The third floor

I've used this title before, and I'm using it again because it's apt. What do I mean by the third floor? I'll get there in a minute :-) When you're playing poker properly, the bar chart of your stack size over the course of the session tends to subdivide neatly into sections. Each section starts with a string of small losses, and ends with a big upward leap. The leap takes your stack to a point considerably higher than where it was at the start of the section; I liken that to going up one floor in a building. Generally, as soon as you've gone up a floor, you start slowly sliding back again. You can't avoid the sliding back, but if you're patient enough, another leap will be coming. After much experience, I can highly recommend calling it quits after your third leap. The place where you've ended up can be called the third floor, if you use the European convention of counting floors :-) Last night, I got off at the third floor.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 38 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 6 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 2 out of 6 times while in small blind (33%)
 - 11 out of 26 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 16 out of 38 (42%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 4 (75%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $50,727
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,170,292
balance: $9,227,995

The third floor

All poker sessions begin on the first floor. That is, when you sit down and start playing, you're essentially walking through the front door of a house. You might have to make some trips to the basement, but your hope is to ascend to an upper floor. Most hands result in noise; you win or lose a small amount, and end up essentially where you started. The hands that provide signal, which are infrequent, are the ones where you win or lose a significant amount. When you win your first significant hand, you're on the second floor. When you win your second significant hand, you're on the third floor. After playing cash game poker for more than 4 years, I've come to realize that it's a really good idea to quit playing when you've reached the third floor. That's what I did last night. I had a nice flourish of four straight won pots at the end, but it was the first of them which put me on the third floor; the others were just garnish.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 46 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 6 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 4 out of 5 times while in small blind (80%)
 - 21 out of 35 times in other positions (60%)
 - a total of 29 out of 46 (63%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 10 (60%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $57,391
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,914,738
balance: $7,364,146