Omaha fool's gold

I seriously considered titling this post "I hate Omaha". Last night, I got bitten by the Omaha fool's gold bug again. That's the situation where a good hold'em player mistakenly and severely overvalues what would have been a premium hand in hold'em, but is only a mediocre Omaha holding. On my final hand of the night, I started with $1,815 in chips and ended up with none. What got me all excited was that I hit a set on the flop. I lost to a straight, as I deserved to do. I'm going to try never to play an Omaha hand again in 8-game; we'll see how I do :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6        30     6        0
  4500       500           6        33    55        0
  9000      1000           6        59     5        0

delta: $-25,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $331,810
balance: $9,548,390

Another sit and go 8-game century

In the sport of cricket, a century is a score of 100 or more runs in a single innings by a batsman.

- Wikipedia

 In the sport of poker, a century is a session of 100 or more hands.

- neostreet

Sit and go no limit hold'em centuries are hard to come by; in 586 career no limit hold'em sit and gos, I've only achieved a century 10 times. Sit and go 8-game centuries, on the other hand, are quite easy to come by; in 43 career 8-game sit and gos, I've achieved a century 26 times. That included my most recent session, which I played last Tuesday night. Unfortunately, I was the bubble boy again.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6       109     3        0

delta: $-10,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $351,810
balance: $9,573,390

Longest bubble yet

I've used this blog post title before, but actually I was misusing it. When I used it before, I was counting the total number of hands played in sit and gos where I wound up in third place, when what I should have been counting was the number of hands played three handed in sit and gos where I survived to three handed play, regardless of my final standing. On Sunday night, I played an incredible 99 hands three handed. The next longest bubble I've ever participated in was a mere 90 hands, in the 8th sit and go I played on February 13th, 2014.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 45000      5000           6       158     3        0

delta: $-50,000
Sit and go 8-game balance: $361,810
balance: $9,583,390

The sit and go dream ratio

I've talked a lot about various different ratios in this blog, most often about the golden ratio. I now have another to add to the list - the sit and go dream ratio. I call it a dream ratio because it's nearly impossible to achieve. I say nearly since I've now managed to achieve it, when only my results in sit and go 8 games are considered. The definition of this ratio is making the money at least half of the time. Here are my current place counts for sit and go 8 games:

place    count(*)
1    11
2    11
3    7
4    3
5    7
6    2
count(*)
41

Since first place and second place finishes make the money in sit and gos, I've made the money 22 times in the 41 times I've entered a sit and go 8game, for a gaudy 53.6585 percentage. I want to see how long I can keep this up :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  9000      1000           6       139     1    35100

delta: $25,100
Sit and go 8-game balance: $411,810
balance: $9,633,390

Double blue

Last night, thanks to cashing in third place in an MTT 8-game, two of my lifetime balances got into the blue: my MTT 8-game balance, and my MTT balance. My 8-game balance isn't in the blue, but it's healthily in the black, to the tune of over half a million play dollars.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6       158     3    53820

delta: $48,820
MTT 8-game balance: $143,250
balance: $9,608,290

Funny funny money

Since I play poker for play money, that accounts for the second funny in the title of this post. What accounts for the first? The fact that due to some quirk in the algorithm PokerStars uses to determine tournament payouts, sometimes you can "make the money" in a multi-table tournament and still end up losing money. That happened to me again last night. Still, funny funny money is better than not making any funny money at all :-)

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        75    17     4790

delta: $-210
MTT 8-game balance: $94,430
balance: $9,559,470

A trick of the hands

The guns were empty and they boiled at him, transmogrified into an Eye and a Hand, and he stood, screaming and reloading, his mind far away and absent, letting his hands do their reloading trick. Could he hold up a hand, tell them he had spent a thousand years learning this trick and others, tell them of the guns and the blood that had blessed them? Not with his mouth. But his hands could speak their own tale.

Stephen King, "The Gunslinger"

Like King's gunslinger, my hands have their own trick that they do quite well, when my mind steps aside to let them do their thing. That trick? To click the right buttons on the PokerStars interface to enable me to come out on top :-)  Technically speaking, I'm only using one hand. Full disclosure: I've quoted this exact passage before, in my post of March 5, 2014.

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

  4500       500           6        35    52        0
  9000      1000           6       191     1    35100

delta: $20,100
8-game tournament balance: $481,350
balance: $9,559,680