Top 10 felt distance

Last night, I hit the felt twice, losing $100,000. Funnily enough, it didn't take too long for me to come up with a positive takeaway from the session. After reupping, I made my second stack last a full 153 hands. Defining felt distance as the number of hands played with a single buy in before hitting the felt, last night's second felt distance made my top 10 all time list, clocking in at number 8:

    211 2013-06-12
    192 2011-12-21
    175 2012-08-02
    174 2013-05-22
    165 2012-11-18
    159 2013-12-06
    158 2011-12-30
    153 2014-10-21
    140 2012-01-24
    139 2014-06-09

Coincidentally, I hit the felt for the second time on a hand number which divided the sum of the buy ins evenly; as a result, I lost an average of exactly one big blind per hand.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 200 hands and saw flop:
 - 43 out of 50 times while in big blind (86%)
 - 38 out of 50 times while in small blind (76%)
 - 52 out of 100 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 133 out of 200 (66%)
 Pots won at showdown - 19 of 33 (57%)
 Pots won without showdown - 35

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,704,683
balance: $9,609,782

40th all above water session

Last night, for the first time in over four months, I had an all above water session. It was the 40th such session of my cash game no limit hold'em career. This type of session is quite rare, and is also more enjoyable than your run of the mill session. Obviously, you must win the first hand, which I refer to as being "shot from guns". That's just the first step, however; you must then play well enough to keep your stack in the black for the rest of the session. Having all above water sessions is not a goal that I set myself, it's just a nice treat that happens from time to time :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 53 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 8 times while in big blind (87%)
 - 6 out of 8 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 18 out of 37 times in other positions (48%)
 - a total of 31 out of 53 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 9 (55%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $63,436
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,804,683
balance: $9,709,782

One Hand to rule them all

On Friday night, one hand stood head and shoulders above the rest. I won a pot worth $46,638 with it, $25,694 of which was o.p.m. (other people's money). In came early on, on hand 4. I won more money on that one hand than I did on all my other winning hands combined. I probably should have quit right afterwards, but wanted to get my entertainment's worth out of the session. One interesting feature about hand 4 was that I won it without a showdown; I bet $5,372 on the flop, an opponent raised to $18,694, I reraised all in to $50,867, and the raiser folded. For the record, I'd been dealt pocket kings and flopped a set. Out of curiosity, I just ran the numbers to see where that hand ranks in my all time list of winning no showdown hands; it clocked in at number 17.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 51 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 11 times while in big blind (36%)
 - 8 out of 10 times while in small blind (80%)
 - 12 out of 30 times in other positions (40%)
 - a total of 24 out of 51 (47%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 3 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 8

delta: $6,798
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,741,247
balance: $9,646,346

11th worst four bagger

I just spent a lot of time trying to put lipstick on a pig. While examining Wednesday night's session, I tried and tried again to find some statistical bright spot, but the data just wasn't there. I could have saved myself a lot of effort if I'd just started out with a different goal - namely, to measure how poor my results have been lately. The last four sessions comprise the 11th worst cash game no limit hold'em four bagger of my career; here are the top 12:

$-419,220 2013-06-11 2013-06-14 (0)
$-372,519 2013-06-10 2013-06-13 (1)
$-290,268 2014-08-30 2014-09-03 (0)
$-271,871 2014-08-29 2014-09-02 (0)
$-266,691 2013-06-12 2013-06-15 (1)
$-256,150 2011-12-30 2012-01-04 (0)
$-243,006 2014-08-31 2014-09-04 (1)
$-240,000 2012-01-18 2012-01-23 (0)
$-226,940 2014-05-12 2014-05-15 (1)
$-225,669 2014-06-06 2014-06-10 (0)
$-222,665 2014-10-10 2014-10-15 (1)
$-214,500 2011-06-14 2011-06-21 (1)

2014 is over-represented here; that's a good indication that this has been a substandard poker year for me. I'm not worried, though; I've weathered worse slumps than this.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 125 hands and saw flop:
 - 18 out of 20 times while in big blind (90%)
 - 10 out of 19 times while in small blind (52%)
 - 48 out of 86 times in other positions (55%)
 - a total of 76 out of 125 (60%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 16 (43%)
 Pots won without showdown - 6

delta: $-75,422
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,734,449
balance: $9,639,548

It was the best of sessions, it was the worst of sessions

If you're a Charles Dickens fan, as I am, you'll surely recognize that the title of this post is a snowclone of the opening of "A Tale of Two Cities". Last night, I hit the felt twice, losing $100,000 in the process. That ties for my ninth worst cash game no limit hold'em session ever, covering the worst of sessions part of the title admirably. What about the best of sessions part? If two hands where I was the favorite had gone my way, I would have ended the night $162,032 richer, which would have been my fourth best cash game no limit hold'em session ever. So I can't feel bad about the session at all :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 47 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 6 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 3 out of 5 times while in small blind (60%)
 - 19 out of 36 times in other positions (52%)
 - a total of 28 out of 47 (59%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 8 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $-100,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,809,871
balance: $9,714,970

Folding machine

I've noted this paradox before - the way to get rich in poker is to fold nearly every hand before you get to showdown. You basically need to become a folding machine :-) Looking at the numbers from last night's session, I thought I was folding at a high percentage, but it turned out not to be as high as I thought. I folded 115 times in 147 hands, for a decent 78.32 folding percentage, but it was a far cry from my personal best folding percentage of 94.74 (18 of 19 hands), set on March 15th, 2012. In fact, last night's 78.32 was only my 311th highest folding percentage, in 685 sessions of cash game no limit hold'em.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 147 hands and saw flop:
 - 15 out of 25 times while in big blind (60%)
 - 14 out of 25 times while in small blind (56%)
 - 41 out of 97 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 70 out of 147 (47%)
 Pots won at showdown - 10 of 15 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 17

delta: $2,757
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,909,871
balance: $9,814,970

All flavors bankroll distance

The key feature of the total chip distance poker statistic I came up with recently is that it unites wins and losses, instead of setting them against each other. The point is not that you won or lost, but that the size of your stack changed; every change contributes to the total. Total chip distance only makes sense for cash games; in tournaments, changes in stack size have little bearing on the outcome, and don't reflect actual play dollar amounts. After some thought, I came up with a way to combine cash game numbers with tournament numbers; I'm calling this new statistic the all flavors bankroll distance. It's not a chip distance; it's the total distance your bankroll has traveled, taking all flavors of poker into account. The only thing that matters in tournaments is how much money you won or lost as a result of playing them; therefore, the correct contribution of each tournament to the all flavors bankroll distance is the absolute value of the tournament delta. Here is my all flavors bankroll distance as of the end of Friday night's session:

 $94,534,675   cash game total chip distance
 $46,685,760   sum of the absolute values of the tournament deltas
============
$141,220,435   all flavors bankroll distance

On the final hand of the night, I had pocket tens and was an 86.36% favorite to win after the turn; however, my opponent had a big slick and paired his king on the river. The $17,218 I lost on the hand, causing me to hit the felt, was my biggest loss of the night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 75 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 9 times while in big blind (77%)
 - 6 out of 10 times while in small blind (60%)
 - 39 out of 56 times in other positions (69%)
 - a total of 52 out of 75 (69%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 11 (27%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $6,907,114
balance: $9,812,213