Bubble boy

Last night, I was the bubble boy again. It's often easy to second-guess yourself when that happens. Still, it's not that bad a way for a winning streak to come to an end. It's infinitely preferable to a 0th place :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      72   18    19        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $28,172,768
2021 balance: $4,801,000
blue distance: $200,000
balance: $82,466,453

Bubble boy

Bubbling is never fun, but you have to expect it to happen to you now and again. Looked at in a certain way, bubbling is actually quite a lucky occurrence :-)

This is an excerpt from my November 16 post. Last night, I was the bubble boy again. Along the way, I was the recipient of at least three big slicks. Without that luck, I never would've bubbled :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6     109   30    31        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $22,217,768
2020 balance: $14,795,443
blue distance: $2,577,900
balance: $76,603,453

Bubble boy

On Saturday night I was the bubble boy, missing the money by a single spot. It was the 5th MTT NLHE I've bubbled this year, and 13th of my career. Bubbling is never fun, but you have to expect it to happen to you now and again. Looked at in a certain way, bubbling is actually quite a lucky occurrence :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      96   24    25        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $22,715,668
2020 balance: $15,493,343
blue distance: $1,776,000
balance: $77,301,353

Bubble boy

Last night, for the eleventh time in my MTT NLHE career, I was the bubble boy. That is, I missed the money by a single place. I'm not upset about it, though; by rights, I should have hit the rail long before I did. It would be churlish to complain of bad luck on the final hand when I'd been the beneficiary of much good luck on the way there. As a general rule of thumb, it's churlish to complain of bad luck on any hand at all, since good luck and bad luck will be visited upon you by the poker gods in equal measure over time.

style flavor buy_in entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000 26000       6     111   30    31        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $20,230,668
2020 balance: $13,008,343
balance: $74,816,353

Bubble boy

Last night, I played just one tournament, and was the bubble boy. I've bubbled 8 of the 147 MTT-R NLHEs I've played, which is 5.44% of the time. It's no fun to bubble, but it still signifies that you're playing well. Maybe my ship will come in tonight :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    86      59   12    13        0

delta: $-150,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $17,928,500
2017 balance: $18,903,250
balance: $30,321,080

Bubble boy

Perhaps nothing dramatizes the contrast between sit and gos and MTTs as much as the difference between how easy (or difficult) it is to bubble them. As a refresher, bubbling a tournament is when you come in one place out of the money. So far in my career, I've played 1,710 sit and gos, and have bubbled 352 of them. That's over 20%. Of the 550 MTTs I've played, I've only bubbled 3 of them; that's a little over one half of one percent. Of course, I wouldn't be talking about bubbling if it wasn't topical :-) I bubbled the second MTT I entered last night.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6   103     108   30    30    72000
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    76      84   21    22        0

delta: $-28,000
MTT NLHE balance: $1,277,748
2016 balance: $78,066
balance: $10,778,430

Bubble boy

Lately, I've been coming in third a lot. Truth be told, I come in third more often than any other place. That's both disappointing and encouraging, in virtually equal measure. You can't get to the money without getting to three-handed play first. However, you also can't get to the money without prevailing over at least one opponent once you get to three-handed play. On Friday night, I came in third twice in three sit and gos. In the last six sit and gos I've played, I've come in third four times. That's why I'm calling myself the bubble boy at the moment :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6   126     106   24     9    14310
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    59       6    2     4        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    38       6    2     3        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    90       6    2     3        0

delta: $-140,690
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $4,572,610
balance: $12,620,104

Bubble Boy

Lately, I've been gravitating back to sit and gos from MTTs, for the simple reason that sit and gos are going on all the time, whereas MTTs run on a set schedule. It's like the difference between taking a taxi and taking a train. Since I can't predict when my time will free up to play poker, the sit and go option is the better one for me.

Every so often, it's good to take stock of how well or poorly I'm doing in sit and gos. Here are my current place counts:

place     count(*)
1           111
2           123
3           126
4           110
5            91
6            64

As you can see, my most frequent result is barely missing the money; just call me Bubble Boy :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

   900       100           6       148     2     1890

delta: $890
sit and go balance: $1,643,440
balance: $9,604,720

Bubble boy

I had a sit and go binge last night. I played more sit and gos in a single session than I ever had before - 14 in all. I was the bubble boy in five of them. That is, I came in one spot out of the money five times. When you bubble that many times, you know you're doing something right, and you also know you're not doing enough right :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 45000      5000           6        27     3        0
 45000      5000           6         4     5        0
 45000      5000           6         2     6        0
 45000      5000           6        28     3        0
 45000      5000           6        27     3        0
 45000      5000           6         9     5        0
 45000      5000           6         3     5        0
 45000      5000           6         6     3        0
 45000      5000           6        26     1   175500
 45000      5000           6        18     2    94500
 45000      5000           6        10     3        0
 45000      5000           6        14     4        0
 45000      5000           6        27     2    94500
 45000      5000           6         6     4        0

delta: $-335,500
tournament balance: $783,590
balance: $7,666,289