Do repeak yourself

In software engineering, which is my daytime job, there's a principle known as DRY. It stands for "Don't Repeat Yourself". The basic idea is that you don't want to duplicate code anywhere, if you can help it. If code is duplicated, instances of the duplicated code can easily get out of synch with each other. Duplicated code takes up more space, both in memory and on disk, and is much harder to maintain.

In poker, I've come up with an adage which uses the same acronym. What it stands for is quite different, however - "Do repeak yourself". What do I mean by this? Patience, grasshopper :-)

It's a given that your stack will have peaks and valleys over the course of a session. Not only that, it's also a given that your stack will fall more often than it rises, unless you're in the unusual situation of being heads up. What this all adds up to is that the peaks really matter. When you achieve a new peak, you need to decide whether to quit the session right then or play on. There's a lot to be said for both choices.

I never like to quit on an early peak. The main reason is that I play poker partially for entertainment, and quitting early deprives me of it. However, if I ever bring my stack back to an earlier peak, I'm much more likely to quit. That's what happened last night. At the end of hand 31, my stack hit a new peak of $64,761. From there, it started a steady descent. When hand 73 brought it back up to $63,653, I knew I had "repeaked", and that it was time to quit.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 74 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 9 times while in big blind (77%)
 - 3 out of 11 times while in small blind (27%)
 - 27 out of 54 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 37 out of 74 (50%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 9 (55%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $13,653
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,061,027
balance: $7,417,980

Pulling up stakes

The title of this post is a pun. Last night, I couldn't find any $100/$200 9 player tables at all. First, as I reported some time ago, PokerStars got rid of the $100/$200 9 player tables having an initial stake maximum of $40,000. I was essentially forced to play the $100/$200 9 player tables having an initial stake maximum of $20,000. Now, even these tables appear to be gone. I decided to try a $250/$500 9 player table, since there were plenty of those with open seats. The initial stake maximum at these tables is a healthy $50,000. So I pulled up stakes in two ways:

1. I abandoned what had been my home territory
2. I moved to a territory where the stakes are actually higher (in other words, the stakes themselves were pulled up)

My session was both short and sweet. I'm hoping this new territory will continue to be profitable.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 12 hands and saw flop:
 - 0 out of 1 times while in big blind (0%)
 - 1 out of 1 times while in small blind (100%)
 - 6 out of 10 times in other positions (60%)
 - a total of 7 out of 12 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 3 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $53,739
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,047,374
balance: $7,404,327

Double cruelty

You know it's not your night when the poker gods serve you up a double helping of cruelty in a very short span of time. Last Friday night, on hand 69, I hit a flush on the river, but lost a pot worth $5,921 to an uberflush. Just two hands later, I flopped top two pair, but lost a pot worth $4,775 to a full house made on the river. I'd been a 95% favorite to win after the turn. If I'd had any sense, I would have quit right then, and saved myself $6,598.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 128 hands and saw flop:
 - 16 out of 18 times while in big blind (88%)
 - 10 out of 16 times while in small blind (62%)
 - 55 out of 94 times in other positions (58%)
 - a total of 81 out of 128 (63%)
 Pots won at showdown - 9 of 21 (42%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $-20,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,993,635
balance: $7,350,588

Fast 100

Last night, I played over 100 hands in an hour and 15 minutes. I don't actually remember any of the hands. In a way, that's good; the most memorable hands are generally the ones where you lost a lot of money. For instance, I still remember the hand from Wednesday night's session when I got crippled just before hitting the felt the first time. I'd hit trip sevens on the turn, but an opponent hit a straight on the river. He went all in with it, and I just couldn't lay down my trips. Nothing that dramatic happened last night, thankfully.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 105 hands and saw flop:
 - 19 out of 21 times while in big blind (90%)
 - 11 out of 20 times while in small blind (55%)
 - 31 out of 64 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 61 out of 105 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 11 (45%)
 Pots won without showdown - 14

delta: $-7,768
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,013,635
balance: $7,370,588

Asymptotic perfection

Sometimes, if you fail artistically enough, it doesn't feel so bad. That was the case last night. I only won 4 of 80 hands, so it was near perfect futility. What made it artistic, however, was the shape of the bar chart of my stack size over the course of the session. After a precipitous plunge, when I hit the felt for the first time, the slope of the descent got shallower and shallower, until it took fully 15 hands to use up my last $2,279.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 80 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 10 times while in big blind (70%)
 - 7 out of 10 times while in small blind (70%)
 - 33 out of 60 times in other positions (55%)
 - a total of 47 out of 80 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 9 (22%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $-40,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,021,403
balance: $7,378,356

The land of the aught nines

I've mentioned the land of the ones several times before in this blog. That's where you are when you win one out of every nine hands, which is your expected result at a nine player table, everything else being equal. Of course, everything else is never equal, but that's a story for another day. I've never mentioned the land of the aught nines before, so now I will. The land of the anythings is how I describe an endlessly repeating decimal number. The land of the ones is .111111... The land of the twos is .222222... So you won't be surprised to discover that the land of the aught nines is .090909... That's where you are when you win one out of every eleven hands. That's all I managed to do last night, but that's all I needed to do, since I still came out with a nice profit.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 22 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 3 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 2 out of 3 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 9 out of 16 times in other positions (56%)
 - a total of 14 out of 22 (63%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 3 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $13,501
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,061,403
balance: $7,418,356

You were never shovelier

A "shovely" hand is a lovely hand which is good enough to shove with, in my poker lingo. Shoving is slang for going all in. I can't remember the last time I shoved. Note that calling an opponent's bet with the rest of your chips doesn't qualify as shoving; I'm sure I've done that much more recently. In tournament play, shoves happen much more frequently than they do in cash games, due to the escalating blinds. Last night, on the penultimate hand of the session, an opponent shoved after the flop. I'd been dealt pocket rockets and had hit trips on the flop, so of course I called. The opponent turned over 9 8 offsuit for a lowly pair of nines, and I won a pot worth $41,100. I don't understand how anyone could shove this light in a cash game; all he'd flopped was second pair. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me from accepting the gift. I liked it so much, it inspired me to come up with an additional meaning for "shovely". When we're talking about a hand an opponent has gone all in with, the worse a hand it is, the shovelier it is in my eyes. To that 9 8 offsuit, I say, "You were never shovelier" :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 36 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 5 times while in big blind (60%)
 - 2 out of 5 times while in small blind (40%)
 - 11 out of 26 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 16 out of 36 (44%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 5 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $24,732
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,047,902
balance: $7,404,855