Poker interruptus

I've used this title several times before. Last night, I experienced poker interruptus once again. It's never fun. This time, instead of being due to a power outage, it was due to my internet connection going down.

This is an excerpt from my January 24, 2019 post. Yesterday, in the only tournament I played, my internet connection went down after I'd already made the money. It happened in the middle of a hand where I'd been dealt pocket cowboys, and called a preflop bet which put me all in. I never got to see if I won that hand or not. I'm guessing not, for one of the following reasons:

1. there were additional bets made after my connection dropped, which would have caused the PokerStars software to change my status to "sitting out", mucking my hand automatically

2. I think the PokerStars software may have changed my status to "sitting out" even if no additional bets were made, due to detecting that my connection had dropped

Fortunately, these "poker interruptus" occurrences are exceedingly rare.

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     310   81    45   122000    48

delta: $72,000
2025 balance: $-961,000
2025 blue distance: $961,000
balance: $15,336,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.43 (1308 of 3157)

The hateful eight

I've never seen Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight", but that won't stop me from appropriating its title, yet again :-) In this case, the hateful eight are the eight hands I played in the first tournament I entered yesterday. It was the smallest number of hands I've played in a tournament since I started manually recording the minimum viable hand data. One again, I was dealt baby cowboys on my last hand, and they rode off into the sunset. I fared much better in yesterday's second tournament, making the money. It was only a min cash, but beggars can't be choosy :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000       ?    ?     ?        0     8
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     364   99    97    64000    29

delta: $-36,000
2025 balance: $-1,033,000
2025 blue distance: $1,033,000
balance: $15,264,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.41 (1307 of 3156)

Baby cowboys into the sunset

"Baby cowboys" is my nickname for pocket jacks. Last night, my baby cowboys rode off into the sunset. Although that makes for a good movie ending, it's not what you're hoping for when playing poker.

This is an excerpt from my April 4, 2022 post. In the one tournament I played yesterday, I only lasted 10 hands. I had one premium hand dealt to me, baby cowboys. Unfortunately for me, it was on the tenth hand. Whatcha gonna do?

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     248   63   137        0    10

delta: $-50,000
2025 balance: $-997,000
2025 blue distance: $997,000
balance: $15,300,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.41 (1306 of 3154)

Further refinement of the magic minimum

It's a given that the more hands you play in a tournament, the better your chances are of making the money. It would be neat if there were a magic number of hands which, if you managed to achieve it, would guarantee that you made the money. Of course, there's no such number ...

This is an excerpt from my February 13, 2025 post. I call this number the magic minimum. While it's true that there's no such number in perpetuity, it's also true that at any particular point in time, there is such a number, even though its usefulness is limited, since it only applies to past data, and won't necessarily be true for future data. Over time, the magic minimum will gradually increase; it can never decrease. Here's the definition of the magic minimum: find the maximum number of hands played in the tournaments where you failed to make the money, and add 1 :-) Currently, based on the hand data I've collected so far, the magic minimum is 35.

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     394   99   154        0    16

delta: $-50,000
2025 balance: $-947,000
2025 blue distance: $947,000
balance: $15,350,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.42 (1306 of 3153)

Profitable and unprofitable months

One month is a good length of time for an observation window. I've now played online poker in 190 distinct months. 122 of them were profitable. This year, although I'm still in the red, at least I'm trending upwards. No matter what happens in today's session, this month will still be a profitable one :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     340   81    96        0    34
MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     322   81   119        0    25

delta: $-100,000
2025 balance: $-897,000
2025 blue distance: $897,000
balance: $15,400,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.43 (1306 of 3152)

Three call ins and a fall in

It's rare for me to go all in to open the betting on a street. When all my chips go into the middle, the most common reason is that I called a bet that was at least as big as my chip stack; that's what I call a "call in".  It's also rare for me to allow my stack to get so short that it gets eaten up by the forced bets before the hole cards are even dealt, with no volition on my part; that's what I call a "fall in". Last night, I had three call ins and a fall in. I was lucky enough to survive the fall in and the first two call ins. That helped me last long enough to reach the fifth money jump above a min cash.

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     309   81    31   135000    52

delta: $85,000
2025 balance: $-797,000
2025 blue distance: $797,000
balance: $15,500,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.46 (1306 of 3150)

KK KO'd

I have enough hand data now to notice some anomalies. One of the glaring ones is my winning percentage with cowboys (pocket kings). It's  as low as it can possibly be. I've received them 3 times in 827 hands, and have lost at showdown each time. Let's just say my cowboys are getting KO'd. In other news, I failed to complete a turducken on Sunday. Time to start a new streak :-)

style flavor    buy_in  entry entries paid place winnings hands

MTT   NLHE       44000   6000     471  117   145        0    22

delta: $-50,000
2025 balance: $-882,000
2025 blue distance: $882,000
balance: $15,415,303
MTT NLHE ITM pct: 41.44 (1305 of 3149)