Quarter million dollar downswing

If there's one thing I've learned about the tournament game, it's that it gives rise to big swings, both up and down. You can feel like you're on top of your game, then suddenly find yourself on a cold streak where you're ending up outside the money time and time again. That's one reason I picked a buy in level of $50,000, instead of a higher buy in. Even at the $50,000 level, you only have to miss the money 5 times running in order to drop over a quarter of a million play dollars. That's what happened to me last night, when you combine my three losses with two from the night before.

Another thing I've learned about the tournament game is that you really don't need to worry as much as you think you should. $254,000 seems like a lot to drop in 5 consecutive tournaments, but I just checked the records and I've done that 13 times now. When an event has happened that many times before, and you ended up surviving it, you realize you're likely to survive it this time also.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 50000       800           6        49     3        0
 50000       800           6        62     3        0
 50000       800           6        36     5        0

delta: $-152,400
tournament balance: $1,267,490
balance: $6,398,221