Shot from guns

An incontrovertible proof of my advancing age, aside from more wrinkles and more gray hair, is the fact that as time goes by, I'm in an ever diminishing pool of people who can remember advertising slogans from sufficiently long ago. One which sticks in my mind is "Shot from guns". This was an ad campaign for a cereal. I confess I had to google the slogan just now to make sure I got the brand right; it was Quaker Puffed Rice.

Can the slogan be applied to poker? Easily. It means that it's a good thing to come out of the starting gate quickly, and win the very first hand of the session. If you can do that, you get a jump start on a winning session. Last night, I was shot from guns. As it turned out, I was never underwater. I just did some research and discovered the following:

- I've played 573 sessions of cash game no limit hold'em poker
- in 120 of them, I won the first hand, for an average of .209424; that's well above the expected average of 1 in 7 (since I invariably join tables with 6 players seated at them), or .142857
- of those 120 shot from guns sessions, I've won 92, for an average of .766667
- of the remaining 453 sessions, I've won 297, for an average of .655629

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 23 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 4 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 1 out of 2 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 8 out of 17 times in other positions (47%)
 - a total of 11 out of 23 (47%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 3 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $10,134
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,974,857
balance: $7,331,810