The unheavenly seven

Last night, I had a seventh straight losing session. It was my worst seven bagger ever; my overall balance has taken a whopping $1,740,625 hit. The unheavenly seven, indeed :-) My blue distance is now $2,022,025. The one bright spot of the session was another quirk - I played the same number of hands as the place where I finished.

 style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    40      55   12    40        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $28,648,500
2017 balance: $29,070,430
balance: $40,488,260

Second worst six bagger ever

In my last six sessions, I've lost $1,540,625. That clocks in as my second worst six bagger ever. My blue distance is currently $1,822,025. The good news is, that's not the largest it's been this year. On September 20, it was $2,391,125.

In other news, I managed to finish in the same place in both tournaments I played last night. Just a quirk, but I like quirks :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    47      64   15    32        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    61      62   15    32        0

delta: $-600,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $28,848,500
2017 balance: $29,270,430
balance: $40,688,260

Dialed in

In the last three MTT-R NLHEs I've played, I've really been dialed in. Here are the percentiles:

percentile  entries  paid  place  winnings     date

    0.6818       66    15     21         0  2017-12-02a
    0.6667       36     8     12         0  2017-12-03b
    0.7241       58    12     16         0  2017-12-04a

It bodes well that I've been lasting so long, even though I haven't been making the money. I can feel the profit on the horizon :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    81      58   12    16        0

delta: $-150,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $29,448,500
2017 balance: $29,870,430
balance: $41,288,260

Cowboys into the sunset

Last night, I hit the rail in the one MTT-R NLHE I played on a hand where I'd been dealt pocket kings. You could say my cowboys rode off into the sunset :-) They ran into a set of eights. Sets are one of the most disguised hands in hold'em. I wasn't too far away from the money when this happened, but have no regrets. If you can't bet your big pocket pairs big, you might as well not play.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    17       9    3     5        0
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    62      36    8    12        0

delta: $-278,750
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $29,598,500
2017 balance: $30,020,430
balance: $41,438,260

Runner runner

The most memorable hand of last night's session was one where I should have hit the rail, but miraculously didn't. On hand 65, I was dealt T4o (ten four offsuit). I was in the small blind, and started the hand with just 480 in chips. Since at that point the ante was 75, and the small blind was 400, I had just 5 chips behind after the forced bets. I put those last 5 in, to discover I was up against an opponent with aces. The flop came 6 8 J rainbow, which meant my only way to win was to hit a runner runner. I proceeded to do just that, with a 5 on the turn and a 7 on the river, completing a straight. Alas, that wasn't enough to ensure that I made the money; I hit the rail in 21st place, 22 hands later.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    87      66   15    21        0 

delta: $-100,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $29,848,500
2017 balance: $30,299,180
balance: $41,717,010

Getting it in bad

Poker players always like to get their money in good. What this means is that when they go all in, they want the odds of winning to be heavily in their favor. Sometimes, it works out that way. Other times, not so much :-) Last night, I got it in bad on my final hand of the night. Almost as bad as it gets. I was dealt KQs (king queen suited) and went all in against two opponents. You never want to go all in against more than one opponent if you can help it, because your odds of winning decrease dramatically with every additional opponent. In this case, my odds of winning were an anemic 11.40%. One opponent hit a king high flush - and lost. The other hit a full house. All I had was a measly pair of sixes. Hitting the rail was a blessing in disguise, as it was quite late at night and I was nodding off anyway.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

KO    NLHE    42500  7500       9    41       9    3     1   138125
MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    45      41    9    31        0

delta: $-61,875
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $29,948,500
2017 balance: $30,399,180
balance: $41,817,010

Shove count

When you play a tournament, you're going to have to go all in at times; it's unavoidable if you want to succeed. Of course, if you go all in too often, you'll likely to be out of the tournament in a New York minute. So there's a dynamic tension between going all in and not going all in. In MTT-R tournaments, this tension is reduced by the ability to rebuy during the late registration period; however, it's foolish to get "rebuy happy". A lot of the usual suspects I play against are rebuy happy; this leads me to conclude that they must be losing scads of money at MTT-Rs over the long term. In contrast, I'm making money hand over fist at MTT-Rs in the long term :-)

One statistic I look at occasionally is what I'm calling shove count; it's the number of times you were all in during a tournament. My average shove count in MTT-R NLHE is currently 3.61; my shove count in Thursday night's tournament was nearly double that, at a hefty 7.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT-R NLHE    43500  6500       9    88      58   12    17        0

delta: $-350,000
MTT with rebuys NLHE balance: $30,098,500
2017 balance: $30,461,055
balance: $41,878,885