Sheer folly

Before this year, the most money I'd ever lost in a single session was $2,000,000. This month alone, I've surpassed that record four times. Last night, I lost a staggering $21,700,000. However, I think the only thing I did wrong was to re-enter the first tournament I played. Had I not fired that second bullet, my loss would have been a more manageable $11,700,000. Firing that second bullet was sheer folly, not fearlessness. I'll try not to make that mistake again.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   8800000  1200000       8     349   48    70         0
MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     270   39    42   3300000

delta: $-21,700,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $-15,445,820
2022 balance: $5,118,000
blue distance: $26,700,000
balance: $99,961,953

Fearless?

Lately, I've been posing a question to myself to which I don't know the answer. Is it possible to have a true sense of risk when playing online poker for play money? The answer to this question, if it existed, would determine whether or not I've been playing fearlessly in recent days. I'd certainly like to think I have been, but fear (pun intended) that this is just wishful thinking. Actually, I know it wasn't fearlessness that caused me to play tournaments with very high buy ins; I was simply fed up with the tournaments I'd been playing. However, now that I've acquired a taste for the high rollers, if I back off from them at the first downturn, that would be proof positive that I'm not truly fearless.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     145   23    33         0

delta: $-5,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $61,291,468
2022 balance: $26,818,000
blue distance: $5,000,000
balance: $121,661,953

A year in a day

The most play money I ever won in a single year was $34,095,430, in 2017. Last night, I made almost that much in a single session. Yowza!

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     126   20     5  37730000

delta: $32,730,000
MTT NLHE balance: $66,291,468
2022 balance: $31,818,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $126,661,953

Getting accustomed to risk

I can't seem to stay away from the allure of the high roller tournaments. There's actually a good reason for this. Over time, you simply get used to, and a little bored with, the smaller buy in tournaments. Actually, what you consider to be small changes over time. When you play enough tournaments at any particular buy in, and manage not only to survive but to thrive, you come to consider that those tournaments are smaller buy in tournaments, and you need to move up in stakes. You need something to take you out of your comfort zone, and give you a thrill ride :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   8800000  1200000       8     376   55    23  19100000

delta: $9,100,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $6,254,180
2022 balance: $-912,000
blue distance: $3,013,990
balance: $93,931,953

A forgettable session

On Saturday night, I had a forgettable session, and decided to quit playing online poker again. This resolution lasted less than 24 hours. It kind of reminds me of how difficult it was to quit smoking; I tried quitting countless times. Often, the very knowledge that I was trying to quit made me crave a cigarette even sooner than I would have wanted one had I not decided to quit :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       8     346   79   149        0
MTT   NLHE    44000   6000       9     287   72    91        0

delta: $-150,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,561,468
2022 balance: $-10,012,000
blue distance: $12,113,990
balance: $84,831,953

My furthest from former glory

When my December 21, 2018 session ended, my blue distance was colossal - $11,578,000. When I returned to the blue on March 11, 2019, I was certain my blue distance would never again grow so large. That turned out to be indicative of a lack of imagination on my part. Last night, I set a new blue distance record - it's now $11,963,990, and who knows how much bigger it might get? Certainly not I :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE    440000    60000       8     236   34    38         0
MTT   NLHE    880000   120000      10     406   99    76    192000 

delta: $-408,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,711,468
2022 balance: $-9,862,000
blue distance: $11,963,990
balance: $84,981,953

Another new personal worst

Last night, I set another new personal worst. In the last three sessions, I've lost more money than in any other three contiguous sessions of my career - an eye-popping $9,750,000. I knew I had to dial back from tournaments with a $10,000,000 buy in, and now I know I have to dial back from tournaments with a $5,000,000 buy in. I need to play tournaments with a buy in of $1,000,000 or less. The funny thing is, I'm still having fun :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     351   48    53         0
MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     365   48    46    901000

delta: $-5,099,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $-2,345,820
2022 balance: $-9,454,000
blue distance: $11,555,990
balance: $85,389,953

More funny funny money

The first time I used this blog post title was on March 19, 2015. Here's an excerpt of what I had to say:

Since I play poker for play money, that accounts for the second funny in the title of this post. What accounts for the first? The fact that due to some quirk in the algorithm PokerStars uses to determine tournament payouts, sometimes you can "make the money" in a multi-table tournament and still end up losing money.

I wrote that before I ever played a bounty tournament. As it turns out, funny funny money finishes are more likely in bounty tournaments than non-bounty ones since you generally have to win at least one bounty, in addition to making the money, in order to realize a profit.

This is an excerpt from my August 22, 2019 post. Last night, although I made the money in an MTT-B, I had zero bounties, resulting in a net loss.

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     286   41    33   4220000

delta: $-780,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,619,468
2022 balance: $-4,355,000
blue distance: $6,456,990
balance: $90,488,953

New personal worst

The longer you've played poker, the harder it gets to set either a new personal best or a new personal worst. I've mentioned before that I get almost as much of a thrill from setting a personal worst as I do from setting a personal best. That may seem strange, but it's the truth. I love setting records of any kind :-)

This is an excerpt from my April 9, 2015 post. My new personal worst: on Tuesday night, I lost the most play money I've ever lost in a single session - a whopping $3,871,000. That was almost double my previous worst, which was a mere $2,000,000 :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     329   47    69         0
MTT-B NLHE    880000   120000       8     474   71    23   2129000

delta: $-3,871,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $3,533,180
2022 balance: $-3,575,000
blue distance: $5,676,990
balance: $91,268,953

Sweet spots

Poker is all about finding sweet spots and sticking with them. Thinking about the high risk I'd incurred by choosing such expensive tournaments to play in upon my return to online poker, I realized I needed to dial things back a bit. There are some tournaments that are simply too pricey to play, given the size of your bankroll. Since my overall balance is a bit under 100 million, on Sunday night I risked over 10% of my bankroll to play in a 10 million buy-in tournament, and I did that not once but twice. Extremely foolhardy, I'll admit. A good rule of thumb is never to risk more than about 5% of your bankroll at any one time. Last night, I played a 5 million buy-in tournament, and made the money again. I could get used to this :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT-B NLHE   4400000   600000       8     298   41    26   5310000

delta: $310,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $7,404,180
2022 balance: $296,000
blue distance: $1,805,990
balance: $95,139,953

The high chaparral

Friends and neighbors, I'm back. I missed playing poker too much not to return. This time around, I've decided to gamble more than ever before. The highest buy in tournaments I played before last night had a one million dollar buy in. Last night, I played two ten million dollar buy in tournaments, and made the money in one of them. I accomplished the following:

- I made my largest profit ever in a single tournament - $12,800,000

- I chopped my blue distance in half

- I came oh so close to breaking even on the year

The fun is back :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   8800000  1200000      10     108   15    19         0
MTT-B NLHE   8800000  1200000       8     415   55    18  22800000

delta: $2,800,000
MTT with bounties NLHE balance: $7,094,180
2022 balance: $-14,000
blue distance: $2,115,990
balance: $94,829,953