Turn-worthy

On an episode of the classic sitcom "Seinfeld", Elaine (the Julia Louis-Dreyfus character) added a memorable adjective to the modern sexual lexicon: "Sponge-worthy". It referred to whether or not Elaine thought a potential sex partner merited her using a contraceptive sponge instead of some other form of contraception. Since she only had a limited supply of sponges - the maker had ceased manufacturing them - she had to make sure she didn't waste them on unworthy partners. Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I've come up with a copycat poker adjective: turn-worthy. A hand is turn-worthy if it's worth paying to see the turn for. Last night, I won two nice pots with turn-worthy hands; on both of them, I'd flopped middle pair. On the first one, I hit trips on the turn; on the second, I hit a stealth two pair on the turn. They turned out to be the only hands I won, and the only ones I needed to win.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 19 hands and saw flop:
 - 1 out of 3 times while in big blind (33%)
 - 2 out of 3 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 4 out of 13 times in other positions (30%)
 - a total of 7 out of 19 (36%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 2 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $30,600
balance: $4,284,616

40 below

When I talk about the golden ratio, most often I'm looking at my full poker history, regardless of poker flavor. Sometimes, though, I like to look at a subset of the history, for example restricting it to a particular poker flavor. Recently, I mentioned the formula for a statistic I call golden distance. Last night, I tied my all-time low for golden distance in no limit hold'em: -40. No limit hold'em is by far the flavor with which I've had the most success; I'm closing in on 3 million play dollars won playing it. I'll never go back to pot limit!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 100 hands and saw flop:
 - 14 out of 17 times while in big blind (82%)
 - 13 out of 18 times while in small blind (72%)
 - 41 out of 65 times in other positions (63%)
 - a total of 68 out of 100 (68%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 18 (33%)
 Pots won without showdown - 15

delta: $10,100
balance: $4,254,016

All you need is two

Looking at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of last night's session, two hands stand out. On one, I won $20,600, $11,000 of which was other people's money, and on the other, I won $34,200, $17,200 of which was other people's money. Interestingly, I didn't go all in once last night. This session showed me yet again how important patience is, and how few hands you need to win in order to come out with a profit. My new theory, for the length of session I typically play, can be stated succinctly as "All you need is two." What I mean by that is that you only need to win two hands where you have a substantial gain; you may win other hands, or you may not, but as long as you have two substantial gainers, and are being patient, you should come out ahead. The more you can take this philosophy to heart, the easier it is to be patient!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 56 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 11 times while in big blind (72%)
 - 8 out of 11 times while in small blind (72%)
 - 23 out of 34 times in other positions (67%)
 - a total of 39 out of 56 (69%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 10 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $10,000
balance: $4,243,916

The texture of the flop

In his two awesome books on tournament hold'em, Dan Harrington brings up the concept of the texture of the flop on several occasions. In a nutshell, the texture of the flop is an indicator of what kinds of hands your opponents may have hit, particularly hands that would be big favorites to beat yours. For example, it's never a good sign to see a pair in the flop, unless you happened to hit trips yourself. That's a bad texture, because the odds are excellent that one of your opponents hit trips or a two pair. I've seen players fold when there's a pair in the flop, even when no one has opened the betting; my guess is that they've been burned too many times in the past by this dangerous texture.

Last night, I hit the felt when I didn't give credence to a texture which made it possible that someone had hit an ace high straight on the flop; one contributing factor to my disbelief was that I'd hit a great hand myself, top two pair. You just don't expect someone else to have hit the flop harder when you've hit it so hard yourself. I wasn't discouraged, though; I reupped for the max, and ended the night with a profit when I won a monster pot worth $103,700 with three of a kind, kings. That's the first pot over $100,000 I've had in quite a while.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 70 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 11 times while in big blind (63%)
 - 5 out of 10 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 25 out of 49 times in other positions (51%)
 - a total of 37 out of 70 (52%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 6 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 7

delta: $23,500
balance: $4,233,916

Popcorn session

Last night, I continued my patient ways. I saw the flop a mere 40% of the time. That's my lowest percentage in recent memory, and quite possibly my lowest of all time. I'm calling last night's session a popcorn session for the simple reason that most of the pots I won were bunched up near the end, analogous to popcorn kernels popping in bunches at the end of a microwave cycle. That was a somewhat unusual feature of the session; another unusual feature was that my largest delta was more than four times as big as its nearest competitor; on that hand, I won a pot worth $30,600 with an ace high flush.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 60 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 8 times while in big blind (75%)
 - 4 out of 9 times while in small blind (44%)
 - 14 out of 43 times in other positions (32%)
 - a total of 24 out of 60 (40%)
 Pots won at showdown - 6 of 8 (75%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $17,000
balance: $4,210,416

Patience as a habit

Last night, I made a nice profit largely due to the fact that I was being patient. This wasn't completely a conscious choice; patience has started to become a poker habit for me. How can you make patience become a poker habit for you? One trick I've discovered which helps a lot is to be multi-tasking as you're playing; I typically do a lot of web surfing. When you're concentrating on something else, and all of a sudden the PokerStars client thrusts itself forward at you, demanding your attention and a decision, it's much easier to identify weak hands right away. It's probably akin to wine tasters or food tasters who cleanse their palates in between tastings.

Looking at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of last night's session, two hands stand out:

hand 18: I won a pot worth $16,600 without a showdown; I flopped a two pair of kings and queens, and scared everyone away with my turn bet of $8,000.

hand 22: I won a pot worth $15,700 with a seven high straight.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 50 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 8 times while in big blind (75%)
 - 8 out of 9 times while in small blind (88%)
 - 19 out of 33 times in other positions (57%)
 - a total of 33 out of 50 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 7 (57%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $15,200
balance: $4,193,416

Canines and quinines

Last night, I won my biggest pot of the night with a canine. That is, a king and a nine. For some reason, I get a hankering to play hands when I see that my top hole card is a face card and my bottom hole card is a nine. A couple of sessions ago, I won three hands in a row where I'd been dealt a quinine (a queen and a nine).

I kept my seeing the flop percentage under 60 again last night. I'll try for three in a row tonight.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 42 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 5 times while in big blind (80%)
 - 5 out of 6 times while in small blind (83%)
 - 15 out of 31 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 24 out of 42 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 6 (83%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $7,100
balance: $4,178,216