Flushed away

It's a fact of poker life that big stacks have the power to bully small stacks. They can play marginal hands and simply bet big enough to force small stacks to fold unless they have a premium hand. It feels like a raw deal when you're on the receiving end, but it's fair play. Last night, I hit the rail when I wouldn't be bullied. I had top pair with a good kicker, and was a 70% favorite to win the hand after the turn, but the bully hit a flush on the river and that was all she wrote.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      58   15    27        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,510,768
2021 balance: $10,089,000
blue distance: $898,000
balance: $87,754,453

Flushed away

I've mentioned how much I hate magic flushes. I hate uberflushes almost as much. Last night, on the final hand of the last tournament I played, I ran into an uberflush, and was flushed away. My queen high flush lost to a king high. Ouch! The good news about bad luck like this is, I'm banking up some future good luck :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    22       9    3     3    38250
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    18      83   18    62        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    60      75   15    31        0

delta: $-461,750
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $20,569,500
2017 balance: $21,445,455
balance: $32,863,285

Flushed away

The poker gods have nothing if not a sense of humor. Mirthfully they giveth, and mirthfully they taketh away. In the first MTT NHLE I played on Friday night, I got flushed away. On my final hand of the tournament, I got all in preflop. I hit an ace high flush on the river, but was drawing dead to an opponent who'd made a full house on the turn. The poker gods had faked me out so thoroughly in this instance that I was raising my right arm in jubilation even as the PokerStars app was shipping all my chips to my rival :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE      870   130       9    50    1043  279   297        0
MTT   NLHE      870   130       9    33     885  216   278        0

delta: $-2,000
MTT NLHE massive balance: $22,728
balance: $10,050,712

Flushed away

Last night, in the second tournament I entered, I had to deal with one too many flushes; you could say I got flushed away :-) On the first hand, I was dealt a big slick, then flopped a pair of aces, but lost $540 when an opponent hit a flush on the river. I battled back gamely, but ran into another flush on hand 30 which took me to the felt. On that hand, the flush was hit on the turn, and my opponent boiled a frog by not betting too big on that street. I'd been dealt pocket queens, and hit a set of queens on the very street which gave my opponent his flush.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 50000       800           6        73     3        0
 50000       800           6        30     5        0
 50000       800           6        18     5        0

delta: $-152,400
tournament balance: $1,015,490
balance: $6,146,221