The money play

There's a surprising truth buried deep in the heart of my poker data. I've discovered it before, but it's so counter-intuitive I'd kind of forgotten about it. That truth is simply this - going all in is the money play in poker. I've now played 49,567 hands of cash game no limit hold'em poker. Of those hands, I've gone all in on 773 of them. My aggregate delta for the 48,794 hands where I didn't go all in is $-1,002,180. My aggregate delta for the 773 hands where I did go all in is $6,857,620. The truth is plain - I don't make money on hands where I don't go all in, and I make a ton of it on hands where I do. What does this mean? Should I change my playing style? No. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. All it means is that it's a fact of poker life that on the vast majority of your hands, you're not going to make a profit. That means that on those rare, extra special hands, you need to be prepared to make a killing :-)

Last night, I went all in twice, and won both times. I've won nine of the last 10 times I've gone all in. My career all in winning percentage is a respectable 61.5.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 44 hands and saw flop:
 - 5 out of 6 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 5 out of 6 times while in small blind (83%)
 - 12 out of 32 times in other positions (37%)
 - a total of 22 out of 44 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 4 (75%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $61,056
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,590,715
balance: $9,648,418