A chip and a chair

This is the fourth time I've used this title; the first was on October 27, 2011. I included a reference in all the previous posts, and I'll do the same here:

An old poker adage says that all you need to win is a chip and a chair, especially since Jack “Treetop” Straus pulled off this feat in the '82 championship.

James McManus, "Positively Fifth Street"

Last night was the closest I've ever come to winning a sit and go when I was down to my last chip. For definition purposes, I consider having a stack of one small blind or less to be the time when you're down to your last chip. In the second SNG NLHE I played, I started three-handed play with just 115 of the 6,000 chips at the table. At this point, the small blind was 75 and the big blind was 150. I was sitting in the big blind, so I "fell in" for my last 115. I won this pot without a showdown, as both my opponents folded. 67 hands later, I finished in first. I won in style, with quad kings :-) This wonderful result enabled me to get back into the black on the year. My goal is to keep playing $100,000 BI+EF SNG NLHEs until my 2016 balance tops a million play dollars; if I can achieve that, I'll play MTTs for the rest of the year.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

SNG   NLHE    85000 15000       6    33     2   178500
KO    NLHE     8500  1500       9    11     5        0
SNG   NLHE    85000 15000       6   116     1   331500
SNG   NLHE    85000 15000       6    66     4        0

delta: $200,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,463,840
balance: $10,705,755

A chip and a chair

This is the third time I've used this title; the first was on October 27, 2011. I included a reference in both previous posts, and I'll do the same here:

An old poker adage says that all you need to win is a chip and a chair, especially since Jack “Treetop” Straus pulled off this feat in the '82 championship.

James McManus, "Positively Fifth Street"

Last night, I played two MTTs and one sit and go. In the sit and go, I was in dire straits after 8 hands. I had only $90 in chips of the $6,000 in play, which is a meager 1.5%. The classic chip and a chair scenario! However, I didn't end up winning. Nor did I come in second. However, I did come in third, fully 43 hands later. That's a noteworthy comeback. I'll have to check, but I'm pretty sure I've never played longer than 43 hands starting with just 1.5% of the chips in play.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   NLHE     4500   500       6    64    32    11000
MTT   NLHE     4500   500       9     5    74        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6    51     3        0

delta: $-9,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $2,383,700
balance: $10,159,264

A chip and a chair

This is the second time I've used this title; the first was on October 27, 2011. I included a reference in that post, and I'll do the same here:

An old poker adage says that all you need to win is a chip and a chair, especially since Jack “Treetop” Straus pulled off this feat in the '82 championship.

James McManus, "Positively Fifth Street"

On Friday night, I came very close to pulling off this feat myself. When I got slaughtered very early on in my nightly MTT 8-game, I decided to enter a sit and go 8-game instead of waiting around two hours for the next MTT. Playing aggressively, I was able to get to heads up with a nice chip advantage. Things started to go south from there, however, and I got severely short stacked. On hand 161, I had just 350 of the 9,000 chips in play, which is a mere 3.89%. At this point, the small blind was $250 and the big blind was $500. So I had barely more than one small blind, which is close enough to the proverbial chip for government work. Improbably, I ended up winning. I was sure this was the best comeback of my sit and go career, but actually it only makes it to #7, judging by percentage of chips in play at the nadir (of course, the percentage of chips in play at the zenith is always 100). Here are the top 10:

 0.0133 (        40       3000) 2014/0306/d hand4
 0.0317 (       190       6000) 2012/1011/b hand52
 0.0342 (       205       6000) 2012/0824/f hand16
 0.0347 (       104       3000) 2014/0314/d hand13
 0.0380 (       114       3000) 2014/0313/g hand19
 0.0383 (       230       6000) 2012/0824/e hand41
 0.0389 (       350       9000) 2015/0109/b hand161
 0.0450 (       270       6000) 2012/0830/d hand27
 0.0475 (       285       6000) 2012/0818/i hand17
 0.0483 (       290       6000) 2012/1031/b hand24

Note that I came back to win in all these dire scenarios.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        21    54        0
   900       100           6       182     1     3510

delta: $-2,490
balance: $9,604,830

A chip and a chair

An old poker adage says that all you need to win is a chip and a chair, especially since Jack “Treetop” Straus pulled off this feat in the '82 championship.

James McManus, "Positively Fifth Street"

Last night, I didn't get all the way down to a single chip left. However, it sometimes felt that way; I'd work hard to bring my stack up near its starting amount, only to see it fall back again. The fact that I was able to end the night in the black was due to three qualities which begin with the letter p and one which begins with an l - patience, perseverance, pluck, and luck. I was underwater for 152 of the 176 hands I played (86%).

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 176 hands and saw flop:
- 31 out of 33 times while in big blind (93%)
- 25 out of 32 times while in small blind (78%)
- 87 out of 111 times in other positions (78%)
- a total of 143 out of 176 (81%)
Pots won at showdown - 16 of 40 (40%)
Pots won without showdown - 22

delta: $25,850
balance: $2,353,992