Other people's money

Every now and then I like to take a look at a percentage I call opm; it's short for "other people's money". It can only be calculated on hands where you won. opm is the percentage of your winnings which came from your opponents. The opm percentage has an upper bound of (num_players - 1) / (num_players); at a 9 player table, the upper bound is therefore 8 / 9, or .888888...

In practice, it's quite difficult to achieve an opm percentage of 80 or better, especially if there's a lot of betting going on. The more action there is, the more likely people are to drop out before showdown, which brings down the opm.

Last night, on the penultimate hand of the night, I won a pot worth $22,900 with a king high straight. Fully $18,100 of this was other people's money, so the opm percentage came out to 79.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 29 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 3 times while in big blind (66%)
 - 3 out of 4 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 16 out of 22 times in other positions (72%)
 - a total of 21 out of 29 (72%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 5 (60%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $21,254
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,023,170
balance: $7,380,123

Sixteened

The most I've ever lost on a hand when I was dealt pocket rockets is $51,200. Last night, on the next to last hand of the session, I was dealt pocket rockets, and lost $20,000. I was left with only $209, and lost it on the next hand. What made my $20,000 loss hurt even more than it normally would was that there were two pots, a main pot and a side pot, and statistically I'd had a great chance of either winning the side pot or chopping it. The opponent who won the side pot had only had a sixteen percent chance of winning it. When you're sixteened, it isn't sweet at all.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 76 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 12 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 9 out of 11 times while in small blind (81%)
 - 37 out of 53 times in other positions (69%)
 - a total of 56 out of 76 (73%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 15 (53%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-20,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,001,916
balance: $7,358,869

26 million play dollars lost

I recently achieved another milestone. At the end of Wednesday night's session, I topped 26 million play dollars lost. That's a staggering amount. Good thing for me I've won more than 33 million! Looking only at cash game no limit hold'em numbers, my losses and gains are much more modest -  7.7 million and 12.7 million, respectively. I'm looking forward to taking the crazy wild ride of sit and gos again when I manage to build my balance up to 8 million.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 33 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 4 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 3 out of 4 times while in small blind (75%)
 - 16 out of 25 times in other positions (64%)
 - a total of 21 out of 33 (63%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 5 (60%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $-7,713
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,021,916
balance: $7,378,869

Sine wave hands

When you're looking at your career hand statistics, it quickly becomes clear that there are three types of hands - the ones you predominantly win with, the ones you predominantly lose with, and the ones that oscillate between winning for you and losing for you. It's a good idea to stay away from the hands you predominantly lose with,  if you can. That's not as easy as it sounds. My career worst hand is AJo (ace jack offsuit); I've lost a whopping $364,228 with it. However, I'm always glad to see it looking back up at me. I call the hands that can't make up their mind whether they want to help me or hurt me sine wave hands. You want to be careful with sine wave hands, but you shouldn't stay away from them; they can make you a ton of money. One of my favorite sine wave hands is pocket threes. Right now, I'm in the hole with this hand career-wise to the tune of $-50,897, but it was worse than that before hand 26 of last night's session. On that hand, I was dealt pocket threes, hit a set on the flop, hit a full house of threes full of kings on the river, and won a pot worth $36,900.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 28 hands and saw flop:
 - 2 out of 4 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 1 out of 3 times while in small blind (33%)
 - 15 out of 21 times in other positions (71%)
 - a total of 18 out of 28 (64%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 6 (66%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $31,378
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,029,629
balance: $7,386,582

Quads over house over house

Play enough poker, and you'll see some crazy things happen at a poker table. Freaky things. Entertaining things. Some of the most entertaining hands I've ever seen had nothing to do with me; I was just an interested onlooker. That was certainly the case last night on hand 150. I folded before the flop, but stuck around to watch; I was dumbfounded when three premium hands were shown down. My impression at the time was that I'd just witnessed a set over set over set, but reviewing the hand today, I discovered it was even more impressive than that. It was a quads over house over house. To add to the strangeness, there were two pots, a side pot and a main pot, and they went to different players. The quads won the main pot, and the better full house won the side pot. To top off the strangeness, the better full house basically broke even on the hand - he spent $19,000, and the side pot was worth $18,756. You just can't make this stuff up.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 187 hands and saw flop:
 - 33 out of 42 times while in big blind (78%)
 - 33 out of 45 times while in small blind (73%)
 - 71 out of 100 times in other positions (71%)
 - a total of 137 out of 187 (73%)
 Pots won at showdown - 24 of 44 (54%)
 Pots won without showdown - 17

delta: $-10,568
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $4,998,251
balance: $7,355,204

500 miles

Lord I'm one,
Lord I'm two,
Lord I'm three,
Lord I'm four,
Lord I'm 500 miles from my home.

These are the lyrics to one of the choruses in the classic folk song "500 Miles". The reason I'm quoting them is that last night marked my 500th cash game no limit hold'em session since I turned on the PokerStars feature which auto-saves the hand histories. 500 is a pretty big number, session-wise. I feel like I've come a long way in those 500 sessions. I am indeed a long way from where I started. The journey has certainly been worth it!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 120 hands and saw flop:
 - 22 out of 26 times while in big blind (84%)
 - 17 out of 27 times while in small blind (62%)
 - 47 out of 67 times in other positions (70%)
 - a total of 86 out of 120 (71%)
 Pots won at showdown - 7 of 23 (30%)
 Pots won without showdown - 16

delta: $-5,469
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,008,819
balance: $7,365,772

Kings catching up with queens

For some time now, I've known that I've won more money in my poker career with pocket queens than I have with pocket kings. It's not because I've been dealt pocket queens significantly more often than I've been dealt pocket kings; the reason is that I've lost more money when the kings were beaten than I've lost when the queens were beaten. Last night, thanks to winning a pot worth $26,700 with a set of kings, my kings are catching up with my queens. Here are my current top 10 career hands:

AA     1266719    1799900    -533181    123     54      0    177  1.06
QQ      611366    1006779    -395413     87     78      2    167  1.00
KK      583198    1145390    -562192    100     64      0    164  0.98
AKo     468462    1221539    -753077    148    178      0    326  0.97
77      286602     466535    -179933     52    108      1    161  0.96
TT      284109     487418    -203309     61     89      3    153  0.91
JJ      279724     568329    -288605     77     88      1    166  0.99
ATs     259359     426756    -167397     47     73      3    123  1.10
66      236775     398577    -161802     41    114      3    158  0.94
AQo     211299     726342    -515043    129    173      3    305  0.91

From left to right, the columns are hand, net money won, money won, money lost, hands won, hands lost, break even hands, total hands, and frequency factor.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 25 hands and saw flop:
 - 3 out of 3 times while in big blind (100%)
 - 2 out of 3 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 13 out of 19 times in other positions (68%)
 - a total of 18 out of 25 (72%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 5 (60%)
 Pots won without showdown - 2

delta: $29,081
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,014,288
balance: $7,371,241