Two toy trains

Last night, I hit the rail fairly quickly in the first tournament I entered; that peeved me, so I entered a second. Both were toy trains. I got under the lights in the second one, which got my overall balance back into the blue. I'm hoping the midnight train will be running tonight.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000   5000       6      75   21    43        0
MTT   NLHE    45000   5000       6      81   21     4   284000

delta: $184,000
MTT NLHE balance: $41,038,768
2021 balance: $15,567,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $93,232,453

Lights out

Last night, I made the money in my third straight 8-game. I'm dubbing the outcome "lights out", since I made it under the lights, but then was the first player at the final table to hit the rail.

This is an excerpt from my January 18, 2019 post. Last night, I had another such outcome. Since I started the final table in fourth place, that means I "laddered down" two rungs, not the right direction to be laddering. I just missed getting back into the blue.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000   5000       6      73   21     6   190000

delta: $140,000
MTT NLHE balance: $40,854,768
2021 balance: $15,383,000
blue distance: $150,000
balance: $93,048,453

Bubbling the bubble

I go back on forth on what makes me feel worse - bubbling a tournament or bubbling the bubble. I think I know why this is. How bad I feel has less to do with the number of places I miss the money by, and more to do with how good I thought my chances of making the money were, before I hit the rail. It's possible to bubble and not be too upset, and it's also possible to bubble the bubble and be really bummed out. On Thursday night I bubbled the bubble, and was decently disappointed :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000   5000       6      74   21    23        0

delta: $-50,000
MTT NLHE balance: $40,714,768
2021 balance: $15,243,000
blue distance: $150,000
balance: $92,908,453

Poxit

Last night's session ended abruptly. On my final hand, I was dealt pocket fours, and an opponent who had me covered went all in. My brain told me to fold, but my right index finger wasn't listening. I honestly can't say if it was a case of my poker id overruling my poker superego, or if my click on the call button was simply an unfortunate fingerfehler. This happens to me occasionally, and it flummoxes me every time. My opponent's holding was AJo (ace jack offsuit), so I was actually a slight favorite to win the hand, but is was essentially a coin flip. Result? Another 0th place.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    87000  13000       6      17    6     -        0

delta: $-100,000
MTT NLHE balance: $40,764,768
2021 balance: $15,293,000
blue distance: $100,000
balance: $92,958,453

Consecutive blues

Last night, for the first time in five months, I registered consecutive blue sessions. My overall balance topped 93 million for the first time. I'm getting in that dangerous frame of mind again when I feel that I can't lose :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      55   15    13   287000

delta: $87,000
MTT NLHE balance: $40,864,768
2021 balance: $15,393,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $93,058,453

In the money, in absentia

As I've mentioned before, sometimes I play online poker and web surf at the same time. When I do, sometimes the PokerStars client fails to thrust itself into the foreground when it's my turn to act. Furthermore, sometimes when that happens I temporarily forget that I was playing poker. Last night and the night before, all of these preconditions occurred. Imagine my surprise when I returned to PokerStars and discovered I'd made the money in absentia both times :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      61   18    15   318000

delta: $118,000
MTT NLHE balance: $40,777,768
2021 balance: $15,306,000
blue distance: $0
balance: $92,971,453

How midnight trains go missing

Last night, the midnight train went missing again. I figured out how this happens a while ago, but neglected to write about it. I'll remedy that now. Pokerstars will cancel scheduled tournaments if an insufficient number of players have preregistered. I'm pretty sure that at least four players must preregister; in that case, there will initially be two paid places. Now that I know this, I preregister for tournaments whenever possible. This doesn't guarantee that the tournament won't be cancelled, but at least it slightly reduces the likelihood of that happening.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000   5000       6      61   18    14    82000

delta: $32,000
MTT NLHE balance: $40,659,768
2021 balance: $15,188,000
blue distance: $68,000
balance: $92,853,453