Lucky number thirteen

Any time I make a profit of $100,000 or more in a single session, that's a big deal to me. That's because it just doesn't happen very often. Before last night, I'd only accomplished this feat twelve times in my cash game no limit hold'em career. Last night was lucky number thirteen. What made it more impressive than usual was that I did it with a starting stack of $20,000; on the earlier occasions, I'd started with $40,000.

The bulk of last night's winnings came very early on, but I kept playing. There were two reasons for that:

1. I was having fun
2. it's good practice playing with a big stack

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 140 hands and saw flop:
 - 12 out of 20 times while in big blind (60%)
 - 12 out of 19 times while in small blind (63%)
 - 51 out of 101 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 75 out of 140 (53%)
 Pots won at showdown - 14 of 21 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $103,042
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,058,394
balance: $7,415,347

Two busted flushes

Last night, I won my two biggest pots of the night on busted flushes. Of course, they weren't mine. On hand 30, I won a pot worth $14,300 when an opponent missed his spade flush. Neither of us had paired the board, and I outkicked him. On hand 35, I won a pot worth $9,863 when an opponent missed his club flush. I had top pair (queens), and it was enough. There was a third player who had also gone to showdown; he had a big slick, but hadn't been able to pair either his ace or his king.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 36 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 7 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 2 out of 4 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 12 out of 25 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 21 out of 36 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 3 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $16,065
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,955,352
balance: $7,312,305

Raked and chopped

For some reason I can't fathom, PokerStars decided to institute a rake on their play money tables at some point within the last year. Actually, let me just do a little research to find out when ...

The first session I played which had a non-zero rake was on July 1st, 2012. For those who don't know, a rake on a poker table is how the house makes money. Every hand, some percentage of the pot goes to the house. The rake is generally capped, so that it's never more than a certain amount no matter how big the pot gets. It makes little sense to put a rake on a play money table, since any percent of any amount of play money has no real money value. The only reason I can see to do this is to get players used to a rake, so that there won't be any surprises if players transition from play money tables to real money tables.

Last night, I became aware for the first time how annoying a non-zero rake can be. On two separate occasions, I chopped the pot with another player, but neither of us made any money because of the rake. On the first occasion, we each spent $8,000, and each collected $8,000 from the pot, so neither of us came out with a profit, even though we had each won. A rake of $500 went to the house.  On the second occasion, we each spent $2,800; I collected $2,770 from the pot, and my opponent collected $2,669. The rake was $261, which was why there was an uneven amount in the pot to split. I ended up losing $30, and my opponent ended up losing $31, even though we had each won. The other $200 in the rake came from the big blind, who had folded before the flop.

I don't like being raked and chopped, but that's how poker sometimes rolls.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 29 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 7 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 5 out of 6 times while in small blind (83%)
 - 11 out of 16 times in other positions (68%)
 - a total of 23 out of 29 (79%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 13 (53%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $16,156
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,939,287
balance: $7,296,240

Megafin

I've mentioned shark fins before in this blog. That's when the bar chart of your stack size over the course of a session has sharp jumps upward, following by groups of small losses. If you look at them the right way, these groupings resemble shark fins :-) Ideally, you want the start of the next jump to be higher than the start of the current jump, so that the shark finds trend upward. Last night, that didn't happen. Also, instead of many fins, I really only had one complete fin, which comprised more than half of the hands. I'm calling that a megafin. Luckily for me, I started a new megafin at the end of the session, but didn't stick around for the group of small losses that would have completed it. This enabled me to wind up with a small profit.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 58 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 7 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 6 out of 9 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 17 out of 42 times in other positions (40%)
 - a total of 30 out of 58 (51%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 5 (80%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $6,900
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,923,131
balance: $7,280,084

6-freq rockets

There are 1,326 unique starting hands in hold'em. Six of those are pocket rockets, the best starting hand in hold'em. Therefore, you should expect to be dealt rockets once every 1326 / 6 = 221 hands. Since it's highly unusual for me to play that many hands in a session (I've only done it 5 times in my poker life), I can't expect to see rockets every session. Last night, I was dealt rockets three times. In this case, I got 6-freq rockets. That's my shorthand for seeing rockets six times as frequently as I should. The formula for calculating the rockets frequency factor is as follows:

freq_rockets = num_rockets * 221 / num_hands

Plugging in the numbers from last night's session, freq_rockets comes out to 3 * 221 / 111 = 5.97. Let's just call it 6; that's close enough for government work :-) The highest rockets frequency factor I ever got in my career was nearly 10; in that case also, I received them three times in the session.

The first time I got rockets last night, I won a pot worth $31,600. The second time, I won a pot worth $1,730. The last time, I lost a pot worth $4,584.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 111 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 14 times while in big blind (71%)
 - 11 out of 14 times while in small blind (78%)
 - 43 out of 83 times in other positions (51%)
 - a total of 64 out of 111 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 9 of 15 (60%)
 Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $7,793
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,916,231
balance: $7,273,184

80-fold turnaround

Last night, after I'd already hit the felt once and seemed destined to hit it again, I had a remarkable turnaround. Looking at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of the session, I'm convinced this is the best cash game mid-session turnaround I've ever achieved. I'll write a utility sometime to see if I'm right. I started hand 63 with a mere $648 in chips. At the end of hand 110, I'd built my stack up to $52,260. That's an 80-fold turnaround. Unfortunately, I didn't have the sense to quit while I was ahead. I played another 59 hands, giving back roughly half the chips I'd won.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 169 hands and saw flop:
 - 17 out of 23 times while in big blind (73%)
 - 14 out of 24 times while in small blind (58%)
 - 67 out of 122 times in other positions (54%)
 - a total of 98 out of 169 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 14 of 26 (53%)
 Pots won without showdown - 10

delta: $-15,100
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,908,438
balance: $7,265,391

Four plateaus

The bar chart of my stack size over the course of last night's session shows four plateaus. Each one is higher than the previous one. Each one is closer to the one above it than to the one below it. Finally, each one is narrower than the one below it. This is one of the few sessions where my stack grew steadily and unspectacularly the whole time. I'll take it :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 69 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 9 times while in big blind (88%)
 - 5 out of 9 times while in small blind (55%)
 - 32 out of 51 times in other positions (62%)
 - a total of 45 out of 69 (65%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 15 (53%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $35,827
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,923,538
balance: $7,280,491