The truth about coolers

Poker players like to complain about coolers, but they really shouldn't. Coolers are a fact of poker life. For those not familiar with the definition, a cooler is a situation where two opponents each have a strong hand, and each reasonably expects to have the strongest hand, but of course only one of them does. Cooler winners tend to win a ton of chips, and cooler losers tend to lose a ton of chips. More chips go into the pot with coolers, since neither player thinks he has much to fear. The truth about coolers is that every player will have his fair share both of winning coolers and of losing coolers. For that precise reason, no one has any cause to complain about them.

Last night, I won my biggest pot of the night when I was on the winning side of a cooler. It was a set over set cooler. I'd been dealt pocket jacks, and the flop came Jh 4c 9d. The turn was 6h and the river was Ac. I bet $3,800 on the river, and was raised to $7,600. I reraised to $11,400, and was reraised to $15,200. At that point I just called, since there was an outside chance my opponent had a set of aces. As it turned out, he had a set of sixes, and I raked in a pot worth $37,900.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 70 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 9 times while in big blind (88%)
 - 5 out of 9 times while in small blind (55%)
 - 22 out of 52 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 35 out of 70 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 13 (46%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $28,566
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,066,960
balance: $7,423,913