My bounty habit

I know I shouldn't play bounties; I've lost more than 40 million on them. However, I play them anyway. Why? Several reasons:

1. they're fun to play

2. when I've hit the rail in a Valueraptor, and still want to play poker, bounties are commonly what's on offer

3. I make enough money on Valueraptors to subsidize my bounty habit :-)

This is an excerpt from my August 5 post. I'll add another reason:

4. when I've missed the midnight train Valueraptor due to playing online chess, I still need to get my poker fix :-)

That's what happened to me last night. For the first time in a long time, I bagged a bounty but missed the money.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     336   47    98    220000

delta: $-780,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $-40,961,820
2022 balance: $202,472,000
blue distance: $154,515,000
balance: $297,315,953

Tournaments: 2; re-entries: 0; money finishes: 2

Lately, I've been re-entering tournaments frequently, and making the money rarely. That's a recipe for disaster. Last night, I turned things around, with no re-entries and two money finishes in two tournaments. Here's hoping this is the start of a hot streak :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     135   23    21   7670000
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     141   23     5  41870000

delta: $39,540,000
MTT NLHE balance: $284,161,468
2022 balance: $203,252,000
blue distance: $153,735,000
balance: $298,095,953

Two wagering milestones

Last night, I hit two wagering milestones:

1. I wagered the most I ever have on a single tournament - $25,000,000

2. for the first time in my career, my extrapolated total wagered for a poker year topped one billion play dollars

It truly is the year of living wagerously :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     137   23    26         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     141   23    17   9420000

delta: $-20,580,000
MTT NLHE balance: $244,621,468
2022 balance: $163,712,000
blue distance: $193,275,000
balance: $258,555,953

New personal worst

The longer you've played poker, the harder it gets to set either a new personal best or a new personal worst. I've mentioned before that I get almost as much of a thrill from setting a personal worst as I do from setting a personal best. That may seem strange, but it's the truth. I love setting records of any kind :-)

This is an excerpt from my April 9, 2015 post. My new personal worst: the most money I've lost in a single session. I lost $22,320,000 last night, besting my previous record of $21,700,000, set on June 29th. For the sixth session in a row, I set a new all-time blue distance. I swear I haven't been playing badly; I'm just in a massive downswing.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     148   23    67         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      72   11    25         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     250   34    29   2680000

delta: $-22,320,000
MTT NLHE balance: $265,201,468
2022 balance: $184,292,000
blue distance: $172,695,000
balance: $279,135,953

Uberflushed

An uberflush is what I call it when two players were both dealt two cards of the same suit, and three cards of that suit show up in the community cards. That means both players have hit their flush, neither will fold, and one will be in for a world of hurt. When you're on the wrong end of an uberflush, that's what I call being uberflushed. Last night, I was uberflushed early on, and hit the rail a short time later. I re-entered, and lasted much longer on my second bullet, but still missed the money by a country mile.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     113   17    36        0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $285,201,468
2022 balance: $206,612,000
blue distance: $150,375,000
balance: $301,455,953

Poxit near the bubble

Last night, I hit the rail early, and re-entered. I was making great headway on my second bullet, and nearing the money bubble, when a situation arose where I had to decide whether I could be content with a min cash. If so, I knew I'd very probably be able to fold my way into the money. If not, it was mandatory to get all my chips into the middle. I'd been dealt pocket tens, and chose the latter course. I was a favorite all the way through the turn, but the river did me in. No regrets :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     131   20    24         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $295,201,468
2022 balance: $216,612,000
blue distance: $140,375,000
balance: $311,455,953

Due for a deep run

I've missed the money in the last four tournaments, and feel like I'm due for a deep run. Time to make a killing :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     105   17    24         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $305,201,468
2022 balance: $226,612,000
blue distance: $130,375,000
balance: $321,455,953

The argument for re-entering a tournament

On Friday night, I hit the rail early on and re-entered the tournament. There are multiple reasons why it makes sense to re-enter:

1. you're betting on yourself, which not only shows confidence but even instills it

2. you're frequently re-starting in a better position than you had the first time around

3. having hit the rail once, you're almost guaranteed to play more cautiously than before

4. the payouts will certainly be larger than they were before

5. if you reach the final table, your extra buy-in will essentially be a rounding error

For the record, the biggest profit of my career came from a tournament I re-entered.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     124   20    26         0

?delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $310,201,468
2022 balance: $231,612,000
blue distance: $125,375,000
balance: $326,455,953

Wombat vs. Valueraptor

My current favorite tournament on PokerStars is called "The Valueraptor 5M, 250M Chips GTD". There's another tournament I also like which is called "The Wild Wombat 5M, 250M Chips GTD". The only difference that I can detect between them is that the Valueraptor has a 1 hour and 4 minutes late registration period, whereas the Wild Wombat has a 1 hour and 54 minutes late registration period. It may be that their pay structures differ slightly; I'll have to look into that at some point. The longer a tournament's late registration period, the more important it is to join it very late, in my opinion. Last night, I played both of these types of tournament, and narrowly missed making the money in the Wild Wombat.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      96   15    36         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     108   17    21         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $320,201,468
2022 balance: $241,612,000
blue distance: $115,375,000
balance: $336,455,953

A perfect min cash

Perfection is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in any pursuit, and poker is no exception. For poker perfection in a positive context, the clearest (and perhaps only) example is the scenario where you win 100% of the hands where you go to showdown. For poker perfection in a negative context, the clearest example is the scenario where you fail to win a single hand before hitting the rail. For poker perfection in a borscht context, an excellent example is a perfect min cash. This is the scenario where you make the money with a severely short stack, fall in on the first hand after the money bubble bursts, and hit the rail on that very hand. That's what happened to me on Tuesday night, and it was kind of fun :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     118   20    20   7730000

delta: $2,730,000
MTT NLHE balance: $330,201,468
2022 balance: $251,612,000
blue distance: $105,375,000
balance: $346,455,953

Two memorable hands

Whenever I have two memorable hands in a session, odds are that one of them was my final hand of the night, and I hit the rail with it. That was the case again last night. On the first memorable hand, I was dealt a pair of nines, and hit quad nines on the flop. I merely had to call bets from that point on, ultimately getting all in. That huge pot shot me up the leaderboard, and I had high hopes of making the money. On the second memorable hand, I was dealt a big slick, and faced a preflop bet which would put me all in if I called. I'll put all my chips in the middle in that scenario every day of the week, and twice on Sundays :-) Unfortunately, my opponent turned over pocket jacks, and they held up.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     114   17    32         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $327,471,468
2022 balance: $248,882,000
blue distance: $108,105,000
balance: $343,725,953

Stopping the bitch

Last night, I stopped the bitch, registering a profitable session after three straight losing ones. I'd been hoping for a really big score, but had to settle for a modest one. I made the first money jump up from a min cash. On my final hand, I flopped top pair, but a second three showed up in the community cards on the turn. I just didn't believe that someone with a three in their hand would have called my half pot bet on the flop, but that didn't make it any less true :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     146   23    16   9750000

delta: $4,750,000
MTT NLHE balance: $332,471,468
2022 balance: $253,882,000
blue distance: $103,105,000
balance: $348,725,953

Run over by a wheel

I think I'm due for some big bucks. I've been playing well, but just missing the money. Last night, my second tournament came to a screeching halt when I was run over by a wheel. I'd been dealt pocket queens, shoved, and got one caller. One of his hole cards was an ace; I forget what the other one was. I needed to fade an ace, and managed to do that. Unfortunately, the river gave my opponent a five high straight (aka a wheel), and I was left flattened on the highway.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     118   20    23         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      58    9    12         0

delta: $-15,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $327,721,468
2022 balance: $249,132,000
blue distance: $107,855,000
balance: $343,975,953

A different zip code

It took me 13 years, and 3,622 poker sessions, to amass just under 95 million play dollars. That brought me to the beginning of this poker year. In the last 18 sessions, I've lost just under 93 million play dollars. Should I be worried? Somewhat surprisingly, the answer is no. How can this be? It's because I'm in a different poker zip code now. I routinely wager 10 million play dollars a session. I'm still more profitable this year than all the other years combined. I have a legitimate shot at winning a billion play dollars this year, and making a profit of half a billion. If that means recurring 100 million play dollar blue distances along the way, so be it :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     129   20    28         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $342,721,468
2022 balance: $264,132,000
blue distance: $92,855,000
balance: $358,975,953

A more realistic goal

Last month, I announced an audacious goal - to make a profit of one billion play dollars this year. I'm going to dial that back, and aim for a more realistic goal - namely, to win one billion play dollars this year. Winnings don't have the buy ins and re-entries deducted, so they're not accurate as a measure of how well you're playing, but it's still fun to rack up huge numbers :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     140   23    19   7950000

delta: $-2,050,000
MTT NLHE balance: $352,721,468
2022 balance: $274,132,000
blue distance: $82,855,000
balance: $368,975,953

When a min cash isn't miniature

The higher the buy in of a tournament with a guaranteed prize pool, the higher the payouts on every rung of the payout ladder, including the bottom rung. At the stakes I'm playing tournaments at these days, I'm making more of a profit with a min cash than I used to make when I made the final table. I'll take it :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      94   15    15   8290000

delta: $3,290,000
MTT NLHE balance: $354,771,468
2022 balance: $276,182,000
blue distance: $80,805,000
balance: $371,025,953

One billion more to wager

In the first 102 sessions of this year, I wagered a total of $19,030,000. In the 103rd session alone, I wagered $20,000,000. This poker year therefore has a very clear inflection point :-) If I play every day for the rest of the year, and wager on average what I've wagered on average since the inflection point, that means I'll be wagering over a billion play dollars more than what I've already wagered this year. And that's exactly what I intend to do :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     141   23    34         0

delta: $-15,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $351,481,468
2022 balance: $272,892,000
blue distance: $84,095,000
balance: $367,735,953

The skin of my teeth

Last night, I made the money by the skin of my teeth. I survived two hands I had no right to survive. Sometimes, you need a little help like that :-)

This is an excerpt from my May 15, 2019 post. It applies equally well to last night's session. Nearing the money bubble, I was Caboose Boy, and folding every chance I got. Of course, it's impossible to fold when you fall in, and I fell in not once but twice. Mirabile dictu, I was lucky enough to win one and chop the pot on the other. That was just enough to allow me to survive until the money bubble burst.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     108   17    17   8370000

delta: $3,370,000
MTT NLHE balance: $366,481,468
2022 balance: $287,892,000
blue distance: $69,095,000
balance: $382,735,953

Swinging for the fences

It makes little sense to swing for the fences in a cash game, since there's no limit to the amount of money you could lose by doing so. It may make sense to swing for the fences in a tournament, however; the difference is that in a tournament, the most you can lose is your buy in. That may be an acceptable risk when weighed against the upside potential of reaching the huge payouts at the top of the pay table.

This is an excerpt from my November 15, 2019 post. Last night, in the first tournament I entered (a Valueraptor), I swung for the fences just after the money bubble had burst. I called all in with a flush draw, but whiffed. Since I'd fired two bullets, and only min cashed, I had a net loss on the tournament. I don't regret going for it, though.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     139   23    18   7900000
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     317   47    23   4525000

delta: $-75,000
MTT NLHE balance: $363,111,468
2022 balance: $284,522,000
blue distance: $72,465,000
balance: $379,365,953

100 tournamontys

Last night, I achieved another poker milestone. For the 100th time in my career, I made a profit of at least one million play dollars in a tournament. I hereby dub such tournaments "tournamontys" :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     158   27    60         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     255   34    12   6010000

delta: $-3,990,000
MTT NLHE balance: $365,211,468
2022 balance: $284,597,000
blue distance: $72,390,000
balance: $379,440,953

My bounty habit

I know I shouldn't play bounties; I've lost more than 40 million on them. However, I play them anyway. Why? Several reasons:

1. they're fun to play

2. when I've hit the rail in a Valueraptor, and still want to play poker, bounties are commonly what's on offer

3. I make enough money on Valueraptors to subsidize my bounty habit :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     122   20    42         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     249   34    18   3120000

delta: $-11,880,000
MTT NLHE balance: $370,211,468
2022 balance: $288,587,000
blue distance: $68,400,000
balance: $383,430,953

$6,420,000 ladder up

Laddering up is so important in tournaments. It can mean the difference between profit and loss, or between a ho-hum profit and a tidy one.

This is an excerpt from my December 27, 2018 post. Last night, I got under the lights, but was the short stack. By hook and by crook, I was able to ladder up two spots, giving me an extra $6,420,000 in profit. Ka-ching!

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     108   17     7  18650000

delta: $13,650,000
MTT NLHE balance: $380,211,468
2022 balance: $300,467,000
blue distance: $56,520,000
balance: $395,310,953

Padding my loss portfolio

I take pride in my colossal losses as well as in my colossal gains. Why? For the simple reason that the more losses I'm able to sustain without going broke, the more I prove that I'm a resilient player and will always bounce back. Last night, my blue distance broke the 70 million play dollar barrier for the very first time, and I'm still alive and kicking. What, me worry? :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      60    9    19         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $366,561,468
2022 balance: $286,817,000
blue distance: $70,170,000
balance: $381,660,953

Bad river money

There are times when it pays to bet big on the river, and there are other times when it makes no sense to bet a single chip. If you do happen to bet in those latter situations, that's what I call bad river money.

This is an excerpt from my September 13, 2013 post. On Monday night, I spent a ton of bad river money on a hand where I'd been dealt pocket queens. I failed to notice that the river card supported a straight. The only reason I didn't hit the rail was because I had more chips at the start of the hand than the opponent who hit the straight had. My stack was crippled, however, and I hit the rail shortly after. Served me right!

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     142   23    38         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $371,561,468
2022 balance: $291,817,000
blue distance: $65,170,000
balance: $386,660,953

Bad players considered harmful

Bad players, as a general rule, are good to have at your table. This is especially true in cash games. However, in tournaments, bad players can sometimes cripple your stack with their inexplicable plays.

This is an excerpt from my September 28, 2012 post. Last night, a bad player took me to the felt. I'd been dealt a pair of queens, and put in a healthy pre-flop bet. An opponent with 43o (four three offsuit) called. The flop had two threes in it. I stayed with my queens to the bitter end. I just couldn't credit that someone would have paid to see the flop when one of his cards was a three. No good player with a hand like that would ever have called my pre-flop bet. If only bad players could be banned :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     124   20    53         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $376,561,468
2022 balance: $296,817,000
blue distance: $60,170,000
balance: $391,660,953

Living to play

I live to play two games: chess and poker. I can't do without them. I need them both. They're as vital to me as breathing. Long live chess and poker!

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     151   23    31         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     315   47    82         0
MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     116   17    27         0

delta: $-21,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $386,561,468
2022 balance: $306,817,000
blue distance: $50,170,000
balance: $401,660,953

Waiting on a friend

"Waiting on a Friend" is one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs. I find it applicable to poker, one of my favorite games. A good hand is the friend all poker players wait on.

This is an excerpt from my January 27, 2021 post. Just as you must wait for good hands during a poker session, you must also wait for good sessions. Waiting is fractal in nature. The good news is, good sessions occur with greater frequency than good hands occur in any particular session. Right now, I'm waiting for another monster session, where I make a profit in the scores of millions. I can feel it coming :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     173   27    34         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     245   34    11   6540000

delta: $-3,460,000
MTT NLHE balance: $396,561,468
2022 balance: $327,817,000
blue distance: $29,170,000
balance: $422,660,953

Not my night

Sometimes, no matter what you do, it's just not your night. In the first tournament I entered, I hit the rail only a few hands in when my ace king couldn't beat an opponent's king queen. A king came on the flop, making me a massive favorite, but a queen showed up on the turn and all of a sudden I was drawing wafer thin. The river was a brick. I re-entered, and outlasted the late registration period, but missed the money. In the second tournament, my woes continued as I hit the rail and re-entered twice. I made the money, but only min cashed, which didn't cover my three buy ins. I'm hoping for better results tonight.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     151   23    32         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     263   39    38   2090000

delta: $-15,410,000
MTT NLHE balance: $401,561,468
2022 balance: $331,277,000
blue distance: $25,710,000
balance: $426,120,953

Five million the hard way

Before this year, I'd never had a session where I made a profit of five million play dollars or more. So far this year, I've had eight, including last night's. It was five million the hard way, though, since I wagered 17.5 million to get it. That's the lowest roi of those eight sessions. Just to be clear, I'm not complaining :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     129   20    47         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      63   11     -         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     248   34     4  22930000

delta: $5,430,000
MTT NLHE balance: $411,561,468
2022 balance: $346,687,000
blue distance: $10,300,000
balance: $441,530,953

Bounties are better than nothing

I make plenty of poker resolutions, but it's next to impossible to keep all of them. Here are two that have an excellent chance of remaining permanent:

1a. I will never play a strictly Omaha tournament again (note that this leaves me the option of playing 8-game tournaments, where two of the eight flavors are Omaha variants)

2a. I will never play a cash game again

Here are two that have no chance of remaining permanent:

1b. I will never play a rebuy tournament again

2b. I will never play a bounty tournament again

1b has no chance since as far as I can tell, PokerStars no longer offers tournaments without rebuys. 2b has no chance since I must play a minimum amount of poker every session, and if I haven't met my quota, I'll play any available tournament, regardless of whether it has bounties.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     115   17    55         0
MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     413   55   115         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     258   34    27   2770000

delta: $-5,730,000
MTT NLHE balance: $426,561,468
2022 balance: $341,257,000
blue distance: $15,730,000
balance: $436,100,953

The importance of the starting chip stack

Not all tournaments are created equal, even when they have the same buy in. Here are three chief distinguishing factors, given the same buy in:

1. whether or not there is a guarantee

2. the size of the guarantee if there is one

3. the starting chip stack

Let's discuss each in turn:

1. all else being equal, tournaments with a guarantee will always be more popular than tournaments without a guarantee. The reason is simple - if not enough players enter to cover the guarantee, the house still has to cover it. That means that at the end of the late registration period, there may be what is essentially free money floating around in the prize pool - money that has no opponent attached to it. You can't be beaten by players who aren't there :-) In practice, tournaments with a guarantee attract enough players to cover it a huge percentage of the time, but that's okay; every player who enters knows ahead of time the minimum the prize pool will be, so they know up front that playing will be well worth their while.

2. all else being equal, tournaments with a bigger guarantee will always be more popular then tournaments with a smaller guarantee. This one is a no-brainer; the bigger the guarantee, the bigger every payout will be.

3. all else being equal, tournaments with a bigger starting chip stack will always be more popular than tournaments with a smaller starting chip stack. This one is not quite as obvious as #2, but it's just as true. The bigger your starting chip stack, the easier it is to make your tournament last longer; you can wait for premium hands. It's astonishing how little patience some players have; having more patience than your opponents can make you a killing.

Last night, I played two tournaments with a 5 million dollar buy in, but I vastly preferred the first one, since its starting chip stack was 10,000, double the starting chip stack of the second. I didn't make the money in either, but that's fine; I'm happy to bide my time :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     120   20    36         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      65   11    12         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $431,561,468
2022 balance: $346,987,000
blue distance: $10,000,000
balance: $441,830,953

A fine blue cadence

Lately I've settled into a fine blue cadence. What I mean by this is that I'm regularly achieving blue sessions, at fairly predictable intervals. 

This is an excerpt from my October 6, 2020 post; it applies equally well to my recent results. Five of my last ten sessions have been blue ones. I'm on pace to make a profit of more than 635 million play dollars this year, which would take my overall balance north of 730 million. All is right in my poker world :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     120   20     4  48100000

delta: $43,100,000
MTT NLHE balance: $441,561,468
2022 balance: $356,987,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $451,830,953

The truth about 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.

This is an excerpt from my October 11, 2016 post. I see now that I was horribly mistaken. That happens a lot in poker :-) In my current opinion, which has a high probability of not standing the test of time, I think bounties should be avoided like the plague. Why? Two reasons:

1. the prize pool is divided in half; half for your final position, and half for the bounties you've collected along the way; since there's little skill involved in collecting a bounty, bounty tournaments reward luck more richly; luck is not a reliable indicator for profit

2. bounties attract a lower caliber of player to the tournament

While reason one may may make some sense, reason two is the diametric opposite of what I claimed before. What gives? Simply this: not all lower caliber of players are alike! The really bad players will fail to fold where they should, and therefore some of them will be the beneficiaries of luck they didn't deserve. The opponents you really want to face are good players, just not quite as good as you :-) You want to avoid really bad players like the plague. Bounty tournaments attract all kinds of players, including the really bad ones. That's why I've decided to just say no to bounties.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     168   27    16  11090000
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     291   41    32   3790000

delta: $-3,910,000
MTT NLHE balance: $398,461,468
2022 balance: $313,887,000
blue distance: $5,010,000
balance: $408,730,953

The get ouf of jail free card

Whenever I hit the rail in a tournament which allows unlimited re-entries during the late registration period, it's such a relief to know I can re-enter. It's like having a get out of jail free card. These days, I never turn down the opportunity; there's simply too much money up top not to re-enter. When the first place payout is over 100 million dollars, it's certainly worth paying another 5 million to have another shot at it. Last night, I re-entered in both of the tournaments I played, and made the money in both. The fact that I had a net loss doesn't bother me at all; I had my eye on the prize :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     115   17    13  10110000
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     291   41    32   3790000

delta: $-1,100,000
MTT NLHE balance: $392,371,468
2022 balance: $317,797,000
blue distance: $1,100,000
balance: $412,640,953

Dream poker

I haven't remembered a dream in quite a while. I can remember remembering them, though :-) One dream I remember remembering must have occurred about 4 or 5 years ago. As I thought about it afterwards, I realized it had been a dream about poker. Like all dreams, this one had distorted reality for its own unknown purposes, but there was an underlying reality there all the same. How realistic can a dream about poker be if it doesn't include playing cards? As it turns out, quite realistic. Every poker player who's played long enough knows what it feels like to be running hot. In this dream, I was running hot. I could do no wrong. I knew I had this special skill, and the skill was working like a charm. I was sitting at a table, with other people. We were competing by doing something with our hands, but there were no cards. I remember this feeling of euphoria, and rightness; I remember feeling I was doing what I was born to do. I wasn't prideful in the dream; I didn't think the skill was something I could take credit for. All I knew was that I had it, and it felt so good and right to use it. I imagine that's how I'll feel the first time I win an MTT.

This is an excerpt from my December 24, 2014 post. It's clear I knew then that one day I'd win an MTT; I just didn't know when. That day came on March 28, 2017, and it was the first of many. Every time it happens, it feels just as dream-like, and magical :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place   winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     129   20     1  124080000

delta: $119,080,000
MTT NLHE balance: $392,261,468
2022 balance: $318,897,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $413,740,953

Route 66

Last night, I hit the rail twice. Both times, Route 66 (pocket sixes) was involved. The first time, I had cowboys and my opponent had Route 66. I was a heavy favorite through the turn, but my opponent hit a magic straight on the river and I was gone in a New York minute. The second time, I had Route 66 and shoved pre-flop as I was severely short-stacked. Two other players went with me to showdown, and one of them crushed me. I don't even remember what his holding was. I have a feeling I'm going to make a killing tonight :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     127   20    33         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       9      81   13    43         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $273,181,468
2022 balance: $199,817,000
blue distance: $13,300,000
balance: $294,660,953

The year of living wagerously

Before this year, the most play money I'd ever wagered on tournaments in a single year was $86,450,000. That was in 2018. This year, I've already wagered more than three times that much on tournaments - $293,280,000 - and we're only seven months in. I officially declare 2022 to be the year of living wagerously :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     115   17    38         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       9      99   27    14  21700000

delta: $-3,300,000
MTT NLHE balance: $283,181,468
2022 balance: $209,817,000
blue distance: $3,300,000
balance: $304,660,953

An audacious goal

As recently as July 6th, I was more than 30 million in the hole for the year. In the twelve sessions since then, I've made a total of 243.5 million. That's what I call a turnaround! This success has emboldened me to set my sights on a truly audacious goal - I want to make a profit of one billion play dollars this year. If I manage that, I'm going to move up in stakes :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     146   23    54         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      89   15     3  51420000

delta: $41,420,000
MTT NLHE balance: $286,481,468
2022 balance: $213,117,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $307,960,953

A simple plan

I'm stealing the title of a 1998 movie for this blog post. As "A Simple Plan" made abundantly clear, nothing is as simple as it seems.

This is an excerpt from my March 11, 2017 post. Here's my simple, three step plan for making the money in a PokerStars Valueraptor:

1. join as late as possible

2. extract the maximum value from your premium hands

3. get dealt two premium hands

As you might have guessed, step 3 is the hard one :-) Last night, all three steps happened. The first premium hand was rockets, and the second was cowboys. The way to extract the most value from premium hands is to call on early streets, and shove on the river. The two big boosts to my stack enabled me to fold my way into the money easily.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     143   23    15   9550000

delta: $4,550,000
MTT NLHE balance: $245,061,468
2022 balance: $171,697,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $266,540,953

In praise of the B-side

As you may know, I maintain a relational database of my poker data. This allows me to slice and dice it in a myriad of ways. To be able to uniquely identify poker tournaments which I played in the same session, I populate a database field I named tournament_letter. I assign the letter 'a' to the first tournament I play in a session, 'b' to the second, and so on. I've noticed a recent pattern where I fail to make the money in the first tournament (let's call it the A-side), but make it in the second (let's call it the B-side). This made me curious about how my B-side winning percentage compares to my A-side one. Answer: it's significantly better, as least this year. So far in 2022, my A-side winning percentage is 36.9 (48 of 130) and my B-side winning percentage is 50.0 (21 of 42). Let's hear it for the B-side :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     152   23    44         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      92   15     9  10940000

delta: $-4,060,000
MTT NLHE balance: $240,511,468
2022 balance: $167,147,000
blue distance: $4,060,000
balance: $261,990,953

Over the top

It's a wonderful thing to have a big stack in a tournament. Since everyone starts with the same size stack, it takes skill and luck to build yours up. If you can manage to do it, though, you've gained an incredible advantage over the rest of the table. This is tournament 101, of course. The funny thing is, when your stack gets big enough, it starts to act like a chip magnet. You start winning a lot of pots before the flop; people won't even take you on without a really good starting hand. You also start winning a lot of pots betting on the flop; people get scared that if they call, you'll put them all in on a later street. They're also scared that if they raise, you'll come over the top and put them all in on the current street. So they take the prudent course and fold. Of course, the more pots you win, the larger your stack grows, and the more frightening it becomes, causing your opponents to fold with even more alacrity. At some point you pass a tipping point, and your stack becomes an unstoppable juggernaut. Opponents won't be able to win by betting, since the size of your stack will put them all in on every serious confrontation, and the law of averages dictates that they'll lose. You only have to win one time to beat them, whereas they have to beat you multiple times. Opponents also won't be able to win by not betting, as their stacks will get eaten away by the ever escalating blinds. In short, at a certain point your victory is assured. That's exactly what happened to me in the final tournament I entered last night. Take it from me, it was sweet! 

This is an excerpt from my August 18, 2012 post. It perfectly describes what happened last night as well. There are two major differences between the two tournaments, however:

1. the earlier tournament was a six seat sit and go; last night's was a multiple table tournament with 184 entries

2. in the earlier tournament, the buy in was $150,000; in last night's, it was $5,000,000

Taken together, that means there was a colossal difference in the sizes of the prize pools - $750,000 vs. $809,600,000. That in turn meant there was a colossal difference in the sizes of the first place payouts: $585,000 vs. $161,110,000. The bottom line? I made a bigger profit in one night than in all of the previous nights combined, and am now resoundingly back in the blue :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place   winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     184   31     1  161110000

delta: $151,110,000
MTT NLHE balance: $244,571,468
2022 balance: $171,207,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $266,050,953

Frisky early

When I logged onto PokerStars last night, expecting to join my new midnight train, it was nowhere to be found. I had to settle for a Bounty Builder with a one million dollar buy-in. I hit the felt quickly, re-entered, then hit the felt quickly again. At this point, there was only one minute left in the late registration period, and I re-entered for the second (and final) time. That meant my total outlay was three million, and I'd lose money unless I could finish in 9th place or better. I made the money, but only laddered up one rung from a min cash. On my final hand, I was dealt the ace and king of hearts, and the flop came up all clubs, with the top club the ace. I got all my money in the middle, but was drawing dead against an opponent who'd flopped a flush. Whatcha gonna do?

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     430   63    44   1489000

delta: $-1,511,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $-32,636,820
2022 balance: $20,097,000
blue distance: $37,841,000
balance: $114,940,953

23 and me

23 is a lucky poker number for me.  I've made more money playing tournaments where 23 places are paid than the next two contenders combined. Here are the top ten:

paid    profit   tourneys

 23  $61,660,000        8
 20  $28,930,000        3
 15  $20,899,500      517
 12  $19,883,500      350
 55  $19,010,000        5
 21  $13,783,000      300
 18  $13,158,100      361
 24   $9,164,000      125
 30   $5,631,000      139
 36   $3,563,200      124

23 is also a prime number, which is a good thing to be :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     137   23    43         0
MTT-B NLHE   2200000   300000       8     293   41    33   2710000

delta: $-9,790,000
MTT NLHE balance: $93,461,468
2022 balance: $21,608,000
blue distance: $36,330,000
balance: $116,451,953

The traveling balance, revisited

Sometimes, instead of calculating how much money I've won or lost, I'm more curious to see how far my balance has traveled, period. That means treating wins or losses the same way - in other words, summing the absolute values of the session deltas.

This is an excerpt from my July 2 post. In my first 185 sessions of the year, my balance traveled $150,000,800. In the 17 sessions which followed, my balance traveled an additional $168,060,000. That's traveling :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     136   23    60         0
MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     265   39    67         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $103,461,468
2022 balance: $31,398,000
blue distance: $26,540,000
balance: $126,241,953

A solitary superdonk

Some years ago, when I was playing lots of rebuy tournaments, I encountered lots of superdonks. These are skill-less players who routinely go all in, hit the felt, rebuy, go all in, hit the felt, rebuy, ad nauseum. Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually, I soured on rebuys due to the superdonks. They drain all of the skill, and all of the fun, out of the game. Earlier this year, when I was looking for tournaments to replace the midnight train, I was leery of tournaments that allowed re-entries (i.e., rebuys) during the late registration period, fearing that eventually they'd be overrun by the superdonks. Thankfully, I was wrong about this. The PokerStars Valueraptor tournaments, which are my new midnight train, allow re-entries during the late registration period, but somehow the superdonks have stayed away. Last night, I encountered one, but it was a lone wolf. I doubled up through this solitary superdonk, who re-entered four times before finally calling it a night, losing 25 million in the process.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     105   17    24         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $108,461,468
2022 balance: $41,398,000
blue distance: $16,540,000
balance: $136,241,953

Doppelsession

On Sunday night, I had a virtual repeat of the night before. I played two tournaments with a 5 million dollar buy in, missed the money in the first, and made the money in the second. As before, the profit I made on the second narrowly missed covering the loss I incurred on the first. I would have been in great shape had I but had the foresight to skip the first :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     306   41   110         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     137   23    17   9150000

delta: $-850,000
MTT NLHE balance: $113,461,468
2022 balance: $46,398,000
blue distance: $11,540,000
balance: $141,241,953

neo the noob

In internet parlance, noob is shorthand for a newbie - in other words, a neophyte. Last night, one of my opponents called me a noob for the way I'd played a hand. I hate to admit it, but he was right. He called me out for limping with aces. In plain English, what that means is that I was dealt a pair of aces, and instead of putting in a big pre-flop raise, I meekly called when it was my turn to act. That is truly an asinine play. You want people to stay in the hand, but you don't want them to pay the minimum to see the flop. You want some of your opponents to fold before the flop. That way, if the board shows a baby pair on the flop, it's less likely that someone hit trips. As it turned out on this particular hand, the board had two fours, and one of my opponents had hit trip fours. Had I bet my aces preflop, he would probably have folded. However, the fact that I played that hand like a noob doesn't mean I'm actually a noob :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     150  23     41         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      68  11      9   9310000

delta: $-690,000
MTT NLHE balance: $109,311,468
2022 balance: $47,248,000
blue distance: $10,690,000
balance: $142,091,953

Station 2 master

Over the many years of writing this blog, I've developed a foolproof formula for finding something positive to write about. If the session was a winning one, write about some of its interesting details. If the session was a losing one, don't write about it at all; instead, write about some positive trend apparent in your aggregate numbers over time.

This is an excerpt from my March 4, 2021 post. Last night, although I failed to make the money, I made it to Station 2 in an MTT NLHE for the sixteenth straight time. Just call me a Station 2 master :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     156  27     62         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      68  11     15         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $110,001,468
2022 balance: $47,938,000
blue distance: $10,000,000
balance: $142,781,953

A career in a day

It took me 3,490 sessions, from March 24, 2009 to June 2, 2021, to grow my overall balance to 88 million play dollars. Last night, I made a profit of 88 million in a single session. You could say I achieved a career in a day :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     135   23     2  93360000

delta: $88,360,000
MTT NLHE balance: $120,001,468
2022 balance: $57,938,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $152,781,953

Freefall

In the last nine sessions, I've lost nearly half of my overall balance. If this pace continues, I'll hit zero in ten more sessions. However, I'm not about to lose my nerve. If the ship goes down, I'm going down with it :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     120   20    54         0
MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     385   55    90    110000

delta: $-5,890,000
MTT NLHE balance: $31,641,468
2022 balance: $-30,422,000
blue distance: $62,240,000
balance: $64,421,953

The new midnight train

I'm gravitating more and more to the tournament that PokerStars calls "The Valueraptor 5M, 250M Chips GTD". Happily, it shares some of the features of the tournament I loved and is no longer extant, which I called the midnight train. I'm calling the Valueraptor the new midnight train. Even though my bankroll is hemorrhaging huge amounts of money recently, I'm having a lot of fun playing poker again. Last night, I couldn't resist firing a second bullet.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     102   17    46         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $36,641,468
2022 balance: $-24,532,000
blue distance: $56,350,000
balance: $70,311,953

A tsunami of slicks

Last night, I received way more than my fair share of premium hands. I never got rockets, but I got a big slick at least four times, two of which were in a row. A veritable tsunami of slicks :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     137   23    17   9150000

delta: $4,150,000
MTT NLHE balance: $46,641,468
2022 balance: $-14,532,000
blue distance: $46,350,000
balance: $80,311,953

Re-enter in haste, repent at leisure

I have some good habits in poker, and also some bad ones. One of my bad habits is to re-enter a tournament after hitting the rail, if the tournament allows it. Sometimes this tactic will work out in my favor, but more often, it won't. On Sunday night, it didn't. Instead of losing 5 million on my first tournament of the session, I lost double that. Re-enter in haste, repent at leisure :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     148   23    45         0
MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8      69   11    27         0

delta: $-15,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $42,491,468
2022 balance: $-18,682,000
blue distance: $50,500,000
balance: $76,161,953

A million the hard way

There are many ways of making a profit of at least one million play dollars in a single session. Some are easy; others, not so much. Last night, I made a million the hard way. I was playing a tournament which PokerStars calls "The Valueraptor 5M, 250M Chips Gtd". That is, a tournament which has a buy in of 5 million and a guaranteed prize pool of at least 250 million, no matter how few entrants join. I hit the rail not long after I joined, and fired a second bullet. That is, I reentered the tournament, meaning my total outlay was ten million play dollars. That means that to emerge with a profit, not only did I have to make the money, I needed to ladder up at least two rungs on the payout ladder. Friends and neighbors, I did exactly that.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     132   20    12  11200000

delta: $1,200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $57,491,468
2022 balance: $-3,682,000
blue distance: $35,500,000
balance: $91,161,953

The traveling balance

Sometimes, instead of calculating how much money I've won or lost, I'm more curious to see how far my balance has traveled, period. That means treating wins or losses the same way - in other words, summing the absolute values of the session deltas. Before this year, the furthest my balance ever traveled was $126,827,000, in 2018. This year, which is only half over, my balance has already traveled $150,000,800. Now that's what I call a traveling balance :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     165   27    41         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $56,291,468
2022 balance: $-4,882,000
blue distance: $36,700,000
balance: $89,961,953

6 > 8 > 9 > 10

Despite the title of this post, I'm not mathematically challenged. What the numbers represent are the number of seats at each table of a tournament. My favorite tournaments have six to a table, and are called 6max for short. My least favorite are 10max. My second most favorite are 8max. My second least favorite are 9max. Lately, I've been playing a bunch of 8max. This variety only showed up on PokerStars relatively recently, roughly coinciding with the demise of the midnight trains I loved so much, and miss so badly.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     282   39    57         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $-20,445,820
2022 balance: $118,000
blue distance: $31,700,000
balance: $94,961,953

Sheer folly

Before this year, the most money I'd ever lost in a single session was $2,000,000. This month alone, I've surpassed that record four times. Last night, I lost a staggering $21,700,000. However, I think the only thing I did wrong was to re-enter the first tournament I played. Had I not fired that second bullet, my loss would have been a more manageable $11,700,000. Firing that second bullet was sheer folly, not fearlessness. I'll try not to make that mistake again.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   8800000  1200000       8     349   48    70         0
MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     270   39    42   3300000

delta: $-21,700,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $-15,445,820
2022 balance: $5,118,000
blue distance: $26,700,000
balance: $99,961,953

Fearless?

Lately, I've been posing a question to myself to which I don't know the answer. Is it possible to have a true sense of risk when playing online poker for play money? The answer to this question, if it existed, would determine whether or not I've been playing fearlessly in recent days. I'd certainly like to think I have been, but fear (pun intended) that this is just wishful thinking. Actually, I know it wasn't fearlessness that caused me to play tournaments with very high buy ins; I was simply fed up with the tournaments I'd been playing. However, now that I've acquired a taste for the high rollers, if I back off from them at the first downturn, that would be proof positive that I'm not truly fearless.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     145   23    33         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $61,291,468
2022 balance: $26,818,000
blue distance: $5,000,000
balance: $121,661,953

A year in a day

The most play money I ever won in a single year was $34,095,430, in 2017. Last night, I made almost that much in a single session. Yowza!

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     126   20     5  37730000

delta: $32,730,000
MTT NLHE balance: $66,291,468
2022 balance: $31,818,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $126,661,953

Getting accustomed to risk

I can't seem to stay away from the allure of the high roller tournaments. There's actually a good reason for this. Over time, you simply get used to, and a little bored with, the smaller buy in tournaments. Actually, what you consider to be small changes over time. When you play enough tournaments at any particular buy in, and manage not only to survive but to thrive, you come to consider that those tournaments are smaller buy in tournaments, and you need to move up in stakes. You need something to take you out of your comfort zone, and give you a thrill ride :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   8800000  1200000       8     376   55    23  19100000

delta: $9,100,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $6,254,180
2022 balance: $-912,000
blue distance: $3,013,990
balance: $93,931,953

A forgettable session

On Saturday night, I had a forgettable session, and decided to quit playing online poker again. This resolution lasted less than 24 hours. It kind of reminds me of how difficult it was to quit smoking; I tried quitting countless times. Often, the very knowledge that I was trying to quit made me crave a cigarette even sooner than I would have wanted one had I not decided to quit :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       8     346   79   149        0
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     287   72    91        0

delta: $-150,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,561,468
2022 balance: $-10,012,000
blue distance: $12,113,990
balance: $84,831,953

My furthest from former glory

When my December 21, 2018 session ended, my blue distance was colossal - $11,578,000. When I returned to the blue on March 11, 2019, I was certain my blue distance would never again grow so large. That turned out to be indicative of a lack of imagination on my part. Last night, I set a new blue distance record - it's now $11,963,990, and who knows how much bigger it might get? Certainly not I :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE    440000    60000       8     236   34    38         0
MTT   NLHE    880000   120000      10     406   99    76    192000 

delta: $-408,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,711,468
2022 balance: $-9,862,000
blue distance: $11,963,990
balance: $84,981,953

Another new personal worst

Last night, I set another new personal worst. In the last three sessions, I've lost more money than in any other three contiguous sessions of my career - an eye-popping $9,750,000. I knew I had to dial back from tournaments with a $10,000,000 buy in, and now I know I have to dial back from tournaments with a $5,000,000 buy in. I need to play tournaments with a buy in of $1,000,000 or less. The funny thing is, I'm still having fun :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     351   48    53         0
MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     365   48    46    901000

delta: $-5,099,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $-2,345,820
2022 balance: $-9,454,000
blue distance: $11,555,990
balance: $85,389,953

More 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.

This is an excerpt from my August 22, 2019 post. Last night, although I made the money in an MTT-B, I had zero bounties, resulting in a net loss.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     286   41    33   4220000

delta: $-780,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,619,468
2022 balance: $-4,355,000
blue distance: $6,456,990
balance: $90,488,953

New personal worst

The longer you've played poker, the harder it gets to set either a new personal best or a new personal worst. I've mentioned before that I get almost as much of a thrill from setting a personal worst as I do from setting a personal best. That may seem strange, but it's the truth. I love setting records of any kind :-)

This is an excerpt from my April 9, 2015 post. My new personal worst: on Tuesday night, I lost the most play money I've ever lost in a single session - a whopping $3,871,000. That was almost double my previous worst, which was a mere $2,000,000 :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     329   47    69         0
MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     474   71    23   2129000

delta: $-3,871,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $3,533,180
2022 balance: $-3,575,000
blue distance: $5,676,990
balance: $91,268,953

Sweet spots

Poker is all about finding sweet spots and sticking with them. Thinking about the high risk I'd incurred by choosing such expensive tournaments to play in upon my return to online poker, I realized I needed to dial things back a bit. There are some tournaments that are simply too pricey to play, given the size of your bankroll. Since my overall balance is a bit under 100 million, on Sunday night I risked over 10% of my bankroll to play in a 10 million buy-in tournament, and I did that not once but twice. Extremely foolhardy, I'll admit. A good rule of thumb is never to risk more than about 5% of your bankroll at any one time. Last night, I played a 5 million buy-in tournament, and made the money again. I could get used to this :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     298   41    26   5310000

delta: $310,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $7,404,180
2022 balance: $296,000
blue distance: $1,805,990
balance: $95,139,953

The high chaparral

Friends and neighbors, I'm back. I missed playing poker too much not to return. This time around, I've decided to gamble more than ever before. The highest buy in tournaments I played before last night had a one million dollar buy in. Last night, I played two ten million dollar buy in tournaments, and made the money in one of them. I accomplished the following:

- I made my largest profit ever in a single tournament - $12,800,000

- I chopped my blue distance in half

- I came oh so close to breaking even on the year

The fun is back :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   8800000  1200000      10     108   15    19         0
MTT-B NLHE   8800000  1200000       8     415   55    18  22800000

delta: $2,800,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $7,094,180
2022 balance: $-14,000
blue distance: $2,115,990
balance: $94,829,953

The end of an era

Nearly 14 years after joining the PokerStars site, I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that it's time for me to say goodbye to it. They no longer offer the tournaments I love to play, and I can't stomach any of the alternatives. It's been a good long run, and I had a lot of fun along the way. It's no longer fun, and that's why I have to leave.

I'll periodically check back in to see if PokerStars has reinstated my favorite tournaments, but I won't hold my breath. What does that mean for this blog? It's not dead yet, but it's clearly on life support :-) I'm going to take a hiatus from poker for a while, then see if I can find a play money site that offers the tournaments I want. If I find one, this blog will awaken from its cryogenic sleep.

delta: $-800,000
Cash game NLHE balance: $3,462,117
2022 balance: $-2,814,000
blue distance: $4,915,990
balance: $92,029,953

The poker tide

In poker, luck flows in and out like the tide. If you attune yourself to the rhythm, playing well comes as naturally and easily as breathing. When you play a tournament, you often don't have the time to wait for the tide to come in. When you play a cash game, though, you have nothing but time. Not only do you know that the tide will always come back in, you also know that the best time to leave a game is immediately after the tide has come back in. Last night, I reached a profit of over $100,000 three separate times, falling back to just above my starting stack after the first two. I knew enough to quit after the third.

delta: $139,070
Cash game NLHE balance: $4,262,117
2022 balance: $-2,014,000
blue distance: $4,115,990
balance: $92,829,953

Running out of options

As I predicted, the blast from the past was short-lived. Last night on PokerStars, there were no 6-max tournaments to be had. If I wanted to play tournament poker, there was nothing for it but to play 9-max. I played two $50k Bankroll Builders, fired two bullets in each, and failed to make the money in either. To make matters worse, I couldn't even outlast the late registration period in the second one, registering a 0th place. I feel like I'm running out of options on PokerStars; I may have to switch to a different site. For now, I've decided to return to cash games; this time around, I'll play at tables with the same blind structure as before, but will buy in for the minimum instead of the maximum.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     188   54    93        0
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     165   45     -        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,619,468
2022 balance: $-2,153,070
blue distance: $4,255,060
balance: $92,690,883

A blast from the past

Last night, for a brief window of time, old-style tournaments were available on PokerStars again. Not when I logged on, but after I'd played one new-style Bankroll Builder. It was a welcome blast from the past, but I knew it very likely wouldn't last. I jumped on a $100,000 buy in 6max, and min cashed.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     278   72   129        0
MTT   NLHE    87000  13000       6     151   42    40   137000

delta: $-63,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,819,468
2022 balance: $-1,953,070
blue distance: $4,055,060
balance: $92,890,883

Cooler twofer

A cooler is a hand where two or more players are dealt a premium holding. Neither (or none) of the players will be likely to fold, so at least one player will be in for a world of hurt. Different players may have different ideas about what constitutes the most hurtful cooler. My cooler #1 is when one player has been dealt rockets (pocket aces) and another has been dealt cowboys (pocket kings). The player with the aces is an 81.06% favorite to win the hand, and stands to make a killing.

This is an excerpt from my October 9, 2020 post. My cooler #2 is set over set. Last night, I suffered both  a cooler #1 and a cooler #2. A cooler twofer, if you will (or even if you won't). I hit the felt on both of them. The cooler #2 hurt more in this instance, since I was in the money when disaster struck.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     274   72    96        0
MTT   NLHE    88000  12000       9     187   54    28   197000
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     236   63   173        0

delta: $-203,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,882,468
2022 balance: $-1,890,070
blue distance: $3,992,060
balance: $92,953,883

Bankroll Builders have bigger bigs

I'm starting to get the hang of Bankroll Builders. If I hit the felt while still in the late registration period, I allow myself one re-entry. So the most bullets I'll ever fire on a single Bankroll Builder is two. That's in stark contrast with the way I used to play MTT-R tournaments, when I got trigger happy fairly frequently. Last night, I fired two bullets in the second Bankroll Builder I entered, and made the money. The payout more than covered those two bullets, but it wasn't enough also to cover the one bullet I fired in the first Bankroll Builder I entered. One thing I've noticed recently about Bankroll Builders is that as the blinds escalate, the big blinds become more than twice the size of the small blinds. In other words, Bankroll Builders have bigger bigs :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     304   72   120        0
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     211   54    21   125000

delta: $-25,000
MTT NLHE balance: $44,085,468
2022 balance: $-1,687,070
blue distance: $3,789,060
balance: $93,156,883

Rain on me

I've mentioned before that PokerStars provides some nice visuals when you do well in tournaments. The first one I noticed was when they added spotlights above the final table. A more recent one was when they added an explosion of chips raining down on the table as soon as the money bubble burst, followed by a more sedate but steady rainfall of chips for the remainder of the tournament. Last night, I played three tournaments simultaneously, and made the money in all three. In the third one, I hit the felt but bought in again, and still made a profit. Multi-tabling is working out very well for me, and I'm gonna let it ride :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     268   72    15   165000
MTT   NLHE    88000  12000       9     266   72    12   374000
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     263   72    32   121000

delta: $410,000
MTT NLHE balance: $44,110,468
2022 balance: $-1,662,070
blue distance: $3,764,060
balance: $93,181,883

Serial vs. parallel tournaments

Last night, I played three tournaments, one after another. I made the money in the final one. Tonight, I'll return to double tabling, since that often improves my results. I should've thought of this sooner :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    88000  12000       9     308   81   146        0
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     329   81   170        0
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     281   72    40   117000

delta: $-83,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,700,468
2022 balance: $-2,072,070
blue distance: $4,174,060
balance: $92,771,883

Back to the Bankroll Builders

Last night, luckily for me, no Hot 50K was on offer when I logged onto PokerStars, so I played a Bankroll Builder instead. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to go back to Hot 50Ks; their paid percentile is simply too rich for my blood. In round numbers, you need to outlast 83% of the field to make the money in a Hot 50K, whereas you only need to outlast 73% of the field to make the money in a Bankroll Builder. That extra 10% kills my profit potential in Hot 50Ks stone cold dead. If I never play another Hot 50K again, it will be far, far too soon.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    88000  12000       9     230   63    27   232000

delta: $132,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,783,468
2022 balance: $-1,989,070
blue distance: $4,091,060
balance: $92,854,883

Doppelsession

Wednesday night's session was almost a carbon copy of Tuesday night's. Once again, I played a Hot 50K.  Once again, I fired two bullets. Once again, I outlasted over 74% of the field. Once again, I failed to make the money. As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       8     427   71   107        0

delta: $-100,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,651,468
2022 balance: $-2,121,070
blue distance: $4,223,060
balance: $92,722,883

Last-minute reentry

I've figured something out about the Hot 50K tournaments I'm essentially being forced to play - I should try to pre-register for them whenever possible. It doesn't pay to min cash in them; what I should always be aiming for is the top of their pay tables, even if that means I hit the felt. The earlier I join them, the more time I have to spin up a stack. Unlimited re-entries are available during the late registration period, which means that quite often, I'll have another shot at the brass ring. This leads to an ironic situation - when the late registration period is almost over, and I have a small stack, my best play is to shove, no matter what my holding is. If it's a decent one, and I win, I'll double or triple or quadruple up, depending on how many opponents call. No matter what my holding is, I'll have the opportunity to reenter if I hit the felt. Very often in this scenario, I'll be praying to get called and actually to lose :-) That's the irony. Last night, I hit the felt in the final minute of the late registration period, and reentered forthwith, considering myself lucky indeed.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       8     407   71   101        0

delta: $-100,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,751,468
2022 balance: $-2,021,070
blue distance: $4,123,060
balance: $92,822,883