually pocket tens. I hit a set on the flop, got all my chips in the middle, and more than doubled up. I suspect the reason I remembered this hand as rockets is that rockets are essentially a proxy for an unbeatable hand. My set of tens was virtually unbeatable, so my holding morphed, in my memory, to rockets :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    55      59   12    24        0

delta: $-100,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $34,407,500
2019 balance: $280,250
balance: $46,864,510

The one that got away

The most memorable hand of last night's session was the one that got away. It was a deuce hand in an 8-game tournament. I drew three times, and ended up with an 8 7 6 5 2 low. I lost to an opponent who stood pat after two draws with an 8 7 6 4 2 low. More than half my stack vanished. You don't often see a deuce showdown go to the fourth card to determine who won. I would likely have made the money had I won that hand. C'est la guerre :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    26      54   12    24        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       9    43     162   45    72        0

delta: $-100,000
MTT NLHE balance: $2,494,668
2019 balance: $380,250
balance: $46,964,510

Quiet quads

The most memorable hand of Friday night's session was one where I made quad sevens on the river and didn't bet them. I decided to take this passive stance since I'd been quiet all hand long, and figured if I bet on the river I'd never get a call. The way I played it, I gave my opponent the opportunity to try to bluff me, in which case I would have check raised him. Unfortunately, he didn't bite.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6   143      54   12     6   127000
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    41      80   18    52        0

delta: $-173,000
MTT 8-game balance: $297,170
2019 balance: $480,250
balance: $47,064,510

Under the lights

I find it hard to stay away from MTT-R NLHEs for long, even though the tactics of some of the players irk me. The money up top is just too good. I got under the lights in an MTT-R NLHE again last night, and was the beneficiary of a nice money jump when one of my opponents inexplicably went all in preflop with T4o (ten four offsuit), got called by someone who had him covered, and hit the rail. Even though it's no fun to have fish at your table in the late registration period of a rebuy tournament, it's always a boon to have them at the final table :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game  45000  5000       6    78      61   12    10    68000
MTT-B NLHE    44000  6000       9    11     104   27    71        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    98      53   12     8   450000

delta: $168,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $34,757,500
2019 balance: $653,250
balance: $47,237,510

The one and lonely flop

Personal firsts are like prime numbers; they get fewer and further between, but they never run out :-) Last night, I had a personal first for an MTT-R NHLE. It was probably also a personal first for any kind of tournament, period. I only saw a single flop in 32 hands. By definition it was on the last hand. It was the only hand where I'd been dealt a pocket pair. It was only pocket fours, but still, a pair is a pair :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       9    63     228   63    78        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    32      65   15    39        0

delta: $-150,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $34,557,500
2019 balance: $485,250
balance: $47,069,510