Renewal of a poker vow

If you play poker long enough, you find yourself making poker vows, then breaking them, then making them again, in a seemingly endless cycle. Once again, it's time for me to renew my vow not to play any more 9 max :-) A peek at my career numbers brought this on:

max_players       profit  tourneys     average

          6   $1,566,812       267   $5,868.20
          9     $351,736       214   $1,643.63

I have to stop getting seduced by the huge money up top in the 9 maxes, and just stick to the better profit potential of 6 max. We'll see how long I keep the vow this time :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    38     617  126   218        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    78     354   84    76    30900

delta: $-9,100
MTT NLHE balance: $1,918,548
2017 balance: $-159,475
balance: $11,258,355

Doppeltourney

Last night, the second MTT I played was virtually a doppeltourney of the first. I made the money both times, and hit nearly the same percentile - 87th in the second MTT, as opposed to 85th in the first. Since both tournaments were 9 maxes, where most of the money is skewed to the final table, I made peanuts, but at least I came out in the black for the session. That halted a streak of eight straight losing sessions. I stopped the bitch :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    65     535  108    80    22900
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    69     418   90    53    24100

delta: $7,000
MTT NLHE balance: $1,927,648
2017 balance: $-150,375
balance: $11,267,455

Safety in numbers

I've come to the realization that the best MTTs to play are the ones with the biggest fields. This has several consequences. The first and most obvious one is that the buy in can't be the primary reason for selecting an MTT. Another is that the poker flavor can't be the primary reason, either. In practice, you can make both the buy in and the poker flavor primary selection criteria, as long as you choose the smallest buy in on offer and as long as you choose no limit hold'em. That's similar to Ford's choice of model T colors - you could pick any color you liked as long as it was black :-)

A less obvious consequence of playing the MTTs with the biggest fields is that you should join them as soon as you possibly can. The reason why will become clear once I explain why it's so important to pick the biggest fields. Here's why: the bigger the fields, the more fish (bad players) there are in the pool. If you're not a fish, you're generally going to win chips from those who are. The earlier you join an MTT with a big field, the more chances you give yourself to play against fish; that enables you to build up your stack for later in the tournament, when the fish are all gone.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    31     147   36    52        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    88     551  117    22    41800

delta: $-28,200
MTT NLHE balance: $1,920,648
2017 balance: $-157,375
balance: $11,260,455

Down with Power Up

I've decided to relegate Power Up to the scap heap of failed poker variants; in other words, I won't be playing it any more. Not only did I never receive any response to the feedback I provided as an alpha tester, PokerStars never fixed the crashes (which proved to be more and more irksome as time went on). Also, I realized there's no profit to be made from any poker variant which only has three players; that just leaves too much room for luck, and not enough for skill. It was fun while it lasted, but as I predicted, it didn't last long.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

POW   NLHE     2125   375       3     ?       3    1     2        0
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9    23     148   36     -        0
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6    15      92   24     -        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    49     437  114   157        0

delta: $-122,500
MTT NLHE balance: $1,948,848
2017 balance: $-129,175
balance: $11,288,655

Loss portfolio

This is at least the third time I've used this blog post title. One of the best reasons to keep good poker records is so that you can build up a really impressive loss portfolio. It may seem odd, but there's a really good reason to have such a portfolio - it can cheer you up when you need it most :-) In the last twenty sessions, I've lost $802,475. That's a sizeable loss. Compared to other stretches of my career, however, how big is it really? I ran the numbers, and this loss was only my 61st worst. That's bound to make anyone feel better :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

POW   NLHE     2125   375       3     ?       3    1     2        0
MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6     9     339   84     -        0
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9    42     129   27    19    56000

delta: $-16,500
MTT NLHE balance: $2,068,848
2017 balance: $-6,675
balance: $11,411,155

Power down

Last night, no one joined the Power Up table I joined in a reasonable amount of time, so I unregistered and joined an MTT. I'm thinking that perhaps the bloom is off the Power Up rose for a bunch of the other alpha testers. That isn't the case for me yet, but that won't matter if I can't find anyone to play it with me.

In other news, my 2017 balance is precariously near the red. I fully expect to go into the red shortly, but also fully expect to leap out of it with a big cash, one of these days :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    17500  2500       6    52     265   72    76        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    50     421   90    44    27700

delta: $-12,300
MTT NLHE balance: $2,082,848
2017 balance: $9,825
balance: $11,427,655

Grasping for positives

Some sessions are harder to write about than others. The really tough ones are the ones where nothing really good happens, and nothing really bad happens either. It's hard not to come up with some variation on "I didn't suck" :-) Last night, I didn't suck, but the only remotely positive thing I can come up with about my play is that I lost less than half the money per hand than I had the session before. Lame, huh?

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

POW   NLHE     2125   375       3     ?       3    1     1     6375
MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6     7      21    7     -        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    44     568  117   117    18700
MTT   NLHE    43500  6500       9    22     108   27     -        0
MTT   NLHE    16500  3500       9    16     500  108   178        0

delta: $-117,425
MTT NLHE balance: $2,095,148
2017 balance: $22,125
balance: $11,439,955