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