yaps: hpe

Last night, I was shut out again; no money finishes in three tournaments played. I had a bit of bad luck here and there. Overall, I thought I played pretty well. The disparity between my results and how I felt I was playing inspired me to come up with yet another poker statistic (yaps). I call this one hpe; it stands for hands per elimination. It attempts to measure your ability to survive in a tournament. Since in general the longer you play, the better you place, it measures how long you play per player eliminated, up until such time as either you're eliminated yourself, or you win the tournament. Here's the formula:

hpe = num_hands / (num_players + 1 - place)

Looking over my historical hpe and place data, it's clear there's no real correlation between hpe and place, as I'd hoped. If your hpe is under 6, that's a strong indication that you placed 4th, 5th or 6th; however, if your hpe is 6 or over, that doesn't indicate where you ended up. Back to the statistical drawing board!

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 50000       800           6        66     4        0
 50000       800           6        45     5        0
 50000       800           6        55     3        0

delta: $-152,400
tournament balance: $1,251,690
balance: $6,382,421