Hammer and tongs

When you routinely play over 200 hands a night, not too many stand out. However, the ones that do, really do. Last night, of the 213 hands I played, 2 were really memorable. On the first, I was dealt a hammer (7 2 offsuit) when I was severely short stacked, and in the big blind. As you may know, a hammer is the worst possible starting hand in hold'em. I was one of three remaining players at the table. The big blind amount at this point had grown to $200, and I only had $125 in chips before the hand started. So I was automatically put all in, and resigned myself to this being my last hand of that particular tournament. The board came Jh 3c Tc 8h 9d, however; this gave me a straight, and won me the main pot of $375. One of my opponents had been dealt 8s 8c, and won a mammoth side pot of $2,680 with his set of eights, beating the other opponent, who'd been dealt Kc Ks. I just ran my homegrown poker odds calculator to determine that I was a 10% dog, the pair of eights was a 18% dog, and the pair of kings was a 72% favorite. The actual results stood the odds completely on their head. It would be nice to be able to tell you that this hand turned my tournament around, and that I ended up in the money. Sadly, that wasn't the case; I hit the felt just 7 hands later.

The other memorable hand was my last hand of the night. I'd been dealt a big slick, and went all in with it preflop. I got one caller, who turned over ace five offsuit. I was a 70.5% favorite to win, and felt good about my chances. However, a five hit on the turn, and my tournament was over. I felt like I'd been hit upside the head by a pair of fireplace tongs (hence the second part of this post's title).

Luck evens out over time. I definitely should have lost the first hand, and won the second. I don't get bothered when the odds get overthrown in this way, just wistful :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 50000       800           6        29     4        0
 50000       800           6        20     6        0
 50000       800           6        67     3        0
 50000       800           6        64     2   105000
 50000       800           6        28     3        0
 50000       800           6         5     5        0

delta: $-199,800
tournament balance: $1,071,290
balance: $6,202,021