Saturday, May 30, 2020

A surprising year over year comparison

Last year, I played 182 MTT NLHEs. This year, I've already played 186, so it's clear I'll more than double last year's total by the end of the year. The numbers are so close at the moment, however, that they invite comparison. Last year, I made the money in 67 of the 182, for a percentage of 36.81. This year, I've made the money in 87 of the 186, for a percentage of 46.77. Did I gain 10 percentage points because I'm a better player this year? No. How, then, to account for the discrepancy? I can think of only one reason, but it's a good one. Last year, I was still playing rebuy tournaments, and this year, I'm not. Playing rebuy tournaments is deleterious to your poker health. I don't mean it's necessarily deleterious to your bottom line; what I mean is that it damages the purity of your poker decision-making apparatus. Rebuys allow you to believe that there are essentially no consequences to making bad decisions. Lose all your chips? No problem! Just rebuy. Buy ins become junk food. There would actually be no problem if all you played were rebuys. However, when you play a mix of rebuys and non-rebuys, it's impossible to keep the devil-may-care rebuy mindset out of your non-rebuy game. Luckily for me, I got to the point where I simply couldn't stomach the asinine play of many of the rebuy opponents I encountered, no matter how much play money I was able to take off them. The truth is that they weren't playing real poker, and that's all I ever want to play.

style flavor buy_in entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    87000 13000       6     111   30    13   231000


delta: $131,000
MTT NLHE balance: $13,315,668
2020 balance: $6,293,343
balance: $68,101,353

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