Gaffer in luck again, and yet no Gaffer

'Gaffer's boat, Gaffer in luck again, and yet no Gaffer!' So spake Riderhood, staring disconsolate.

Charles Dickens: Our Mutual Friend
BOOK THE FIRST: THE CUP AND THE LIP
Chapter 14: The Bird of Prey Brought Down

"Our Mutual Friend" is my favorite Dickens novel. Gaffer Hexam is a character who makes his living by finding things lost in the river Thames. Riderhood is his much less successful rival, and is completely bankrupt morally, the antithesis of Gaffer. Gaffer in luck again means that Gaffer has once again found something that was lost in the river. However, Gaffer is lost himself at this juncture of the novel.

Last night, at the end of the session, I was like Gaffer. I was in luck again, since I made a deep run in the tournament. It was deep enough that it should have put me at the final table, aka under the lights, but it did not. So, again like Gaffer, I was missing. What had happened? It's easy enough to explain. When there were only seven players left, of which I was one, there were two active tables remaining, one with four players and the other with three. I hit the rail at my table at the same time one of the players at the other table hit the rail. So I never got under the lights; the final table started with just five players instead of six. Luckily for me, for some reason I finished in sixth, ahead of that other player; I still don't know what criteria PokerStars uses to determine the order in cases like that. Essentially by a fluke, I made an additional $94,000 in profit. Ka-ching :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      60   15     6   699000

delta: $499,000
MTT NLHE balance: $43,017,468
2021 balance: $17,195,700
blue distance: $0
balance: $94,861,153