Funny funny money

The first time I used this blog post title was on March 19, 2015. Here's an excerpt of what I had to say:

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.

I wrote that before I ever played a bounty tournament. As it turns out, funny funny money finishes are more likely in bounty tournaments than non-bounty ones since you generally have to win at least one bounty, in addition to making the money, in order to realize a profit.

In the bounty I played last night, the lowest payout was $175,000, but the buy in was $200,000. I made the money, but didn't win any bounties, resulting in funny funny money.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000 26000       6    31      84   21    27        0
MTT-B NLHE   174000 26000       9    65     131   27    24   175000

delta: $-225,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $495,580
2019 balance: $18,860,150
balance: $65,444,410