Appointment poker

This is the third time I've used this blog post title. I need to heed my own advice, and start playing appointment poker. Specifically, I need to play MTT 8-game by appointment just about every night. My career MTT 8-game balance is a creditable $306,840, and my career MTT 8-game average profit is an equally creditable $1,805 per tournament. Although the average field size for an MTT 8-game is much smaller (57) than the average field size for massives (885), history has proven that MTT 8-games are more financially rewarding for me. I'm going to make it my goal to get my 2016 balance back into the black by playing appointment MTT 8-game; if I succeed, I won't have to try do duplicate the success of last Movember by playing high buy in SNG NLHE.

As I've mentioned before, PokerStars has $5,000 BI+EF (buy in plus entry fee) MTT 8-game tournaments starting at regular times every 2 hours; the tournament that works out the best for me is the one which starts at 9:42 pm Eastern Standard Time. That's not to say that that's when I start playing it, though :-) It makes much more sense to let a bunch of players hit the rail before I buy in. I've gravitated to starting play anywhere from 10:20 pm to 10:30 pm; the late registration period ends at 10:31 pm.

Of course, I'm not going to stop playing massives (they're simply too much fun not to play), but my bread and butter for the foreseeable future will be MTT 8-game.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE      870   130       6    57     940  240   133     2069
MTT   8-Game   4350   650       6   140      80   18     5    22620

delta: $18,689
MTT 8-game balance: $306,840
balance: $10,384,679

Appointment poker

I first used this blog post title on April 8th of this year. I was referring to the PokerStars MTTs which start at a regularly scheduled time each day. After lots of experimentation, I think I've found the best poker style to use with each of my two favorite poker flavors, and perhaps not too surprisingly, each flavor has a different best style. Also, neither of the styles is cash game :-) I've sworn off cash games for the indefinite future. As you may know, my two favorite poker flavors are no limit hold'em and 8-game. The best poker style for no limit hold'em, at least for me, is sit and go. The best poker style for 8-game, at least for me, is MTT. Sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments are typically fast and furious affairs, whereas MTT 8-game tournaments typically take over an hour to complete. I like both paces, at different times. Success in November with sit and go no limit hold'em is what saved my 2015 poker year, but I think my best long term profit potential lies with MTT 8-games. Accordingly, I'm going to play appointment poker for the rest of the year, and on into the new year.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9    25      18    4    14        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       9     8      45    7    29        0
SNG   NLHE     9000  1000       6   102       6    2     2    18900
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6   139      79   18     5    23100

delta: $7,000
MTT 8-game balance: $153,420
balance: $10,354,764

Appointment poker

Last night, I was planning on playing an MTT HORSE; the only problem was, I was caught between tournaments. They run every two hours, and late registration for the currently running tournament had already closed. If I really wanted to play MTT HORSE, I'd need to wait nearly an hour for the next one to start. I'd kind of assumed there'd be a nightly MTT HORSE starting at 9:42pm, since there's a nightly MTT 8-game which starts then. However, these tournaments are staggered; at 42 minutes past the hour, either an MTT 8-game or an MTT HORSE is starting, but not both.

Since late registration was still open for the 9:42 MTT 8-game, I entered that one instead. This turned out to be a big mistake! I only lasted 9 hands. I now believe the best time to enter an MTT is not when it starts, and not 10 minutes or less before the end of the registration period, as was the case last night; the best time to enter is about 25 - 30 minutes after the tournament starts. That way, there'll be some dead money in the pool, but the blinds won't have risen to the point where your starting stack can be eaten up as fast as it could be if you waited longer to enter.

After my MTT 8-game fiasco, I played three sit and go no limit hold'em tournaments. I steadily improved my results, finally making the money in the third one. Given my current habits, the 9:42 MTT 8-game is the ideal tournament for me. Also, I've realized that no limit hold'em is too important a part of my arsenal for me to ever consider HORSE as anything other than a fun diversion now and then.

People talk about appointment T.V. I can see myself becoming an appointment poker addict :-) My appointment occurs at 10:10pm nightly :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6         9    72        0
  4500       500           6        13     4        0
  4500       500           6        25     3        0
  4500       500           6        63     2     9450

delta: $-10,550
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,270,850
balance: $9,379,090