Bingo donk

Last night, on my last hand of the session, I went all in preflop with an ace queen offsuit. It turned into two pair, aces and queens, but lost to three of a kind, fours. To add insult to injury, the player who won the hand had called another player a "bingo donk" on the previous hand, and had then included the rest of us under this sobriquet as he went all in on this hand, essentially taunting us and daring us to take him down. I rose to the bait. The thing is, he was being a bingo donk himself. A bingo donk is a player who bets way more chips than his hand warrants, hoping to get lucky and rake in a huge pot. It's essentially a random event who wins a hand contested in this manner, so it's like playing bingo. Very little poker skill comes into play.

The ironic thing is that I had successfully avoided engaging with bingo donks all the way through the session up to that point. Something about the verbal challenge was too much for me. Interestingly, my ace and a face was actually a slight underdog to his pair of fours preflop, so statistically, I got what I deserved. Given that four of us went to showdown, I didn't have a very realistic chance of coming out on top.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 60 hands and saw flop:
- 4 out of 9 times while in big blind (44%)
- 6 out of 9 times while in small blind (66%)
- 22 out of 42 times in other positions (52%)
- a total of 32 out of 60 (53%)
Pots won at showdown - 2 of 7 (28%)
Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $-40,000
balance: $2,506,842

Leviathan

On Saturday night, I won the biggest pot of my 3 year poker career. It weighed in at $193,950. That's a big pot. It's a whale of a pot. In fact, it's a leviathan. Needless to say, I'd gone all in, investing $73,700. That's probably a personal best as well. For the record, my hand was a full house, threes full of tens, but I didn't even need the tens. I'd flopped a set of threes, and knew on the turn that they'd hold up. How did I know? Sometimes you just do.

I surprised myself a little by not ending my night immediately; I like to think that was out of respect for the opponents who'd just lost a lot of chips to me. When my stack was about to slip below $150k, however, I pulled the plug.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 86 hands and saw flop:
- 11 out of 12 times while in big blind (91%)
- 8 out of 14 times while in small blind (57%)
- 40 out of 60 times in other positions (66%)
- a total of 59 out of 86 (68%)
Pots won at showdown - 8 of 10 (80%)
Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $111,100
balance: $2,546,842

Medicine

If you want to be successful at poker, you have to learn how to take your medicine. Sometimes, even though you've made all the right decisions, you still end up losing. Of course, this is frustrating, but you can't let it become debilitating. Possibly the most valuable lesson of poker, and certainly one which it teaches over and over again, is that the improbable happens. Last night, I hit the felt when I got sevened - that is, I lost to a 7% underdog. I had a 79% chance of winning the hand, and a 14% chance of tying, yet still lost.

Did I swear out loud when this happened? No. Did I swear in my head? Again, no. I've played enough poker to know that this kind of thing happens. It's old hat. I'm on the right side of such improbability often enough to realize I have no cause for complaining when I'm on the wrong side of it.

I reupped for the max at the same table, and played roughly even poker for the rest of the night. Tonight, I'm loaded for bear!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 176 hands and saw flop:
- 19 out of 25 times while in big blind (76%)
- 23 out of 27 times while in small blind (85%)
- 96 out of 124 times in other positions (77%)
- a total of 138 out of 176 (78%)
Pots won at showdown - 14 of 30 (46%)
Pots won without showdown - 18

delta: $-38,950
balance: $2,435,742

Anticipatory betting

When you don't have a hand yet, but think you might end up with one, it's a good idea to make a bet. If you make a hand, you'll have that much more money in the pot to win. If you don't make one, you can still win if your opponents interpret your bets as representative of a strong hand. It's important, having led the betting in an earlier betting round, to make continuation bets if no one else decides to bet. Unless someone is sandbagging you, you'll increase your chances of winning the pot by doing so. People are more likely to believe you have something if you're willing to keep betting.

On the penultimate hand of last night's session, I ended up stealing the pot without really trying to; I was dealt a suited ace eight, and picked up a flush draw on the flop. I led the betting on the flop and the turn, and the only person who went to the river with me folded before I could even put down a bet. I didn't make my flush, but it didn't matter. I actually felt sort of guilty about winning that hand! I think that's the first time I've ever won a pot like that. It was worth $14,200; 73% of it was o.p.m. (other people's money).

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 66 hands and saw flop:
- 8 out of 12 times while in big blind (66%)
- 9 out of 13 times while in small blind (69%)
- 25 out of 41 times in other positions (60%)
- a total of 42 out of 66 (63%)
Pots won at showdown - 5 of 8 (62%)
Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $12,600
balance: $2,474,692

Easy money

Last night, I made some easy money. There was a very aggressive player at the table, and I knew all I had to do was wait for a good hand and then turn the dial to 11 on him. On hand 17, I got dealt the best hole cards you can get (rockets), raised to $17,400 preflop, then went all in after the flop. My pair of aces won a hand worth $118,000, and my night was over early.

The thing you notice about aggressive players is that their stacks take really wild swings; the trick is to engage with them at just the right time. Sure, there's luck involved with picking the right time, but not as much luck as if you tried to equal their aggression. All you're trying to do is give yourself a high percentage chance of winning a single pot from them; you don't want to go toe to toe with them more than once.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 18 hands and saw flop:
- 2 out of 2 times while in big blind (100%)
- 0 out of 3 times while in small blind (0%)
- 5 out of 13 times in other positions (38%)
- a total of 7 out of 18 (38%)
Pots won at showdown - 2 of 2 (100%)
Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $77,900
balance: $2,462,092

Aiming for five

Last night, I stopped playing after 35 hands, sticking to my self-imposed poker diet. 35 is a nice target, since it's divisible by 7. Why is being divisible by 7 nice? Since that's the number of players at a table after I join, including me. Since I expect to win 1 out of every 7 hands at such a table, I expect to win 5 hands in a 35 hand session. That's the goal I'll be aiming for. Anything over that is gravy.

By the way, I reserve the right to play longer sessions when it's not a "school night", or simply on my whim :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 35 hands and saw flop:
- 4 out of 6 times while in big blind (66%)
- 4 out of 5 times while in small blind (80%)
- 11 out of 24 times in other positions (45%)
- a total of 19 out of 35 (54%)
Pots won at showdown - 3 of 6 (50%)
Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $4,500
balance: $2,384,192

Too long at the fair

Last night, I stayed too long at the fair. In other words, I played too long. The longer you play, the more likely you are to lose; that's a simple fact of poker life. No player is immune to this. In a touch of irony, my stack took a massive hit on the penultimate hand when I failed to recognize on the turn that although I'd made a straight, I had the low end of it and an opponent could very well have the high end. An opponent did, and I lost a whopping $34,200 on the hand; that left me with just $575. I went all in on the following hand with a ten queen offsuit, and hit the felt.

I need to put myself back on a poker diet for a while. My goal is to play no more than 35 hands a night for the immediate future. We'll see how I do.

I was so disgusted with my asinine play at the end of the session that I forgot to save the hand stats; the only stat I know for sure is that I played 94 hands.

delta: $-40,000
balance: $2,379,692