Top 10 cash game NLHE session

Last night, I received a reward for slogging through the doldrums - a session where I made north of 150,000 play dollars. That clocked in at number 5 on my all time list. The last time I had a top 10 cash game NLHE session before that was way back on September 5th, 2014. Here are the top 10:

$262,204  2014-07-02
$209,400  2012-06-30
$209,008  2014-07-04
$189,588  2014-11-28
$160,086  2016-05-30
$155,069  2014-02-04
$153,040  2014-06-12
$150,166  2014-09-05
$144,895  2014-04-11
$144,816  2014-02-05

Only time will tell if this is the start of something big, or just a blip on the radar.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 97 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 12 times while in big blind (83%)
 - 7 out of 14 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 29 out of 71 times in other positions (40%)
 - a total of 46 out of 97 (47%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 10 (80%)
 Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $160,086
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,759,227
balance: $10,004,369

A brutal way to go

When you're heads up after the flop against a single opponent, there are 990 different ways the remainder of the community cards can fall. The worst situation you can be in at this point is to be drawing dead. The next worst is when just a single one of the 990 combinations enables you to win. That's the situation I was in on the final hand of last night's session. I'd been dealt a big slick, but my opponent had been dealt pocket rockets. The flop came 2h Ks As, giving me top two pair, and my opponent a set of aces. I got all in after a brief raising war. The only combination which allowed me to win was running kings. The turn was Tc, so I was drawing dead on the river. Man, that hurt.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 141 hands and saw flop:
 - 6 out of 17 times while in big blind (35%)
 - 9 out of 18 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 46 out of 106 times in other positions (43%)
 - a total of 61 out of 141 (43%)
 Pots won at showdown - 8 of 15 (53%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-50,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,599,141
balance: $9,844,283

Shot from guns

On Thursday night, I had another shot from guns session. As a reminder, that's a cash game session where I win the first hand. It was my first such session since September 24th of last year. As it happens, winning the first hand of a session is quite a good predictor of it being a winning session. Of my 160 shot from guns sessions, 119 of them have been winning ones (including Thursday night's).

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 80 hands and saw flop:
 - 7 out of 11 times while in big blind (63%)
 - 5 out of 11 times while in small blind (45%)
 - 25 out of 58 times in other positions (43%)
 - a total of 37 out of 80 (46%)
 Pots won at showdown - 2 of 8 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 4

delta: $35,948
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,649,141
balance: $9,894,283

Third worst cash game NLHE three bagger ever

I'm definitely in the poker doldrums. I hit the felt once more last night, on hand 85. It was another one of those "always going broke" hands. That is, I did nothing wrong, and would play the hand the same way every time; I just got unlucky. My last three sessions comprise my third worst cash game NLHE three bagger ever; here are the top 10:

   $-416,843 2013-06-11 2013-06-13 (0)
   $-332,638 2013-06-12 2013-06-14 (0)
   $-330,484 2016-05-23 2016-05-25 (0)
   $-285,726 2015-07-13 2015-08-10 (0)
   $-276,681 2014-08-31 2014-09-03 (0)
   $-256,324 2014-05-12 2014-05-14 (0)
   $-250,000 2015-04-29 2015-05-01 (0)
   $-240,000 2011-06-16 2011-06-21 (0)
   $-230,700 2014-08-29 2014-08-31 (0)
   $-224,410 2014-12-11 2014-12-13 (1)

The only thing to do in these doldrum situations is to sit tight and ride them out.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 131 hands and saw flop:
 - 15 out of 22 times while in big blind (68%)
 - 14 out of 21 times while in small blind (66%)
 - 44 out of 88 times in other positions (50%)
 - a total of 73 out of 131 (55%)
 Pots won at showdown - 11 of 19 (57%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-126,177
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,613,193
balance: $9,858,335

Silver lining

With a blog post title like this one, it's pretty easy to guess that I didn't have a winning session last night. The silver lining was that although I hit the felt on hand 36, I was able recoup much of my losses after reupping. Tonight, for a change, I'm going to buy in for the maximum. Maybe that will change my luck :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 97 hands and saw flop:
 - 4 out of 10 times while in big blind (40%)
 - 8 out of 13 times while in small blind (61%)
 - 33 out of 74 times in other positions (44%)
 - a total of 45 out of 97 (46%)
 Pots won at showdown - 4 of 8 (50%)
 Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-14,971
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,739,370
balance: $9,984,512

Second worst cash game NLHE session ever

The title of this post says it all. Actually, not quite all :-) What it doesn't get across is the fact that you don't have to be playing really badly in order to have a really bad session. When I assessed the damage after last night's session, I couldn't believe I'd lost that much. When I looked at the bar chart of my stack size over the course of the session, I discovered just three whopping losses, in a marathon session of 154 hands. Even though I lost so much money, I only hit the felt once. That I didn't hit the felt multiple times was the result of a fingerfehler I made at one point which resigned my seat, so I had to join a different table. Another mistake I made was to reup with a starting stack of $100,000, instead of my usual $40,000.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 154 hands and saw flop:
 - 35 out of 45 times while in big blind (77%)
 - 32 out of 45 times while in small blind (71%)
 - 22 out of 64 times in other positions (34%)
 - a total of 89 out of 154 (57%)
 Pots won at showdown - 14 of 40 (35%)
 Pots won without showdown - 23

delta: $-189,336
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,754,341
balance: $9,999,483

Extremely rare double up

The most memorable hand of last night's session was one where I was able to double up without going all in. In 61,380 cash game no limit hold'em hands for which I have the hand histories, I've only achieved this feat 49 times. Friends and neighbors, that's .0798 percent of the time. Of course, the only way to do this is to have more than one opponent come along with you. They don't have to stick around all the way to showdown, but they do have to contribute heavily to the pot along the way.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 86 hands and saw flop:
 - 8 out of 15 times while in big blind (53%)
 - 6 out of 13 times while in small blind (46%)
 - 21 out of 58 times in other positions (36%)
 - a total of 35 out of 86 (40%)
 Pots won at showdown - 5 of 9 (55%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $40,712
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $5,943,677
balance: $10,188,819