The Icarus syndrome

Icarus was the mythological boy who escaped with his father Daedalus from the island of Crete by flying away with wings made of wax and feathers, designed by his father. Daedalus had warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, but in the intoxication of the moment, Icarus forgot the warning. The heat of the sun melted the wax, and he plummeted to his death in the sea below, thereafter known as the Sea of Icarus.

In last night's session, I got caught up in the intoxication of the moment also. I'd more than tripled my starting stack amount, and wanted to get to an even $100,000 in profit before I quit for the night. I had a great chance to do it, too, but got beaten by an underdog hand. The night went south from that point. Fortunately for me, my fate did not completely parallel Icararus's; though I lost a huge amount of chips, I still was able to quit with a small profit.

Including the loss I just mentioned, I suffered three bad beats on my way down:

bad beat #1 (hand 117): I was dealt a pair of aces, and went all in preflop against a ten queen offsuit. The ten queen hit a straight on the river; I lost a pot worth $75,199. If I'd won the pot, my stack would have hit $169,182, and I would have quit the next hand. My hand was an 84.3% favorite before the flop.

bad beat #2 (hand 140): I was dealt 9h Th, and hit a flush on the river. An opponent hit a better flush (also on the river) to win a pot worth $32,200. If I'd won the pot, my stack would have hit $109,681, and I would very likely have quit the next hand. I'm categorizing this as a bad beat not because I was ever ahead in the hand, but because getting torpedoed by an uberflush leaves you with the exact same feeling as a bad beat does.

bad beat #3 (hand 145): I was dealt a 7 8 offsuit, and hit a straight on the turn. An opponent hit a full house on the river to win a pot worth $62,300. If I'd won the pot, my stack would have hit $108,581, and I would very likely have quit the next hand. My hand was a 90.91% favorite after the turn.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 160 hands and saw flop:
- 23 out of 26 times while in big blind (88%)
- 17 out of 27 times while in small blind (62%)
- 70 out of 107 times in other positions (65%)
- a total of 110 out of 160 (68%)
Pots won at showdown - 19 of 34 (55%)
Pots won without showdown - 12

delta: $10,281
balance: $2,755,987