Making the noney

Making the money in a tournament which allows re-entries doesn't guarantee you a profit. That stands to reason; if you reenter just once, but only min cash, it's virtually a guarantee that you'll take a net loss. Moreover, the more times you reenter, the more likely it is that you'll take a net loss. In my opinion, it never makes sense to reenter a tournament. I didn't come to that conclusion right away, but I got there in the end.

Making the money in a tournament which you didn't reenter should guarantee you a profit. Unfortunately, that isn't the case on PokerStars, at least for their play money tournaments. These tournaments are rare, but they exist. Even rarer are the tournaments where the payout for a min cash is exactly equal to the sum of the buy in and the entry fee, but they also exist. When I min cash in such a tournament, I call it "making the noney" :-)

Yesterday I made the noney in a Limit Razz tournament. To give you an idea how rare that is, I've played 3,488 MTT tournaments in my online poker career, and have only made the noney three times.

style flavor    buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   L27Lo      22000   3000       6     124   24    33        0
MTT   Razz       22000   3000       8      93   24    21    25000
MTT   Stud HiLo  22000   3000       8      66   12     0        0

delta: $-50,000
2025 balance: $-682,000
2025 blue distance: $682,000
balance: $15,615,303
MTT ITM pct: 40.45 (1411 of 3488)

Unavoidable 0th places

0th places in MTT NLHE tournaments are entirely avoidable; simply pick tournaments whose late registration periods include a break at the end, and wait for the break to begin before joining. Of course, that would be a useless strategy if there were only a small chance of making the money by adopting it, but thankfully, that isn't the case for MTT NLHEs. However, it certainly is the case for MTT Limit tournaments. For one thing, Limits generally don't include a break at the end of their late registration periods. For another, their late registration periods are considerably longer. The longer a late registration period is, the less it makes sense to join the tournament late, since that guarantees you'll be a small stack battling against mostly much larger stacks.

Upshot #1: I have to join Limits earlier than I'm used to joining MTT NLHEs

Upshot #2: I need to accept the fact that I'll register way more 0th places

I'm not even sure I can make a long-term profit on Limits, but I mean to find out.

style flavor    buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000       9     335   81    83        0
MTT   L27Lo      22000   3000       6     125   24    34        0
MTT   Stud       22000   3000       8     127   24    48        0
MTT   Razz       22000   3000       8      39    7     0        0
MTT   Stud HiLo  22000   3000       8      89   24     0        0

delta: $-150,000
2025 balance: $-632,000
2025 blue distance: $632,000
balance: $15,665,303
MTT ITM pct: 40.46 (1410 of 3485)

Cruel and unusual treatment

Over the years, I've picked up a lot of great phrases from people I admire. One such is "cruel and unusual treatment", which I picked up from my father. Yesterday, the poker gods subjected me to cruel and unusual treatment on the last hand of my session. I was playing Limit Stud Hi/Lo, and was short-stacked. I was dealt a pair of tens in the hole, and my door car was an eight. I shoved the rest of my chips into the middle (which was legal, since I had so few of them) and got a bunch of callers. I made a set of tens on 5th street, and made a full house, tens full of eights, on 6th street. I thought I had a mortal lock on the high hand, and continued reading an article on the New York Times website, confident that I'd get the good news that I'd won the high pot when the hand was over. Instead, the PokerStars window which popped up told me I was out of the tournament in 47th place. I didn't get to see which hand beat mine, but the odds are it was a better full house. Whatcha gonna do?

style flavor    buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   Razz       22000   3000       8      90   24    33        0
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000       9     290   72    98        0
MTT   Stud HiLo  22000   3000       8     148   32    47        0

delta: $-100,000
2025 balance: $-482,000
2025 blue distance: $482,000
balance: $15,815,303
MTT ITM pct: 40.52 (1410 of 3480)

Never met an MTT Limit tournament I didn't like

Yesterday, I played my first ever Limit 7 Card Stud tournament. I was familiar with 7 Card Stud, as it's one of the games in 8-game tournaments, but I'd never played a tournament devoted exclusively to it. Even though I missed the money, I had a lot of fun, and will continue to play any and all MTT Limit tournaments in my price range :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   Stud       22000   3000       8     130   24    34        0
MTT   Razz       22000   3000       8      49   12     0        0

delta: $-50,000
2025 balance: $-382,000
2025 blue distance: $382,000
balance: $15,915,303
MTT ITM pct: 40.55 (1410 of 3477)

The beauty of limit poker

Yesterday, I played my first ever Limit Stud Hi/Lo tournament. I was familiar with Stud Hi/Lo, as it's one of the games in 8-game tournaments, but I'd never played a tournament devoted exclusively to it. As with Razz, I had a ton of fun, and made the money. I started my poker career playing limit poker, and playing it again is like being reunited with an old friend. There's a beauty to limit poker which no limit poker can't equal. Don't get me wrong, I won't stop playing no limit, but I'm going to play less of it, and more of limit. Limit is rejuvenating my enjoyment of poker :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   L27Lo      22000   3000       6     109   24    26        0
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000       9     314   81    75    69000
MTT   Stud HiLo  22000   3000       8     158   32    14    52000

delta: $21,000
2025 balance: $-332,000
2025 blue distance: $332,000
balance: $15,965,303
MTT ITM pct: 40.58 (1410 of 3475)

Razzamatazz

Playing deuce on Friday for the first time in over 8 years was liberating. It made me realize I've been in a rut playing MTT NLHEs exclusively for so long. The last time before Friday that I'd played a variant other than MTT NLHE was way back on July 25, 2023, when I played a No Limit 5 card draw tournament. Yesterday, I played my first ever Limit Razz tournament. I was familiar with Razz, as it's one of the games in 8-game tournaments, but I'd never played a tournament devoted exclusively to it. I had a ton of fun. Not only did I make the money, I made it to the final table. I see lots of deuce, Razz, 8-game, and other variants in my future :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   Razz    22000   3000       8      86   16     5   122000

delta: $97,000
2025 balance: $-353,000
2025 blue distance: $353,000
balance: $15,944,303
MTT ITM pct: 40.55 (1408 of 3472)

Back to zero

The last time I recorded a 0th place in an MTT NLHE was on October 5. The next time I'll register a 0th place is - drumroll please - never.

This is an excerpt from my December 10, 2024 post. Famous last words :-) Yesterday, I registered a 0th place in the first MTT NLHE I entered. How could this happen? It was supposed to be impossible! There's a simple explanation - I entered a tournament whose late registration period ended before its first five minute break began. The $50,000 tournaments on PokerStars have the first five minute break start with five minutes left in their late registration period, but the $100,000 tournaments don't. That means a player can guarantee an official place in a $50,000 tournament by entering it within the first five minute break, but there's no such guarantee for $100,000 tournaments. Upshot: I won't enter any more $100,000 tournaments.

In other news, I played in my first limit deuce (2-7 Triple Draw Lowball) tournament in over 8 years. These tournaments have longer late registration periods than MTT NLHE tournaments do, so there's less shame in recording 0th places in them. I pre-registered, and lasted 42 of the 49 minutes in the late registration period before hitting the rail, recording a 0th place. Deuce is a lot of fun, and I'll be playing more of it.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    88000  12000       9     278   72     0        0
MTT   L27Lo   22000   3000       6      72   18     0        0
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     332   81   149        0

delta: $-175,000
2025 balance: $-450,000
2025 blue distance: $450,000
balance: $15,847,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.55 (1284 of 3090)